LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy

Sep 15, 2006

After playing the not-all-that-good GBA version of LEGO Star Wars II, I wasn't looking forward to trying the DS version. Both games are, after all, created by the same developer (Amaze Entertainment), so I feared that the DS version would be just as bad as the GBA game. Imagine my surprise when I finished playing through the first stage of the game and had actually enjoyed myself. Sadly, that initial burst of enjoyment wouldn't last for long.

Not that the game itself is bad. In fact, it's actually quite a bit of fun. Like all the other versions of the game, LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy allows you to play through a LEGO-ized Star Wars universe. The main game is divided into three episodes, each one based on one of the classic Star Wars films. Within each chapter, there are five stages, and as you play through each of them, you can control different characters. Each of the different character "classes" has different skills. Jedi, for instance, can use the Force to disorient enemies and rebuild LEGO structures into new objects, and they can deflect lasers with their lightsabers. Gun-toting characters can shoot for a long-range attack, and they have grappling hooks to reach high ledges. Droids are great for opening up locked doors. After clearing a stage in Story mode, you can replay it in Free mode, where you can swap out characters at will instead of having to rely on plot-specific characters.

Where the GBA version was a shoddy isometric action game with a coat of LEGO paint, this DS version feels like a scaled-down version of the excellent console game. It's in full 3D, and although the graphics can't compare to the PSP version of the game, they look pretty darn good for the DS.

Always Four There Are?

Unlike the PSP version, however, this game isn't a port of the console release -- all the levels are completely original, and they're quite well designed. There are even a few extra goodies that the console versions don't have. The console and PSP versions of the game support two-player simultaneous play, and thanks to the DS's wireless capabilities, that feature is present here, too. However, there is also an exclusive four-player battle arena mode that allows you and up to three friends to compete in a Capture the Flag-style contest where you control a bounty hunter trying to find Han Solo's carbonite-encased body.

As you play the game, you'll collect lots of LEGO studs, which are the game's form of currency. These can be spent on all sorts of extras that range from the expected (invincibility) to the slightly more bizarre ("Old Time Mode," "Ewok Invasion"). You'll also be able to purchase new characters to play as, including some not available in the console versions. If you've ever wanted a Star Wars game that lets you play as Wuher and Salacious Crumb (who attacks with his cackling laugh), then this is the game you've been waiting for.

Thanks to the DS's touch screen, the game's Character Customizer is even easier to use than the console versions. Whenever you unlock a new character, their body parts typically get added to those available to you in the Customizer. To create a new star warrior, you simply drag and drop the new parts onto your avatar's body. Specifically, you can mix and match heads, torsos, legs, helmets, capes/backpacks and weapons. Depending on what parts you select, the game automatically generates a suitably goofy name for your custom creation. One of the extras that you can purchase is a selection of classic LEGO bricks that allows you to create a generic LEGO minifig suitably named Zack the LEGO Maniac. Even during the middle of a level, you can add random parts like a baseball cap or helmet to your character.

So everything sounds great, right? Unfortunately, it's not. The game has some issues with its camera (it doesn't always follow you that well and will occasionally get stuck behind walls) and its control (this game really needs an analog stick), but those are nothing compared to the many, many bugs that infest this title.

This Is Why You Fail

I began noticing it during the first stage when the Rebel troopers aboard the Tantive IV began shooting at me (playing as Princess Leia) as well as the attacking stormtroopers. This problem slowly grew worse in later levels until my partner character (who constantly follows you around) began attacking me. I also began having to deal with objects randomly disappearing. This was only mildly annoying when I began picking up LEGO studs on the ground that had turned invisible, but it started to impede the gameplay when my entire character disappeared. What was even worse was when I started to fall under attack by invisible enemies. I was often forced to run around rooms shooting blindly until the game glitched back and made the enemies visible.

The game's disappearing act got progressively worse until entire chunks of levels would blink out of sight. On some levels, if I returned to a room that I had previously been in, the area would be an empty white void. The only way to return the screen to normal was to retreat to the room that I had just come from. Assuming, of course, you could find the way back as the door had also become part of the blank mass of nothingness.

While replaying some stages in Free mode, certain events that would automatically be triggered during the normal course of gameplay would often not occur. In a few of these cases, the absence of these events causes the stage to be unbeatable. The only way to leave the stage then is to simply quit out of it. If you were replaying that stage in order to find all the Mini-Kit Canisters within (they unlock new characters and vehicles) and had to quit out, you'd have to then replay the stage again in Story mode so that the game recognizes that you've already collected them.

Perhaps the strangest bug that I've discovered was when I began playing the third episode, based on Return of the Jedi. After completing the first level, I was instantly able to access the episode's final level by simply running into the middle of Jedi's hub room. Normally, of course, you must clear all the stages in order, but by wandering into this glitch zone, I was able to play the final level and see the game's ending.

Quicker, Easier, More Seductive

Please keep in mind that these bugs weren't found in some early, pre-release versions of the game. They're in a retail copy that we bought at a store ourselves (strangely enough, LucasArts didn't send out review copies to the press -- guess why). The game's manual lists plenty of software testers in its credits, so it's highly unlikely that these many, many bugs went unnoticed. What most likely happened was that LucasArts decided that making the game's predetermined September 12 release date was more important than fixing them. This sort of practice is pretty bad when it happens in a PC game (which can then be fixed via a patch after a few weeks), but to do it with a DS game (that can't be repaired later) is inexcusable.

This score of two stars is extremely generous considering the sorry state that this title was released in. Quite frankly, the only reason that it's still scoring that high is because the core game underneath all the bugs is pretty solid. Assuming the ample bugs didn't exist, the game would have scored three and a half stars, easy.

If you think you can weather the barrage of glitches and occasionally having to quit and restart stages, then you'll probably have some fun with LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy. Of course, by buying it, you're also telling LucasArts that it's okay for it to release games that are clearly unfinished. Tough choice, eh? Well, you must do what you feel is right, of course.