LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy [PS2]

Lego Star Wars was a match made in geek heaven: the toys of your childhood combined with the mythology of your childhood. Well, almost. You were getting the prequels instead of the original trilogy. Jar Jar, Jake Lloyd, Trade Federations, four-armed robot Jedis, clones, pod racing, 'Roger, Roger', and all that hoo-ha. But now, with Lego Star Wars II, you're finally getting what you really want: the Star Wars that made it all happen.

It opens in the cantina, but after a short stroll and then a crawl, you're at the opening shot. From there, it's straight through all three movies, set piece by set piece. Lego Star Wars II tells the story everyone already knows, and it tells it with an invigorating wink and a frequent giggle. The gameplay doesn't need to slavishly mirror what you know.

For instance, do you remember that part in Star Wars when Obi Wan used his Force powers to hunt through garbage cans in Mos Eisley? Remember during the battle of Hoth when snowspeeders yanked around little explosive balls to blow open walls? Remember during the battle of the first Death Star when Red Squadron had to shoot the color coded power lines? Remember the tubes that endlessly spawned Gamorrean guards in Jabba's palace? Neither do we. To their credit, the developers at Traveller's Tale are willing to veer from canon for the sake of creativity and gameplay.

The Lego angle doesn't actually have you playing with building blocks, with the exception of a strange character creator that lets you mismatch various characters' heads and bodies. But during the game proper, you'll find occasional piles of Legos, which your character will assemble into a predetermined object. There are some cute 'ooh, what's he gonna build?' moments. Some of these are almost Tex Avery, with a character building a door and then walking through it or building a button and then pressing it. Others are loveable utter nonsense, like building a motorcycle and putting it in a washing machine or assembling a vintage radio that plays the Imperial March.

But more importantly, what the Lego license brings to Star Wars is a license to ease up. There have been plenty of earnest Star Wars games that accorded the Millennium Falcon, lightsabers, and the power of the Force their due reverence. But here, everything's up for a goof, from the terrible rage of a Wookkiee to the cave of fear on Dagobah all the way to the central revelation of Luke's paternity. The guys at Traveller's Tales know Star Wars well enough to appreciate that having Han and Greedo shoot at the same time is the only place left to go. This is a game about gently poking fun at something you love, out of affection instead of ridicule.