LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy [PSP]

If you've somehow missed out on the original LEGO Star Wars, then here is your chance to make up for past mistakes. Now, I'm guessing that if you did pass on playing the first game that it was because you thought it was "a dumb kid's game" or because "the game's based on the Star Wars prequels, and those suck." Well, that second excuse won't fly anymore because this sequel is based on the original trilogy. You know, the one that everyone likes.

As for that first excuse, the LEGO Star Wars games are more family games than pure kids' games (and they're hardly "dumb"). Sure, they're simple enough for a kid to pick up and enjoy, and a skilled player can plow through the main story mode in a few hours, but there's a lot more depth below the surface. Of course, you may have just missed out on the first game since it was never released on PSP and that's the only system you have. In that case, LEGO Star Wars II has you kind of covered there.

For the benefit of those who may not have noticed the multiple recent previews of the game, here's what LEGO Star Wars II is all about. It's based on the popular line of LEGO sets that are based on the popular movies. The game's story mode is split up into three parts, each one focusing on one of the original Star Wars films. Within each of these film-based sections, there are six stages.

The first time you play through each stage, the characters that you can control are dependent on the movie's storyline. When on the swamp world of Dagobah, for instance, you can only play as Luke, R2-D2 and Yoda since they were the only characters on that planet in The Empire Strikes Back. After completing each stage, you typically unlock new playable characters, including most of the enemies that you face in the game. Completed stages can then be revisited in Free Mode, which allows you to select whatever character you want to play as, and a party of other characters is automatically chosen to accompany you in the level.