MY VIEW
Games: 'Lego Star Wars"'
By Jeremy Castillo
Special to The Advertiser
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The Verdict: 
THE RATINGS 5 — Outstanding: Add it to your collection now. A must-have. 4 — Great: Buy it or rent it — definitely play it. 3 — Good: Worth playing despite some flaws. 2 — Fair: Unless you're a fan of the license or series, don't bother. 1 — Poor: You'd have more fun playing Pong. |
Console: PlayStation 2 (also for Xbox, PC, GameBoy Advance)
Developer/publisher: Traveller's Tales/Eidos
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1-2
ESRB: E, for everyone
Premise: Play as Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi through a modified retelling of the first three episodes of the "Star Wars" epic.
Game play: First, let me say this: Although my review contains no spoilers of the movie, the game does. If you haven't yet seen "Revenge of the Sith," do NOT play this game ahead of time. And now, about the game.
Obviously geared toward the franchise's child audience (and possibly the older fans who are still "children at heart"), "Lego Star Wars" is as simple as a children's game can possibly be. There are only two types of attacks (light saber and Force), hints pop up onscreen to concisely explain controls, and most of all, there's no real punishment for losing. That's right, there is no way to lose in this game.
Although there's a life meter that drains when your character gets hurt, it's almost completely useless. Instead of losing a life when the meter is depleted, your character explodes, only to reappear seconds later. The only penalty is that money you've collected will scatter in the immediate area. But it's not a real punishment, considering you can pick up every dollar you dropped in a matter of seconds. While this feature of non-punishment will certainly make kids happy, it tends to make the overall game, from an older gamer's point of view, a tad tedious.
Before and after every level, you will be treated to a cutscene fully Legoized to make the feeling consistent. Everything from the people to landscapes and aircraft look how they would if a Legophile were to build them. Because this game is made for kids and the actual movie has a number of scenes kids would feel uneasy watching, the writers have modified the cutscenes to make them child-friendly.
Good/bad: There is a wealth of items for gamers to buy when they have collected a sufficient amount of money, such as costumes, characters and powerups such as invincibility. (Yes, an invincibility powerup in a game where you can't die.) This surely ups the replay value. The story mode also has a co-op feature, so a second player can join in and leave the game whenever he or she chooses.
Tips: Use "the Force" on all the furnishings and light fixtures in Dexter's Diner (the home base of the game's characters), as they all have a notable amount of money hidden inside.
My take: It's a clever ploy to further the craze of the "Star Wars" films, I'll give it that. Older gamers will be turned off by the one-player mode, as it is sluggish and a tad boring. And with the mildly superior game based entirely on "Revenge of the Sith," there's no real appeal for gamers over 12. Kids will eat it up, though.
Jeremy Castillo is a student at Windward Community College.
Have a game or CD you want to review? Reach TGIF editor Debra Yuen at dyuen@honoluluadvertiser.com.
