Game Review: Lego Star Wars

I'm wrapping up the first "Lego Star Wars" game. I'm just playing to get the last of the hidden stuff and unlock all the toys.

The game plays through Star Wars Episodes I, II, and III with everything made of Legos. You run through the game once in story mode playing the characters appropriate for the scene. Being locked into one character means there's lots of stuff you can't do right away. Once you've solved the level once you can go back as any of the characters you've unlocked and cycle through several of the characters as needed to solve different puzzles. Some characters use light sabers and the force, some have guns with grappling hooks, some jump extra high, and the droids have to be used to open certain doors or fly across particularly wide spans. As you move through the levels you pick up bits of Lego. Collect enough and you get a bonus as you end the level. Each level also has 10 pods to collect. Collect all 10 and you get more Lego pieces. Lego pieces can then be cashed in to buy certain characters that you've fought or bonus features.

The target audience for this game is little kids who are just discovering video games. While your character can be destroyed it reforms in the last safe location before it died instead of resetting to the beginning of the level. While you lose Lego bits when you die there's no limit to the number of times you can die. So you can be really bad and still progress through the game but being good is also rewarded.

The biggest downside is that the game is so short. Experienced gamers can enjoy the game but they'll blow through the whole thing once in a couple of afternoons.