Lego Star Wars the Complete Saga for the Wii - Fun and Addictive Game

Author's Rating:

Pros: Fun, lots of replay value

Cons: I spend a little too much time playing it

The Bottom Line: 
Lego Star Wars Wii is a great family friendly game for Star Wars fans.

Author's Review

When my five year old son came home from playing at a friend's house he insisted I take him right out to the store so he could buy the best video game ever, Lego Star Wars the Complete Saga for the Wii. Little did I know we would soon be addicted to this game.

The Game
Lego Star Wars the Complete Saga is a rough approximation of the George Lucas series of 6 Star Wars movies. You play in the third person as a series of characters from the movies. Along the way you will collect Lego studs, which is the currency and scoring mechanism of the game as you recreate scenes from the movies and defeat the evil Empire to bring peace to the universe. Lego Star Wars the Complete Saga is a one or two player game and is rated E 10+ for cartoon violence.

Our Experience
Our first foray into the world of Lego based video games was with Lego Harry Potter for the DS . While Seven and I enjoyed the game I did find it a little too easy so I was in no hurry to play Lego Star Wars, but eventually I gave in to my husband's request and was soon addicted.

I love that Lego Star Wars is a cooperative game. There is no split screen; we play together to reach the goal of completing each chapter and movie and to collect as many studs as possible. Studs are collected by blowing up objects either by swinging your light saber or shooting it with your blaster. Along the way you will have to solve puzzles to advance through the chapters. With 6 movies to play if you get stuck there is always another area to explore. You can move between areas via the Mos Eisley Cantina, made famous in Star Wars Episode 4.

You can switch what character you are playing which gives you the opportunity to use skills that only some characters posses. During story play the game chooses a set of good characters for you and you can change between heroes. Once you have completed the story you can play the chapter again in free play and choose one character to add to a large group of characters for that chapter; you can even choose villains. Being able to decide which characters to use gives Lego Star Wars a lot of replay value. When my husband and I completed the last movie our progress meter was less than 50%. Since then we have continued to play using characters unavailable during story play to unlock new areas. You can play as characters that were not even in the movie so you can use Jar Jar Binks, who is a great jumper, in any movie. The game does not follow the action of the movies exactly but the essence is there. You will find a fairly accurate pod race sequence, but sequences on the ice planet of Hoth are much longer and detailed but it works will within the game.

While younger players may find some of the puzzles hard, for the most part the challenges aren't that difficult although a couple of times my husband and I did have to resort to an internet walk through to be able to move forward. My son typically plays by himself because he gets mad if the other player doesn't do exactly what he wants, so no one will play with him. However I find the game much more enjoyable when playing with someone. There are games skills that I simply don't perform well, namely flying. While I try I usually drop out of the game while my husband flies around and completes the chapter and then jump right back in when the game looks fun again. But not to be outdone, I am typically better at figuring out what we are supposed to do, even if I can't always execute. Together we make a good team.

The Wii is an excellent platform for Lego Star Wars. The Wii-mote makes a great light saber to swing about. And although I typically hate games that require attaching the Nunchuck to the Wii-mote I find the buttons and character movement institutive and natural, which I never thought I would say about a game that has a use for every button on the controllers. Typically I don't like to do more than swing the Wii-mote around and hit the "B" button but I had not trouble adjusting to the more complex controller actions required for to play Lego Star Wars. The most difficult part is that some of the buttons do have multiple purposes depending on what objects you are near. Press the Z button on the Nunchuck near a pile of Lego bricks and you can build an object, however if you aren't quite close enough and are playing as the bounty hunter Boba Fett you throw a bomb.

The graphics are Lego, which is to say blocky, as a Lego should be. This isn't meant to be a realistic game or a replica of the movies; this is the Lego interpretation of some of the action from the movies. The cartoon violence is in my opinion minimal. When a character dies they simply bust apart and shortly thereafter rebuilt, at the cost of some of your studs. But even if you have run out of studs the game still rebuilds your character. This isn't a game meant to frustrate players, as witnessed by my fiver year old son's obsession with the game. Lego Star Wars doesn't take itself too seriously. Animated cutaway scenes within chapters often contain bits of humor, such as light sabers that won't operate, and scenes with Storm Troopers in hot tubs remind you that this is just a game.

I was actually impressed by the music, and it is something I rarely think about with a video game. It is an excellent reproduction of John William's original score from the movies. The music sets the tone for each chapter and scene and adds to the overall enjoyment of the game.

My biggest complaint with Lego Star Wars is that in free play mode you can only chose one character and the game choose the rest for you. I would rather choose the 6 or so characters I realize I need to fully complete each chapter. I don't like having to use the 1 and 2 buttons on the Wii-mote to scroll through characters I am never going to play. There really isn't any need for two different style Storm Troopers when you only need one to access special areas.

Final Thoughts
Lego Star Wars the Complete Saga is probably the best Wii game we have. It has certainly seen the most play time and with a price tag of just $20, it is a real bargain. While Star Wars fans are certainly the target audience even those that may not be familiar with the movie saga will be able to follow the general plot, thanks to written introductions that glide through space at the beginning of each chapter.. Lego Star Wars the Complete Saga is worth every penny.