There have been a few other games with the Lego brand, but none that have used a third party intellectualy property. Lego Star Wars for the PS2 (soon for the Xbox, PC and GBA sp) recreates the best moments of the Star Wars prequel films, including the yet to be released Revenge of the Sith. Each of over 30 playable characters are rendered as the simplistic Lego figures, indentical to their plastic toy counterparts. In addition, most of the vehicles you've seen in the movies are pieced together with the familiar building blocks.
Gameplay is easy to pick up and should prove to be good old fashioned fun for children of all sizes. Something about a little plastic Obi-Wan Kenobi swinging his tiny lightsabre to split a cute little droid in half is satisfying to any age. Story mode places you in the shoes of two predetermined characters from the film, relevant to the scene you play. Each character has unique abilities necessary to completing each level. For example any jedi character, light or dark, can use the force to manipulate objects to build platforms and bridges from miscellaneous Lego blocks. Droids can open specific doors and soldiers can repel up the sides of buildings. Simple puzzle solving is combined with item collecting. Three different types of Lego studs give you purchase power for new characters and special extras found at Dexter's Diner.
Easily the most entertaining part of the game is cooperative mode. You've already got two characters on the screen at once, so grab a friend or an offspring and have them join in to help with the lighthearted blasting and slashing. Although it doesn't change the game, it does require team work that makes the game seem less automated and a bit more challenging without a good amount of communication between the two of you.
Sadly as incredibly fun as LSW can be, it's not without its problems, the biggest of which is the camera. Its position in space cannot be maniupulated in any way. This could be understandable in the co-op situation with the lack of split screen, but some complex positioning and jumping puzzles would have taken considerably less time if we could have swung the camera around or up to see where we were jumping. Some of the levels, particularly the vehicle piloting levels proved to be particularly hair pulling. The camera continues to move, like a rail shooter, requiring multiple attempts to collect all the items in one level, but thankfully once you've grabbed a kit piece, 10 hidden in each level, you don't lose it even after death.
We clocked about 15-20 hours, mostly in co-op hunting down and collecting everything to unlock a mysterious door marked only with question marks and then finally beating the game. I really can't stress how much fun this title is and how much I'm looking forward to an inevitable sequel (likely original Star Wars trilogy). This is a great game, especially for the family whose father and young son want to play together, or for a young couple of different gaming skills to have in common. Lego Star Wars is a beautifully 3D rendered game, with ample amounts of humor, an impressive amount of faithfulness to the Star Wars movies and greatly entertaining to any age.
