Xbox Hardware & Games

Video: 5
Audio: 5
Gameplay: 5

One of the best things about LucasArts’ newest release, Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, is that we fans know exactly what we’re getting—a sort of comfort food served up on our consoles, handhelds, and PCs. (The title is available on every major platform.) Firstly, it embraces all of the fun of Lego, albeit in a virtual form. Previous Lego games have become known for their adorable laugh-out-loud cut scenes that go beyond the movies they re-create. And, of course, this game pays tribute to the three classic Star Wars films, the memorable characters, and the iconic battles, which is always a good thing.

You get to build and ride familiar vehicles and mount popular creatures from the saga, in a world populated by famous leading men and women and fan-favorite supporting characters. There are even more characters accessible via saved games from the first Lego Star Wars. A character creator also lets you mix and match parts of different Star Wars people, critters, and droids to make your own unique heroes or villains, making for a new degree of personalization. You can even cast bad guys as good guys, using, for example, the dark might of Darth Vader to help win the war against the Empire. The game provides free-roaming vehicle levels for your exploration and enjoyment. Now any character except robots can build, and the 360 version is loaded with unlockable content. There are more puzzles—requiring more creative thinking—with optional adaptive difficulty for tougher gameplay if you’re doing well. The graphics are also the most pristine on the 360 and are available in 720p and 1080i. They impart an almost hallucinatory effect to this highly stylized universe, riffing off of the timeless production design of the movies. The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, meanwhile, does an excellent job adding the final touch to these goofy-yet-fantastic environments.

Developed by Traveller’s Tales (TT Games), the actual gameplay of Lego Star Wars II might at first glance be mistaken for that of any number of other action titles. You use a variety of signature moves, including Princess Leia’s riotous “slap” melee attack, to fight your way through levels of faceless bad guys—in this case the varied ne’er-do-wells from Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. Just as the movie characters are an eclectic mix, here you will need the skill sets of the Jedi, droid, and smuggler together to complete your objectives. Plus, you have control of multiple characters at once in any given situation. You can switch between each available character easily, aided by the option of drop-in/drop-out co-op and wider camera angles that make all of the action more readily digestible. Like the big-screen trilogy from the 1970s and ’80s, this Lego redux is a relentless hoot that is fun for all but the most jaded Sith.