Its Lego...its Star Wars...its Awesome! (Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (PS2))

Member Name: chilipepper27

Product:	Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (PS2)
Date:	14/11/07 (92 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Loads of fun to play for all ages.

Disadvantages: None

After reviewing Lego Star Wars the video game, with some input from my little boy, he then asked me “why are you not writing about Lego Star Wars II? It’s better…” Hmm…..Well that’s his opinion and so here’s mine….

Pretty much everything in this game is made of Lego bricks (sorry to state the obvious!) and just like the first game there is no spoken dialogue throughout the game, just gestures (even the most famous moments in the film.)

After the first game being such a success you might think a follow up game would be hard pushed to come close. But the first game was based on the 3 prequel films, and so Lego Star Wars II is based on the 3 sequel films, which are the originals (and best in my opinion) - The first of which is ‘A new hope’, the second is ‘The Empire strikes back’ and the third is ‘Return of the Jedi’. Three awesome films!

So after buying the game for my son I was itching to have a go, but if you’ve read my review of the first game you will know that I’m not so great at playing (to put it mildly!) And I haven’t improved…at all, mind you I was thrown in at some later stage of the game where I didn’t know where I was or what to do (I didn’t even know which character I was, I had to keep pressing jump to see which dude went up in the air!) But aside from not knowing what to do, I had fun!

~ Game-play ~

The game begins in the Mos Eisley Cantina, where you find yourself in control of the lovely Princess Leia, who is followed around by her companion Captain Antilles. In here you can go to the bar in the centre of the room to access bonus characters (that are gained along the way), extras – where you can find cheats! You can also put codes in which unlock certain things. Gold bricks can be purchased to gain access to short-cuts, and you can unlock story clips which you can sit back and watch when you want.

New in this game is the ‘character customiser,’ there aren’t many options for this early on in the game, but as you progress you acquire more and more parts to use. Another great option in this game is the ‘carry over characters’, where if you have the first Lego Star Wars game saved on your memory card, you can then take all the old characters from your first game to the second game when on free-play. (the games need to be on the same memory card for this.)

Playing the game you can choose between the episode doors (like the first game) in the Cantina, but only when you’ve unlocked them. (bummer!) You then choose between story mode or free-play (where you can explore any unlocked level with any choice of character.) There is also for the first time, an option to build and ride vehicles such as speeder bikes, and you can mount and ride creatures in ‘on foot’ levels! This game also has the ‘Drop in’ feature so a second player can join or leave at any point in the game.

Throughout the game there are many secret doors to be found, which hide secrets and surprises! The Lego studs are the currency used to buy and trade to help you along your way. But to properly complete this game you must unlock every character, (and there’s lots of them!) Because every character has different abilities, and are needed in certain levels. You can choose from Han Solo, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Yoda to Ben Kenobi and a Wicket! (Plus many more!)

While wandering through the different levels you can find objects lying around, such as power bricks – which enable you to get an extra feature from the Cantina barman, gold bricks – which are obtained through completing a level in free-play. And mini-kit canisters (which are really hard to find) but if you find all 10 of them you get immense stud wealth and the parts to build an exclusive vehicle.

~ My thoughts ~

I think I need to see a bit more of the game play before I can say it’s either ‘better’ or ‘worse’ than the first game, but I think it’s definitely on par. The characters are really cool and fun to mess around with, (you can swap their heads and bodies which is pretty funny!) As with the first game there’s lot’s of humour throughout the game, I found it pretty funny that Chewbacca pulls baddies arms out of their sockets! (not sure what that says about me though…) And Princess Leia’s ‘slap’ melee attack!

There’s adaptive game difficultly, so if you’re terrible at it like me you can make yourself feel a bit better by putting it on easy! The game also includes lots of puzzles to work out, which gets kids brains ticking over. And it’s really enjoyable, something that you can keep playing over again, which means that it’s also great value for money. A fabulous game for all ages, and well worth buying.

The game was released on September 11th 2006 and sold more than a million copies in the first week on shelves.
The game also won countless awards which include the BAFTA Video Awards awarding it with ‘Best children’s game’- ‘Best character (Han Solo)’ and Best game’.

Thanks for reading.

Summary: A really great game that will keep you amused and entertained.