Lego Star Wars II Review

Platform: Xbox 360
ERSB: Everyone
Genre: Adventure
Number of Players: 1-2
Publisher: LucasArts Entertainment
Release Date: September 12, 2006
Official Website
Writer: Typhoid

Rating: 6.5

Lego Star Wars II: Use your Bounty Hunters to Find Women

The original Lego Star Wars game was for Episodes 1-3, and this sequel covers the original 4-6 trilogy. For the main story mode you are assigned characters to play, then after you pass them with enough Lego blocks gathered, you are able to replay as any character you have unlocked. Much of the main story of the trilogy is covered, though they take some pretty large liberties with the facts (particularly in the cut scenes) in order to get laughs.

Graphics:
I could not believe how impressed I could be by graphics based on Lego toys. There were some scenes where I wished I could have it as a poster on my wall (disco Gamorreans using their axes as guitars!).

Controls:
It’s bad enough that the auto aim prefers to hit your teammates. Even worse is if you are close you put your weapon away to SMACK your teammate in the middle of a firefight. You can’t stray far because this game has the extremely annoying feature of booting you or your teammate from the game if you move away from each other. However, the distance is completely arbitrary. In one instance it’s a matter of a few inches, in the next it’s the span of the entire board. A large difference from the first game is that this version has flying ship missions. I think they wanted to make this game so “accessible” to all audiences that they went too basic with the controls, which makes the ships nearly impossible to control. The only thing more disappointing than the flying was the Jedi Lightsabers. In this game, [they] are weak, inefficient and apparently impossible to aim.

Sound:
Nostalgic, clear, crisp. The sound is true to the movies, but still fresh. It’s really the only part of the game that didn’t fail in some way.

Flow:
Whoever is responsible for approving the release of this game MUST suffer. I cannot believe the bugs in this game. For me the most annoying were the level-busting bugs. Several times we had to exit a level and retry it because the game would not let us pass. A grappling hook point appears then disappears before a chasm… nowhere to go but down. Then there was an ejecting gangplank that sent me to the feet of an AT-AT and trapped me. To really solidify matters, I’ve talked to people who have played the DS and GameCube versions, and their stories are more horrific than mine. From crashing and destroying the save file to turning invisible for much of a level.

Fun Factor:
The bugs (and almost complete absence of women) really cut into my enjoyment of this game. However, there are some almost redeeming factors like the bounty hunter missions. Very fun, and it’s seriously Star Wars Lego Hide n’ Seek! Also reliving episodes 4-6 was a real kick. However I still prefer the original Star Wars Lego game, even though it contained Jar-Jar.

Female aspect:
It’s been a while since a game has made me THIS irritated about females, rather FEMALE, in a game. There is ONE female to the seemingly hundreds of males in the ENTIRE game that I could find: Princess Leia. The fact that she’s in 10 different outfits does NOT make up for it. If that weren’t bad enough, Leia acts like a bimbo the entire time. First, when she stands still she puts her hands on her hips, sways her butt to the side and sticks out her fortunately-flat Lego chest (see illustration). Secondly every male character in the game has a melee punch, and then comes Leia who SLAPS. Then there’s when Alderaan was blown up, she CRIED; I remember her being stoic in the movie. Then there’s the fact that Leia refuses to put on hats or helmets that are sometimes needed to wear, because gosh it might harm her hair! I tried to rationalize the fact that it’s George Lucas’s fault for not having more strong women. However there WERE other women in the movies, strong (Mon Mothma) or not (Jabba’s dancers). Besides, you could make a few random red-shirts women.

Replay Value:
Low to moderate. The game tries to goad you into playing it repeatedly. First, I finished the story and I’m only about 70% finished with all game content. Secondly, there are areas that are not possible to achieve the first time around. You have to come back with a Dark Jedi, a Bounty Hunter, Gonk Droid, whatever. The original Lego Star Wars game gave you a varied half-dozen of characters to choose from within the levels, however the characters you need in this game are usually conveniently absent.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fun game. However if you’re going to play it prepare yourself for some extreme frustration.

Check out the Second Opinion (for the PS 2) review by Rachel!