Game Info
Game Name: Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
Developer(s): Traveller’s Tales
Publisher(s): LucasArts/TT Games
Platform(s): PS3/Xbox 360/Wii/PC/NDS/PSP
Genre(s): Action/Adventure/Platform
Release Date(s): September 11, 2006
ESRB Rating: E10+
Why Father? Why!!!!
The Empire is in power, and a small band of rebels are fighting back against the tyrant forces of the Emperor. As the Empire is continues their assault, things look bleak until a young moisture farmer named Luke Skywalker is enlisted to fight in this rebellion…he has a chance to rebuild the universe…literally.
Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy was released after the success of the 2005’s Lego Star Wars: The Video Game which was released on Game Boy Advance, GameCube, Playstation 2, Xbox, and home computers. Lego Star Wars included the less popular prequel movies while Lego Star Wars II was the more popular original films. Lego Star Wars II was the first next generation game in the Lego series and was also available on the PS2 and GameCube. Wildly successful, the game was kind of negated by the release of Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga which combined both the Lego Star Wars and Lego Star Wars II.
I was instantly interested in the Lego games when I saw them. As a fan of Star Wars and Legos, I saw a ton of potential in the game. With the new generation ramping up, Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy was one of my early gaming experiences on the Xbox 360…and it was fun.
Ain’t no party like a Force party!
The graphics on the game are very much that of a PS2 or GameCube and really don’t maximize the ability of the system. It is broken into Star Wars: A New Hope, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. The animated movies for each of these movies are part of the fun of the Lego series and treat the movies as more of a spoof. They are worth playing the game to see the movies themselves.
One of the problems of the Lego games is that the levels often become very repetitive, but the mulitiple characters allow for a lot of replay. When the games starts, you have the standard playthrough (using characters that were in the movies in the scenes you are playing) and the second playthrough which allows you to customize a team once you’ve unlocked different weapons attributed to different characters. This does keep the story moving, but it also can wear thin since you’ve probably played the game a number of hours before you have full access to a level…and burn-out is imminent.
So if we’re controlling the ship and the photon torpedo…we are the Force…whoa, deep
Most of the fun in Lego games is the multiple characters. It can be fun using an Ewok to raid the Death Star or destroy the new Death Star with a Tie-Fighter. Since this only encompasses Star Wars IV-VI, the game seems rather short when compared to the other games that followed it.
Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy probably should be avoided for the superior Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga. The game isn’t bad, but it seems a waste to get a game that has more content. Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy takes Star Wars back to where it belongs with the original movies, but the planning to release the Complete Saga so soon after seems like a very George Lucas thing to do. Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy had a true sequel in Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars in 2011.
Related Links:
Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game
Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
