It occurs to me that this is precisely the sort of game that I would have been thrilled to play as a wee lad but precisely the sort of game I tend to turn my adult nose up at. It is a licensed game. Hell, it’s a game licensed from a toy line itself licensed from a popular movie trilogy. It’s a double whammy of licensing.

We discerning gamers of the world have good reason to snub the licensed game — though it may well be the bread and the butter of the industry — as it can generally be assumed to be of the basest marketing trash and rushed to market to capitalize on the release of a movie or whatnot. The horror stories of botched games — poorly planned and released prematurely — have been oft repeated and become a part of our collective gamer unconscious. Children, I believe, are immune to such common knowledge as well as reviews. I know I certainly played a fair share of what were probably shoddy NES games based on some cartoon, movie, or other product. A game like this one that combines two of my all-time favorite franchises into one would have sent me absolutely crazy with want.

Of course, I did end up setting aside my prejudice and buying this game (albeit on the cheap) or I wouldn’t be writing this little review. I had read some very positive things beforehand, so I still wasn’t just buying into the franchises. Still though, I’m a bit surprised as just how much fun I had.

LEGO Star Wars is based on the three prequel Star Wars movies. Technically, I suppose it’s based on the LEGO toy line based on the prequel Star Wars trilogy. While playing the game, I had to wonder if that wasn’t actually a wise decision despite the fact Episodes I through III are substantially weaker as films on account of they have so much “video-gamey” content. Look at the droid factory bit from Attack of the Clones. It’s basically a level out of every platformer ever made.

So, LEGO Star Wars is a platformer. You run, jump, double jump, fight, and collect shiny things. It uses established minifigures and models from the Star Wars licensed LEGO line that has been a best seller for the company over the past 7 years or so. As a fellow who has purchased several of these over that time period I can attest that they are spot on recreations of the toy line. True to their plastic nature ships and characters explode into their respective parts upon destruction, bringing me great delight. Most of the game is spent on foot leading a variety of characters through locations seen in the film series though there is a vehicle based level in each of the game’s three film sections. By variety I do mean variety: there are some 40-odd playable characters in LEGO Star Wars. Most are just slight variations on another character, but it’s still fun to choose from such a wide pool. Any game that lets me amble through as a compeletly useless and helpless gonk droid is all right in my book.

The neatest little touch is the attention to both of its licenses. Kudos to developer Traveller’s Tales for taking the time to think about what being made out of LEGO bricks would mean. Central to the LEGO brand is the fact that any creation can be torn down into its parts and rebuilt as something wholly new. LEGO Jedi can use the Force to make things out of bricks laying about. This is the best idea in a video game in the past year. It makes such perfect sense. Brick building is limited to certain pre-defined objects, and all a Jedi character need do is find something that glows and put the Force on it which puts a damper on the creativity inspired by such an inclusion but it’s still awesome.

Okay, there’s no possible way I could ever see spending this much money all at once on a LEGO set, and quite honestly the massive Star Destroyer is probably a more impressive model, but god damn:

Goodness, gracious me!

It didn’t suck.

You know (or you ought to if your name isn’t George Lucas) that your franchise has started to suffer when the true fans are not asking “How awesome is this going to be?” but “Will I at least not hate it?” I didn’t hate it. I’m still wrestling with the questions of “Did I hate The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones?” I think I did, and it’s not all Jar Jar or baby Anakin’s fault. Even with all that was wrong with Episodes I and II they still managed to hit me with a few certain scenes and moments that made me say “Yeah, okay, this is a Star Wars movie after all.”

Episode III hits those moments much more often and much harder. Where the previous two installments nailed the obligatory action scenes with a precision that was almost too perfect to take the bad taste of the god-awful exposition and “character-building” scenes, Episode III manages to, for the most part, capture the same gleeful sense of adventure that Episodes IV, V, and VI had in spades. Anakin and Obi-Wan do come across as boon companions and trade quips without feeling like someone were checking off the requisite catch phrases. Oh, but the love scenes are still painful to watch (but mercifully shorter than Attack of the Clones).

Goddamn though, does ILM even build sets or models anymore? Is there any location shooting? While the computer effects are impressive, I really can’t think of a single location that looked as if you could actually touch it. Compare Coruscant to the sprawling city of Minas Tirith from Return of the King and tell me the latter isn’t that much more convincing because it actually exists. Oh, and while I’m on the subject, the Wookie homeworld of Kashyyk was a huge let down, and even breaks the backstory already in place. Wookies supposed to live in trees hundreds of feet above the deadly forest floor, not in tree houses built a few meters above the earth. Everybody knows that.

Nitpicking aside though, none of this matters once Anakin starts doing exactly what you know he needs to do. We all know the story, right down to exactly who needs to die in this one. It’s all got to lead up to the movie that shaped our entire childhood, and we know who makes it and who doesn’t. The only surprise is just how gruesome it has to be. And gruesome it is, not so much for gore (I guess Obi-Wan’s lightsaber in A New Hope has started to run low on batteries because unlike the cantina scene not one drop of blood is spilled when someone gets their arm, leg, or head removed. These lightsabers cauterize wounds intantly.) but for emotional gruesomeness. The birth of Darth Vader is a trying one, and Revenge probably would have got a PG-13 rating without the bits you’ve probably read about already.

So, yeah. It didn’t suck. I’m actually looking forward to watching Revenge again on its own merits rather than a sense of obedience to the series. Yes, I’ve watched The Phantom Menace at least 5 times now, each subsequent time thinking “Okay, let me give this one more chance. I’m sure I must have missed the bit that makes it awesome.” Jesus Christ though, that fucking little kid. Blowing up the Trade Federation ship on accident? Yelling “Yippeee!” Fucking hell.