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Lego Star Wars: The Video Game (GC) Status: Finished playing I started playing this game on Monday 7 July, 2008 // I stopped playing this game on: Tuesday 7 October, 2008
Current opinion of this game
Well worth playing if you're a fan of LEGO, Star Wars, or simply want to play with someone else. Co-op is the best!
October 7, 2008 03:27:46 PM
I finished this over the weekend. I'll probably engage in some further freeplay, however I wanted to comment on the unusual nature of the final mission. The final mission is essentially the showdown between Obi-Wan and Anakin. Going in to the mission I was curious to see how co-op would work. Would it be two characters against Anakin? Earlier encounters with "bosses" had been worked out this way. You essentially chased after the enemy, fought him for a little while, then chased him on to another location, fought him, etc. Would the mission be different given that Anakin is a character you had controlled earlier? It most definitely was. (I think, more on that later) Anakin and Obi-Wan are both controllable characters. You spend most of the time helping each other across different areas that are exploding, catching on fire, falling apart, or sinking into lava. So, each of these sections has some degree of tension and also of cooperation. You can't proceed without helping each other. The entire mission has several different sections that take place in separate spatial locations (presumably all part of a larger area). When you reach the end of each section, you get to watch a cut-scene where Anakin fights Obi-Wan! So, each section of collaborative gameplay ends with a cut-scene which shows the characters fighting each other. Why wouldn't you simply attack each other? And then you get to the final scene...the fight between Anakin and Obi-Wan. So, although you've spent the ENTIRE game playing collaboratively and helping each other out, you end the game by having to take out your opponent. In my case I was controlling Obi-Wan and my son was playing Anakin. What would have happened if he had beaten me in the end? I don't know. What incentive would he have to simply not "roll over" and let me win? It's a strange situation and I confess that I haven't adequately explored all the options that are available in the game. (ie, what happens in Anakin wins) Nonetheless, I was surprised by the twist in the ending!
July 14, 2008 02:31:43 PM
Having finished the sequel to this game, my son and I quickly moved on to this one. The experience of playing this game is largely the same as its sequel, which isn't surprising. However, there do seem to be some subtle differences here and there in terms of level design and there are some minor changes in the interface. For example, "Y" is used to cancel/go back instead of "B". This can be a bit confusing at times. I'm unclear as to how the games were developed/designed but I get the feeling that the design work was essentially untouched. This impression might explain the apparent ease of releasing "Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga " only a year or so after the second game in the series came out. So far the hardest part of playing this game has been trying to explain and answer the barrage of questions about who the good guys/bad guys are, who is Anakin Skywalker, and who all these other characters are. I'm not nearly as familiar with the earlier trilogy (Ep1-3) as I am with the older one (Ep.4-6)

Lego Star Wars: The Video Game (GC)