Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
Distributor: TT Games/ LucasArts
Platform: Wii


'Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga' is essentially a compilation of the two previously released 'Lego Star Wars' games, tweaked slightly here and there and polished up to utilize the Wii's unique controls. The game takes the player through all six episodes of the Star Wars saga, set within a lego universe, with an emphasis on fun and exploration of the environments. The goal in each level, aside from killing all the enemies, solving the basic puzzles and so on, is to collect as many lego 'studs' and 'canisters' as possible. Studs unlock extra characters, vehicles and the like, and also promote playing for a high score. Death is inconsequential to gameplay (when all your life is gone, the player explodes, dropping a lot of collected studs, then simply re-appears), leaving players free to hack away with their Wii-remotes without much fear of what happens. This is the first game to let players use their remote as a lightsaber, but it hasn't exactly had a great deal of effort put into it - there's no 1:1 attacking, just waggling to attack. There are a few other Wii motions here and there, and while fun, they don't make a huge difference. The combat in the game isn't difficult, but has a nice feel to it, as the enemies you hack down fall apart into their various Lego pieces.

The game has vehicle sections too, allowing you to relive some of the better battles from the films, including what must be the millionth videogame rendition of the Battle of Hoth. Throughout the game you'll take control of the standard AT-STs, AT-ATs, all kinds of fighter craft and even a pod-racer for one fairly fun race level. Gameplay wise, these levels don't provide the same level of finesse most space shooters or racers do, but are fun in the context of the game. The 'collecting' aspect of the game doesn't work as well in vehicles, but they control so fluidly that searching the levels is still a lot of fun. The game has a quirky sense of humour, too- as well as the amusement of seeing the Star Wars universe created out of Lego (Lego Darth Vader and Chewbacca in particular look awesome), the game is jammed with easter eggs, sight gags and cut-scenes that parody the movie series.

Ultimately, Lego Star Wars is a children's game, but that's not a bad thing- who knows how to have fun better than children? This is the reason the 'Lego Star Wars' games have succeeded- not only do they appeal to the children of today, but they remind the older gamers amongst us of the kind of fun we had on our first consoles. In general, those who own the original 'Lego Star Wars' games need not bother (unless you only have the original and you really, really like it, but even then you're better off tracking down the Gamecube version of 'Lego Star Wars II'). For newcomers to the franchise though, there's more than enough to warrant a purchase if you're a 'Star Wars' fan: individually the games didn't offer a huge amount of content, but bundled together they represent great value.

James O'Connor