Difficulty:

Very Easy

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Check your bargain bin"

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Quick Review
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Lego Star Wars plays across Episode 1, 2 and 3 through 17 missions mixing light-saber battles, blaster battles, a few vehicle missions, platforming puzzles and many hidden extras.

Story mode is very easy but still fun. An average gamer easily race through all 17 missions in an hour (without attempting to unlock any extras).

Some players will attempt to get all the extras. It's slightly challenging, but unfortunately the extras have little/no change on the actual game play.

For casual players or Star Wars 'super-fans', Lego Star Wars is good. Hardcore players expecting depth and challenge should look elsewhere.

I found it brand new for under $10 at Staples.

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Extras: Mini-Kits
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Each missions has 10 hidden canisters. Collect all 10 and unlock a Lego mini-kit, usually in the form of a ship or vehicle. Both incomplete and complete mini-kits are displayed in an area called the parking lot.

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Extras: True Jedi Status
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Missions have a set number of "studs" to collect. Collect this minimum amount to gain "true Jedi status" for that mission. This unlocks some characters appearing in that mission. Completing all 17 unlocks a special mission.

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Multi-player
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I played LSW in single player mode, but by looking at the level and puzzle design, it's obvious the designers worked with a second player in mind. In solo mode, the CPU character almost always stays defensive; very boring. The fun-factor definitely increases in co-op mode where players can stand back-to-back deflecting blaster shots and covering each other.

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Graphics
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There are no overly complex models, since the characters and surrounding objects are made of lego. All the missions are bright and colorful and the character models animate nicely. The min system requirements are quite low, 1GH processor 256MB Ram, so any decent computer can run this game at medium-high resolution. There are many nice-looking effects and some can be toggled: Bloom lighting, plastic reflection, water effects, shadows, particle effects and more.

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Sound
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Awesome, all the missions are filled with recognizable Star Wars music from the movies. All the Star Wars sounds are here and intact, from blaster fire, light-saber swings, R2 unit calls, light-saber deflections, light-saber vs light-saber sparks, "using the force"... all sound full and authentic. There is no voice acting at all, probably to retain the childish tone.