Lego Star Wars strikes back

A surprise entrant in the list of the top 10 best-selling console games of 2005 is looking to spawn a sequel that could make it into the same list for 2006. Confirming rumors from last week, LucasArts announced today that it will publish Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, a sequel to the prequel-trilogy-based Lego Star Wars. While this cuts the original game's publisher, Eidos Interactive, out of the loop, fans of the original can rest assured knowing that Traveller's Tales, the team behind last year's dark-horse hit, is once again handling the development duties.

A lighthearted take on the seminal space opera, Lego Star Wars II will follow the saga of George Lucas' money machine from the opening scene of A New Hope right through to the climactic battle of Return of the Jedi, with blocky versions of familiar faces showing up at every turn along the way. And in addition to the on-foot fighting of the first game, players will now be able to get behind the controls of vehicles and ride creatures at will.

The sequel also includes a new Free Play mode that lets gamers create new playable characters from the pieces of existing heroes, unlock more characters with a memory save from the first Lego Star Wars game, and learn character-specific attacks. There's even an advanced mode for experienced players looking for a new challenge.

Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy is set for release this fall on the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, PC, PSP, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS.