My childhood was filled with Star Wars toys and Lego. The little plastic bricks provided the backdrop to my own Star Wars adventures, performed using 1980’s Kenner/Palitoy figures. My classmate Glen Murphy broke Yoda’s Snowspeeder so I made an exact replica, a blue Sandcrawler, and a replica Yoda’s home. The ships are now built from digital bricks, and the characters far surpass what I could imagine as a seven-year-old.
As part of Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, developer TT Games revisits seven movies they’ve previously adapted, as well as The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker. This isn’t a special edition like George Lucas, but a brand-new Lego Star Wars game. Although open-world has been referred to, it’s misleading. Each film has a series of location-based hubs from which story missions and side quests are triggered. When a story sequence is complete, these hubs become free to roam. Finding collectables, accessing side quests, and unlocking characters and vehicles require repeat trips. There’s a bagginess to the experience and a constant feeling of something uncollected or a moment missed, like Mass Effect Andromeda’s flawed RPG.
This game also features an over the shoulder third-person view, which makes it feel like a kid-friendly Gears of War. As a result, Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga feels more contemporary and chaotic. There is little interactivity in Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, but the environments are designed to look realistic, and are often impressive, but it is far more interested in being a Star Wars game than a Lego game. Lego builds are relatively infrequent and clearly signposted in game. The game lacks the sense of invention and experimentation that real-life Lego provides. Brain cells will be less exercised than trigger fingers. Yet, nostalgia can’t be denied when a laser bolt flashes past your plastic head.
During its most engaging moments, the game is spectacular. For example, in Empire Strikes Back, a thrilling sequence of shootouts culminates in a visceral encounter with Darth Vader. Its space combat sequences, inspired by Star Fox 64 and Factor 5’s Rogue Squadron series, are also excellent. Its reverence for its sources is undercut by a steady stream of jokes. Despite the lack of sharp writing, plenty of jokes hit their intended targets, especially the slapstick and pratfalls. A dry-humoured delight are the opening crawl loading screens, which make fun of some of the franchise’s most notorious and absurd moments.
I might be middle-aged, but this is certainly a game for youngsters. Other than a few tricky boss encounters, it’s not a hard game. Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga feels hollow and trapped between two stools after its fun of recreating iconic movie moments subsides. What if we had full-fledged AAA Star Wars movies? And if we had Lego games that tapped into the creativity of the original? With its polish, fan service, and humour, Lego Star Wars doesn’t deliver the same carefree spirit it once did. It’s a stripped-down echo of the real thing, like my bright blue Sandcrawler.
