Lego Star Wars

Apart from helping my daughter play Monsters, Inc. on the PS1, (which is still a darn fun game, btw), about the only game I've been playing recently is Lego Star Wars. Son rented it awhile back, and Wife's mother, Grammy, got it for him for an end-of-school-type present, he liked it so much.

The whole Star Wars universe is compelling to me. From Episode 4 through Episode 1 (yeah, I still haven't seen Eps 2 or 3 yet; we've got Netflix now, so I'll be fixing that), I just want to jump in and live in that world. But most of the Star Wars games are, understandably, rated T-Teen, and until Son is is teen, (or at least closer), we're avoiding "T" games.

Enter Lego Star Wars. The characters look like the little Lego figures, and many of the game elements are "made" from Lego bricks. The scene background is drawn like the movies, however, making the whole game play like you're a Lego guy in the Star Wars world.

And it's great fun. It's aimed at the 8-12-yr-old set, making it great for Son, while not so easy for me that it isn't a challenge. It covers the Star Wars world from Eps 1-3, and is not nearly so grim as apparently Eps 2 and 3 are reputed to have been in theatres. There are maybe 15 levels in all, some that you can finish in 5-10 minutes, and others that might take 30 or more to complete properly. There are usually several goals in each, such as getting all of the "studs" (i.e. money), collecting "mini-kit pieces" (that the game uses to build star ships from the movies), and a main story with puzzles to be solved (i.e. defeating Darth Maul, winning the pod race, etc.)

And even better, it's 2-player cooperative. Some games (i.e. the Gran Turismo games) will split the screen to let you compete against player 2; LSW lets two players work together to solve the level. Both are on-screen in the same view, which means players need to stay somewhat close together, but doing so is only a minor nuisance at times, and really, if you're cooperating, you should be together anyway. Either player can jump in or drop out at any time, which is also nice.

Anyway, whether it's playing with Son, or waiting for him to go to bed so I can play the game myself, it's gobs of fun, and one I expect to unwind with for a while yet to come. (At present, if you're interested, I've gotten all the Jedi Meters filled, all the levels complete, I've bought the Mini-kit detector, and I'm working on getting all the mini-kits and buying all of the characters.)