What is Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga?
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (Lego Star Wars for the remainder of the review) is a 3D action-adventure game featuring the story and characters in the Star Wars franchise. The game is clearly aimed towards kids, as the characters and worlds are all built using legos. Lego Star Wars was released on April 5th, 2022 for the Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4&5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S&X, and Microsoft Windows. I played this game on the Playstation 5. It takes around 18 ½ hours to complete the main story according to Howlongtobeat.com.
Game Review:
For full disclosure, I did not complete the main story in this game but I played through the 3 prequel movies starting with The Phantom Menace. The reason I did not finish the game is that I frankly lost interest in completing the game as an adult. I will get into detail later in this review but this game didn’t resonate with me playing it solo as an adult. But I can see this being a great game to play alongside your child.
Lego Star Wars is a compilation of all the Lego Star Wars games that came before it. It takes all 9 core Star Wars movies and combines them into one single fleshed out game where you can experience the Lego version of each one of the movies. This makes it a dream game for those who are big fans of Lego and Star Wars. As someone who is not very into Lego and only moderately interested in Star Wars but with nostalgia for the original Lego Star Wars game, I did not find this game to be that engaging. But I’m also not the target audience for this game. This game is first and foremost designed for kids but has some updates and upgrades of some previous Lego games that makes it more appealing to the adults who grew up with these games.
Lego Star Wars makes a strange choice with how they structure the playthrough of the movies. You can choose any of the Trilogies to start with but you have to start with the first chronological game in that trilogy. This means that the first movie you have to play through is one of: The Phantom Menace, A New Hope, or The Force Awakens. You unlock each trilogy after you play through it. I don’t mind this system but I would be curious about why they picked this over allowing the player to choose whatever movie they wanted to start with first.
In Lego Star Wars, movies are also split into distinct levels and areas and after you complete a level you can play through it again in Free Play mode which allows players to go back through and get any collectibles or finish any side missions they didn’t complete on the first go. The areas that you play in are the iconic areas you’d see in the movies and are densely packed with all the collectibles used in the game, too much so in my opinion. I know Legos are about having a ton of little pieces that you can combine to build awesome things but the amount of constant stimulation on screen can feel very overwhelming. The map is also littered with icons that makes it hard to figure out exactly where you want to go. But there is a lot to do in each of the areas that can be fun to do with someone playing with you.
The story in Lego Star Wars is the same Star Wars story we know and love from the movies, but things have been simplified to be more appropriate for kids and also pumped full of a ton of slapstick comedy. Some of the things were eye-roll inducing for me, but again, I’m not the target audience. I can see how a young kid may thoroughly enjoy some of the humor and find a way to connect with Star Wars.
Combat is much different in Lego Star Wars than I remember the original being. It’s a bit more complex now. The developers added a combo tracker and added variety to the moves a character does so you’re not just doing the same three moves every time. Included in this is the ability to block/parry and throw a lightsaber. Lego Star Wars also features something that I haven’t seen or heard of in other Lego games; the ability to look down a sight. It’s still in third person but it zooms in over the shoulder to be more precise than just shooting from the hip. I think the updated combat system is a change they implemented to make it a bit more challenging and engaging for older audiences who grew up with these games.
Some of my favorite parts of the game that I played were the portions where you used vehicles, as opposed to being on foot. The part I liked best out of the sections I played was the speed racer grand prix in Phantom Menace. However, other vehicle sections can drag on and seem a little janky (I’m looking at you, Jango Fett boss fight). Obviously I can only speak to the Prequels portion of the game, but the highlights of the game were the sections that changed things up and added variety.
Lego Star Wars features all of the characters you know and love from the movies, all with the different outfits they wear during the films which you can unlock as you earn more studs, the currency of the game. Something that I found new and interesting was that they split characters into different classes based on their abilities. For example: the Jedi, the Dark Side, and Heros are 3 of the many classes you can play as. Different characters obviously have different abilities but they built those abilities into puzzles or collectibles throughout the levels that makes it necessary to go back later with the correct character classes to complete that side mission.
Family Friendliness:
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is a very family friendly game. It takes all the beloved Star Wars stories and packages them in a kid-friendly Lego setting that can be both fun and engaging for children. The parts where it gets a little dark in Star Wars are not excluded but are delivered in a much more soft-hearted manner. I would feel comfortable letting my child play this not only with me but on their own as well.
Features for Parents:
Lego Star Wars has some features that are great for parents. It has a great pause feature and a generous save function that makes it very easy to put down whenever you need. This game also has local multiplayer meaning you can play with your kids or they can play together in a positive cooperative experience. The game also offers a variety of accessibility features available on the main menu. I am not going to go into all the features but there are a ton of accessibility options there for you to change so you can play the way you need to.
Final Verdict:
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is a great game for a kid to play or if you want to play with your kid. This game also may speak to those who are really into Lego and Star Wars. But if you are not a parent or are a parent of a really young child like I am, I would say pass on this game or save it until they’re old enough to play with you.