I recently bought Lego Star Wars for the Wii after a long-fought battle to resist its legoy temptations. As you can see, Luke, Leia, and the gang are pretty adorable as Legos:

The game is a relatively easy action-adventure-platformer (meaning lots of exploration, lots of jumping puzzles, and while you lose points for dying you have unlimited lives). It goes from Episode I all the way through to Episode VI, broken up by long scrolls of text (in true SW style) and rather amusing cutscenes with the Lego guys filling in pieces of the movies. The cutscenes are actually pretty great, as there’s no voice acting in the whole game so everything is done in pantomime.

The game itself controls pretty easy, although some of the jumping puzzles are a bit frustrating. Likewise, while you can swing the Wii remote to control the lightsabers, it’s really not worth it: pushing A is just so much easier. You get to play each level with default characters (whoever was in that scene from the movie) but can then go back and play with anyone you’ve unlocked (either seen in the game or purchased at the cantina).

This, ultimately, is my undoing.

See, I’m a sucker for unlockables. That is, each level has things that you need to go back and play through again to get – hidden areas, more points, little Lego ships that appear in the main menu, etc. And since the game has such a simple pick-up-and-play style, it’s easy to justify “just one more level.” Likewise, there’s just something fun about using a Star Wars battle droid to lay waste to Jawas.

The game is still a little expensive ($50 new; I bought it for $45 used…) but I’m getting a big kick out of it. The one thing I haven’t had a chance to try is multiplayer, which is likewise supposed to be good fun. If you’re a fan of Star Wars, Legos, or action-adventure (and particularly if you have fond memories of Yoda Stories) at least give Lego Star Wars a rental, if not a purchase.

-R

PS – This has only increased my desire for some of the ridiculous Star Wars Lego kits out there…