Christine & Mike

It’s no secret that I loved the original game, it’s a great, fun game, who wouldn’t?  So, after my debacle trying to get a copy yesterday, I was thrilled to get home, get settled, and fire up the XBox.

The main reason we loved the original game, is that Christine’s not a gamer, and has trouble with games that use both the left and right thumbsticks on the controller. (Halo, Half Life 2, etc)  So, we liked this game, for its simplicity.  Not only that, but it’s friggen Star Wars, how can you not love it?

So, part 2.  The game starts out exactly as Star Wars (Episode IV) does, the racing ships, the tractor beam, the whole nine yards. Excellent way to start the game.  We being in a smiliar fashion as the old game does, we’re in a sort of “general meeting place”, in the “diner”, which we all remember from the first game. With some welcomed additions.  The diner now keeps track of how long you’ve been playing the game, and how far you’ve come in progress. (ie; elapsed time runs in real time, and percentage done updates after each level.) 

So, we begin the first level, which is similar to the previous game.  A very simple level, just to get used to the characters, and level play.  We start off with the two characters we ended the last game with. (Christine was thrilled to play as Leia again).  We plug along through the first level, acheive our “Jedi Status” for coins collected, and move on.  After level one is complete, we get to unlock Episode V and VI, to play them in any order we want.  Since we’re anal, we decide to only play them in movie order, since we’re such movie geeks.

Some new welcomed features of Part 2:

• Changing characters parts: You can “morph” your characters (at the diner), by changing heads, hats, faces, bodies, arms, legs, and weapons, by using their “Transport” beams. We haven’t tried this yet, but I imagine it’s pretty fun.
• Slap fights.  Now, you can not only shoot enemies, lightsaber them, or throw things at them with the Force, but you can also walk right up to them and punch them in the face.  To which Christine repeatedly laughs, each and every time.

Somethings I didn’t care for, however:

• It’s now much easier to hurt your partner.  There’s an “auto aim” feature that seems to be on by default, that you can’t turn off, which is much more accurate than the first game. So, if you’re wailing away on enemies, and you run out of guys to shoot, it’ll aim at your partner.  Not good.
• The rendering of the black background during the “save” mode seems to be very pixated, especially when displayed for a long period of time. This may be something with my TV, and the way it renders things, but I don’t think so, as the first game looks killer during this same phase. 

Overall, this is a seriously fun game, that was well made.  Absolutely worth the $39.99 I paid for it, and the trips to three different stores.  If you liked the last game, you’ll definitely love this game too.  Although we’re only 3 levels deep in the game, I doubt we’ll have any complaints about it, for time to come.  My only foreseeable complaint is that when the game’s over, there’ll be a long wait until TT puts out another Lego game.

Filed under: Games