Lego Star Wars

games: lego star wars II: the original trilogy

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The Force is strong.

When Lego Star Wars was released in 2005, it won over critics and punters alike with its blend of brick-based plastic construction toy and epic space opera. Even Traveller's Tales, the developer, was “as surprised as anyone by the success of the original Lego Star Wars”, according to development director Jonathan Smith. “We knew we had a game which we loved ourselves, but we had no idea at all how it would be received by our potential audience. We were doing something new for Lego and new for Star Wars, at the same time as the official Star Wars Episode III movie game was launching. It was certainly a gamble.”



In many ways the game was a lot more fun than the cluttered prequel trilogy movies it was based on. In fact, if it had one criticism, it was that it wasn't based around the original Star Wars trilogy. Well that's been rectified now with the sequel. So what's changed? “Oh, I could answer this one all day,” says Smith. “We were all really proud of the original game, and we knew that the only way to feel that proud again would be to produce much more than a straightforward continuation of the Lego Star Wars story.”

What this amounted to was “a bigger and deeper game all round - more Lego, and more that you can do with it; the ability to get in and out of vehicles like the AT-ST and landspeeder, or to ride creatures; new combat moves and special abilities, including the ability for characters to build with Lego...” Which is an obvious, but simultaneously inspired, development. Smith's list of additions culminates with the similarly logical inclusion of “the ability now to mix-and-match Lego body parts to create and customize your own playable characters.”

The sequel presumably threw them under the critical glare of the often rabid older fans of the original films, though. “We’re all Star Wars fans ourselves, so we’ve never found it hard to deal with the expectations of the vibrant Star Wars community,” explains Smith. “We ask the same questions, with the same eye for detail, as any other fans.”



The games overall have a good eye for detail, from the miraculous way in which Lego Star Wars figures are animated (“we were blessed with a genius character animator, and it only took one pass before everyone could see, immediately, that he’d nailed exactly the right way to bring these characters to life as cool videogame characters”), to the humour (such as stumbling across storm troopers in the bath), to creating a game that has a broad appeal. On this latter point, Smith says, “We were really focused, in both the original game and the new sequel, on the younger audience. I also still very much believe that, where we can please younger players, we inevitably make a game that’s better for older players too.”

Over the years since the release of the first film, the Star Wars phenomenon has grown to a point where a hit-and-miss record is perhaps inevitable in its multiple media output. However, it's fair to say that Traveller's Tales struck gold with the formula for the Lego Star Wars games, which are as charming as they are unique.

Daniel Etherington 21 September 06

Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy is out now on all formats.