Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Wii) Review
Whether you are a Star Wars fan or not, LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga is a wonderfully enjoyable 3D action game that will have you laughing out loud, swinging your Wii-remote and searching for your old LEGO blocks. While not perfect, the sheer charm of the game allows the player to ignore some of the faults and just enjoy the irreverent ride through a galaxy far, far away.
For the uninitiated, LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga is a compilation of the first two LEGO Star Wars games which successfully blend together the world of the movies with LEGO blocks and a great deal of humour. It sounds insane when you first hear it, but recreating the Star Wars saga with LEGO actually works really well. It never takes itself entirely seriously and the humour definitely adds to the experience. If you have never played a LEGO Star Wars game before, there is no reason to keep reading this review. Go and buy yourself a copy of LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga right now and thank me later.
For those who have already experienced the riotous fun that is LEGO Star Wars, unless you really want to play through the two games again on your Wii, there is not really that much to recommend about LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga. Sure, you get some new characters (Indiana Jones is a nice tie-in to the upcoming LEGO Indiana Jones game), some new chapters and some upgraded mechanics for episodes I-III, but overall, there really isnt all that much to bring experienced players back for another turn on the Wii.
The biggest drawcard for the Wii version is the addition of motion controls and while I can see every Star Wars fan salivating at the prospect of wielding the Wii-remote as a light-sabre, it just doesnt happen. In fact, it is often better to just ignore the motion control and play the game with the traditional button set-up. With that in mind, it makes it even more frustrating that the Wii version misses out on the online co-operative play option. This would have given plenty of people a reason to play through the games again and it is a sadly missed opportunity, especially in the relatively sparse Wii online environment.
That disappointment aside, experienced players will know that playing through the relatively short story mode is only part of the fun of the LEGO Star Wars games. Collecting all the characters, opening all the unlockables and creating your own mash-up characters add tremendously to the replay value and those elements have been expanded, adding even more value to two games which were previously overflowing with extra content.
Additionally, the game is presented very well with a beautiful graphical style that adds enough extra polish over the Gamecube versions to let you know you are playing on the Wii. The addition of light-sabre sounds from the Wii-remotes speaker contributes to the overall package and just adds that little bit extra to the iconic soundtrack and instantly recognisable sound effects.
One of the other great things about the LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga package is that the two games have been seamlessly melded into what is now a single game with all content accessed through a single cantina area. This adds greatly to the quality of the overall package and helps make LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga almost feel like a new product rather than a compilation of two separate, older games.
In the end it is really quite simple. If you have never experienced either LEGO Star Wars game before, go out and buy LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga right now. If you have, then there really isnt much reason to buy this new version.
