About the game
Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy is a 2006 Lego-themed action-adventure game developed by Traveller's Tales and published by LucasArts and TT Games Publishing. It is the sequel to Lego Star Wars: The Video Game (2005) and is based on the first three Star Wars films: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Players take the roles of over 50 Lego versions of characters from the films, and can also build their own.
It is played from a third-person view in a 3D world built to look like Lego pieces, with a mix of action-adventure, platform and puzzle play. The game retells the films with comic cutscenes that have no dialogue. A second player can join at any time by switching on a second controller. Lego studs are the currency, and four hearts make up the health meter. If they run out, the player respawns at once and can often pick up the lost studs again.
The hub is the Mos Eisley cantina on Tatooine, where studs buy characters, vehicles, hints and extras. Each film has six levels, with locations such as Hoth, Bespin, Dagobah, the Death Star and Endor, and some levels are played entirely in vehicles such as a TIE fighter, a Snowspeeder and the Millennium Falcon. Levels are played first in Story Mode, which unlocks Free Play for that level. Hidden gold bricks, minikits and power bricks reward replays, and 99 gold bricks are available.
68 characters from the films are playable. Abilities matter more than in the first game: blaster users can use a grappling hook, lightsaber users can deflect shots and double jump, droids open certain doors, small characters crawl through hatches, bounty hunters use thermal detonators and Sith can move black Lego objects. Players can also create two custom characters in the cantina from parts they have unlocked.
Traveller's Tales used a modified version of the Lego Star Wars engine, with better camera movement, more vehicle levels, and the ability to build bricks for every non-droid character. The game was announced at American International Toy Fair on February 10, 2006. In North America it was released on September 12, 2006, the same day as the two-disc DVD releases of the films, and in the UK on September 11. The Xbox 360 version was not released in Australia. It is rated E10+ by the ESRB.
Critics praised the humorous, adorable take on the films and liked the original trilogy more than the prequels, but some thought it too easy. In its review of the Xbox 360 version, Official Xbox Magazine praised the off-kilter humor. The game sold over 1.1 million copies worldwide in its opening week and more than 8.2 million by May 2009, and won awards including a BAFTA for Best Gameplay and a Spike TV award for Best Game Based on a Movie or TV Show.
The first two Lego Star Wars games were combined as Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, released on November 6, 2007 for Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and DS. The Xbox 360 version of The Original Trilogy was certified for the Platinum Hits budget range.
The text above is adapted from Wikipedia and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
What critics said
Metacritic 81 out of 100 (Xbox 360). Individual reviews: IGN 8.4/10, GameSpot 7.7/10, Game Informer 8/10, EGM 73/100, Official Xbox Magazine 8.5/10, GameSpy 4.5/5, GameTrailers 8.2/10, Allgame 4/5.
Good to know
- The achievement list is 29 achievements for 1,000 Gamerscore. None of them need online play.
- The Xbox 360 version was never released in Australia, though the other platforms were.
- The Complete Saga (2007) combines this game and the first Lego Star Wars on one disc.
- 2,258,163,204 custom character combinations are possible in the cantina.
- The game is rated E10+ by the ESRB for cartoon violence and crude humor.
Made by
Director Jon Burton, Programmer John Hodskinson, Artist James Cunliffe, Composer David Whittaker, Original score John Williams.
