Geeks the world over may be frothing over the upcoming be-all, end-all multimedia project Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, but in my house, the only Star Wars universe that matters is the one you make yourself out of plastic bricks and minifigures.
Needless to say, LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga, the new, third installment in LucasArts' awesomely, endlessly fun video-game series, has been at the top of my and my kids' Christmas lists this year. Luckily for me (but unbeknownst to them -- hey, they don't read Babble), I got it early. Sorry, little dudes.
LEGO Star Wars II marked the series' entry into next-generation consoles, but The Complete Saga maximizes the systems' technology -- which means, if you're playing on an Xbox 360 or PS3, you're going to notice some major improvements in graphics, as well as some cool new online capabilities. Wii users, unfortunately, don't get either, although the Wii version does make use of the system's motion-control capabilities. DS players, meanwhile, get a LEGO Star Wars experience completely redesigned from the ground up.
Playing like a combined version of its predecessors, The Complete Saga works in LEGO-fied versions of the characters, scenery and scenarios from all six Star Wars films, complete with LEGO Star Wars' trademark cheeky humor to take the edge off. Meaning: Star Wars Battlefront this ain't -- and you'll dive right into playing alongside your kids for just that reason.
Even if you beat the games the first go-round -- and despite the kiddie appeal, that's not as easy as you might think -- there's plenty here to keep you playing. Besides new characters like Watto, Zam Wessell and Boss Nass (with over 120 playable characters in all), you'll find 10 new bounty-hunter challenges, the ability to mix and match characters from all six episodes, and even a cameo by a certain archaeologist movie hero who's about to get his own LEGO video-game treatment.
It's not entirely "new," so calling LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga the season's best kid-friendly video game may be a stretch (and besides, Mario did come back fighting this fall). But for those of us who've enjoyed bonding with our kids over George Lucas' universe, boy, it'll sure feel that way.
