“Lego Star Wars III” Review

For Nintendo Wii

Pros:	Cons:
Great classics Star Wars music themes	Fuzzy looking characters and dark visuals
Large amount of content and co-op mode	Annoying voice acting and comedy
Huge HUB World and tons of unlockables	Terrible ground assault levels

If you’re a Lego fan, Star Wars fan, a child, or all of the above, there’s a good chance you’ve already been thinking about purchasing the latest Lego-style adventure from TT Games. And to be terse, Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars is a great use of the Star Wars universe, and an absolute blast to play with a friend. There are some obvious deal-breakers included in the game however, so let’s weigh the many pros and cons and see if this game is really worth your time.

                When it comes down to the visuals, everything looks ok, good enough to get by, but nothing really fun to look at. The characters themselves are all fuzzy looking animations that closely resemble their toy Lego counterparts. During every level, you will commonly come across many cut-scenes which help to tell the story, but I found that these cut-scenes were always dull, boring, and not to mention dark and were occasionally hard on the eyes to watch. There is a lot to complain about in the graphics, but if there’s one thing to praise, it would be the amount of detail added to this game over the predecessors. And I’m not saying It’s good, far from that actually, I’m just saying that it’s the best efforts the developers put in yet.

                Like I every other Star Wars video game, the music is great. Not quite as much so here, as only a few themes are the masterful John Williams themes, but most of the music here is still well done and fits in well in the Lego Star Wars universe. Most of the sound effects in the game are also well done, whereas the voice acting in the game is annoying and pointless. All of the characters grunt to tell their story, and it can be quite annoying after a while. I can see how kids may enjoy it, but for an older gamer, this will probably be hard on your ears.

                The comedy itself isn’t very funny, and only occasionally becomes a bit laughable, most of the time either a character runs into another, or some other comic relief that doesn’t even occur in the TV show. And yes, for those of you who are wondering, the game is based on the animated TV show of the same name (of which I am a huge fan), but doesn’t necessarily follow it completely. The way in which the levels are organized is through villain, but those villains do not necessarily appear in the corresponding episodes. This is just a small complaint but to a huge fan like me, it really can be distracting.

                The original Lego Star Wars game didn’t look to be anything spectacular, but boy did it exceed expectations when it was released. I’m not going to say that Lego Star Wars III beats the original in that regard because it absolutely does not in fact; most of the new gameplay in this game are all bad additions rather than good. The first new addition to the game is now when using the force to move an object, the game no longer automatically does it for you, you now have to manually place objects on top of each other to build larger objects. This can be extremely frustrating and difficult to do. Also, probably the game’s largest addition; the ground battles, is easily the game’s worst aspect. I found all of them completely annoying and overly used. Besides being used as their own mode, many missions also got included into the story mode in the main game. Most of the time you find yourself running around a huge battlefield, looking for a ship to use, and nearly every level has the exact same boring goal to complete. It’s not fun. Besides these complaints however, the simple charming gameplay that has returned from the previous titles is as fun as ever. Activating switches with R2-D2, fighting with Jedi, or grappling up the side of a building is still a blast. And controlling all of this is actually pretty good as well. The only major control issue I had was in the ground battles, when in a vehicle you must aim with the Wii Remote at structures in order to shoot them, this was sometimes a bit glitch of an experience and always difficult to perform. Overall the gameplay is very, very far from perfection, however it does manage to get the job done, just avoid those ground assaults.

                By far the best aspect of Lego Star Wars III, is the absolutely enormous amount of content to find and explore. You will find as you play that there is unlockable after unlockable from characters to power-ups, and everything in between. There are tons of modes as well, the amazing co-op mode is present in each level, as well as split-screen, an arcade mode for two players, space combat, and dare I say it… ground assault. And completing all of these events rewards you with gold bricks, and the more you collect of these, the more locations you unlock in the HUB World. And speaking of the HUB, it is massive, there are tons of places to find and see as you explore this absolutely huge place. From the Republic battleship the Resolute, to the Separatist ship, and all the space in between, you’ll find yourself getting lost all the time. That said, it would’ve been nice to have a map or some type of navigational device to use. But what the developer did here is amazing, and by far the best in the series. If you love this game, then you’ll be happy that there is tons of it to play.

                Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars is far from perfect, it’s a good game that you’ll either love or hate. At first, I found myself frustrated by the differences between it and its predecessors, but after a week or so I’ve grown to enjoy my newest Lego adventure. I can’t say that everyone will feel this way, and so if you are not a Star Wars or Lego fan, I honestly can’t recommend this for you. However, for children across the board, I can guarantee that this adventure is one you’re going to love!

Graphics: Simplistic cut-scenes, fuzzy characters, dark boring visuals with some detail          6.0

Audio: Great classic Star Wars music and descent sound effects, annoying voice acting         7.0

Story: Doesn’t follow the Clone Wars TV Show to a tee, but gets the job done                        5.0

Gameplay: Descent controls for the most part, and good gameplay but with some flaws     7.0

Gameplay Amount: Surprisingly large amount of content and unlockables, huge HUB        9.0

Overall: A must have for all children, or for Star Wars fans like myself, otherwise, avoid at all costs  7.0