LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game (PC, 2005)

This is a great game for children and parents. My two are 6 & 7 and just learning to play more sophisticated PC games. They like Star Wars and the Lego theme makes it cute and fun. Two can play at the same time, or you can seamlessly drop out or enter in to the game, switching between 1 and 2 players any time you want. I recommend joysticks or similar instead of the keyboard especially for two players. You get to play through 5 or 6 scenes from each of the 3 movies in the trilogy, so about 17-18 total. There is a 'secret' level to unlock too. Each one takes maybe 30 minutes to an hour if you take your time and enjoy all the various side rooms etc. But it is not hard to find your way so don't worry about the kids getting "lost". So you're getting many hours of play -- a good value since this game is not very expensive anymore.

Mom or Dad can read on the internet the tips, tricks and even cheat codes to help kids. There are some challenges embedded in the game besides just playing through the story... you can try to find all the "minikits" which help you assemble a cool lego vehicle on each level. IF you find all 10 kits you get to see the completed vehicle in your garage and get a big bonus of coins. Also, if you find a high enough percentage of the coins in each level, you attain "true jedi" status for each level, earning you a lego piece of another vehicle. Earning true jedi status on all 17 levels unlocks the secret level and completes that vehicle.

Along the way you get to unlock more characters to play. So in each level you get to play as different characters (Obi-wan, Anakin, C3PO, R2, Padme, etc.) and then finishing the level unlocks them so you can go back in "free play" mode. In fact some of the areas in the levels cannot be accessed except when you go back as someone else. You even get to play as Darth Maul (etc.) and use the Dark Side of the Force and in certain areas this is the only way to solve the puzzle. Again, these complexities are not necessary for the kids to play and "win" the game but they helped keep dad's interest.

About these coins, you get to use them to buy/unlock more characters, or buy things like a "mini-kit detector" or invincibility, turn the light sabers purple, etc. The cheat codes for these things are on the internet, but there are some characters you cannot unlock until you beat the level. I decided to use the code to unlock invincibility right away, so the kids would not get frustrated. But even without this, the penalty for "dying" is minimal and sort of fun in a way... your character breaks apart into his lego pieces, and then a few moments later reassembles and play continues. The only thing you lose is some of the coins (which are actually lego bits), which scatter around when you come apart. You get the opportunity to recollect these coins when play resumes.

The game play is very good in my view, although I am not a hard core gamer by any means. It's fun to see how the lego folks reinterpretted the Star Wars universe and makes it look like everything in the game - EVERYTHING - is built out of legos. And anything you can bust up goes to pieces. The light sabers, blasters, etc. are all fun, and the characters have different abilities -- some jump more or less or have unique "attacks".

Overall I rate this an excellent family-friendly game.

This game is quite fun, charming, and easy to pick up.
The Lego theme is cute, & opens up some interesting effects : e.g. bad guys explode into Lego peices, Jedi's can reform piles of Lego blocks into bridges & stair ways.
The levels are fast, & fun, with a few "switch puzzles" thrown in.
The game levels are linear & the difficulty level is easy enough with it's unlimited lives, but there are bonus goals put in for players that want to up the ante, making this game great for a range of ages & skills, which is perfect for teaming up with a younger or older relative for some enjoyable co-op play. I even got my Dad playing with me, (& He's in his 60's).. EIDOS also mixes up game play a little with the pod race & space battles
What it lacks in depth & high end graphics, it makes up with fun and simplistic joy. A great game for Star Wars & Lego fans alike!

It is nice to have a video game that doesn't have a lot of blood and guts, but that the boys still like to play. It is a bit difficult for my 6 year old to understand which keys to press to make the lego guys move, but otherwise he loves it - and loves Star Wars, too.
I chose to buy this, because we have a computer and don't have an xbox or playstation. I don't have any other forms of this game to compare it too, but my son's friends have it and that's all I hear about after they get together.

My 7 year old and 33 year old child of a husband (lol) loves this game. Very enjoyable for the young and young at heart alike. No blood/ gore since the characters are legos.

If your computer meets the standard requirements and refuses to play this game, there is a program called 3DAnalyze that can solve the problem. A link below is provided for a more detailed instruction.

http://www.reabo.co.uk/_t​utorials/legostarwarsproblem.a​spx

I feel this is a great addition to your Lego Video Game library. You get to be any character from Star Wars 1-3. You solve puzzles destroy objects and use the force to gain studs or hearts. Find Mini kit canisters to build Lego vehicles. If you have Lego Star Wars 2 you can import all your characters to this platform with a function called use old save. Kill General Grievous, rescue prisoners, and even Pod Race. This is a fun filled game that provides hours of entertainment.