Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is a massive game that consists of approximately 400 playable characters, nine movies to travel through, and more puns, jokes, and gags than even Jar Jar Binks can handle. Developer TT Games has been making Lego games for a long time, and this ambitious project shows that studio at the forefront of their game, delivering rock-solid fun and wonderfully absurd Star Wars humor from start to finish. While the small moments are nailed, the immense scope of the project seems too great for TT Games to capitalize on, with some of the content being unusually dull or uneven.
The perfect example of this bouncing experience takes place on the planet Ahch-To, where Luke Skywalker retreats to shut himself off from the Force The Last Jedi. In this desolate place, TT Games throws in a silly porg joke wherever possible, making Luke Skywalker so hilarious that he hums his theme song while trying to ignore Rey. We also learn that Luke has set up a sizable operation to harvest green milk from that island’s space walruses. All of this content twists the lore of Star Wars in delightful ways, but the journey to get there is often a drudgery, forcing the player to do little more than walk great distances from point to point. There’s little to see or do along the way, and the few distractions that crop up on Ahch-To lack either the creativity or complexity found in the game’s actual levels. Most of the side content that makes up a large part of this experience mostly falls short, despite delivering fantastic rewards like more playable characters.
For the first time in a Lego Star Wars game, the galaxy can be freely explored as planets are unlocked by completing episodes. The artists at TT Games did a phenomenal job recreating these planets; each one is full of life, vivid detail and lots of fanservice. Densely packed with aliens and vehicles, Tatooine’s sprawling Mos Eisley spaceport feels distinctly different from a desolate place like Hoth. All of these locations mix realistic settings with clever stone creations for players to interact with. The atmosphere and lighting of many of these places are particularly impressive. The veil that accompanies Leia’s meeting with R2-D2 on the Tantive IV looks fantastic, and smaller details like a lightsaber’s vivid glow reflecting off surfaces – including the plastic head of the figure wielding it – are another nice touch Gesture.
The Skywalker saga is at its best in the condensed, story-focused levels that hark back to the earlier designs in this series. The hunt for minikits and kyber blocks is fun and often pushes the player (or the couch co-op duo) to solve puzzles or break objects to find new paths. It’s worth replaying these stages as more character classes (like the Sith) are unlocked. Some mini-games are overused, like R2’s terminal hacking, but the moment-to-moment flow of these levels is smooth and delivers fewer obstacles than other Lego Star Wars titles. Considering R2’s hacking, you can later earn an upgrade that you can use to pay to bypass them.
There is a strong focus on combat, with brand new lightsaber techniques and cover-based shooting – both disciplines get the job done in a fun way. Neither offers much depth, but their simplicity works in conflict and allows stormtrooper platoons to fall quickly. Carefully placed headshots rip off their helmets, and yes, you can wear them! Jedi can also wield their sabers and use the Force to hurl objects at enemies. These mechanics are expanded in boss fights, forcing the player to incorporate dodges to evade attacks like Darth Maul’s raging attack. Even unlikely characters like BB-8 or C-3PO are combat capable and fun to control.
Some stages feature vehicle play to bring the intense space battles of Star Wars to life. I had a blast piloting an X-wing in the Death Star trench and the Millennium Falcon in an asteroid field. Most of these conflicts have no difficulties, but add a lot of excitement as chaotic storms of TIE fighters circle your ship. Besides the characters, there are tons of ships to unlock.
The best thing about The Skywalker Saga is the pursuit of unlocking all the characters. Given the magnitude of the adventure, this is a dizzying proposition, but thankfully you won’t feel like digging for a needle in a haystack when looking for a specific character you want. You can trade well-earned Studs for clues leading to character locations and unlock requirements. Studs can also be spent to upgrade abilities and unlock new abilities for the different character classes. I like the newfound depth that TT Games has applied to the time-tested Lego formula.
While regularly uneventful, the Skywalker saga is an in-depth and entertaining exploration of all three Star Wars film trilogies. It gives the same feeling of being overwhelmed as opening a Blu-Ray movie collection and not knowing which one to start with. The player can jump between the trilogies at any time and leave a story path to explore a galaxy far, far away. Some discoveries might be boring, but others can deliver something great, like Babu Frik as a playable character or seeing what Kylo Ren’s bedroom looks like.
