Lego Star Wars – The Complete Saga

Lego Star Wars – The Complete Saga‘s gameplay gives the player a third-person perspective of the 3D game world that includes characters, environments, and objects that have been modeled after the Lego Star Wars line of construction toys. The gameplay itself is a fusion of action-adventure, platform and puzzles to solve – combining the features of both Lego Star Wars: The Video Game and Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy and giving them a refresh. The Complete Saga spans the events that take place from the Trade Federation negotiations above Naboo in Star Wars Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) to the Rebel attack on the second Death Star above Endor in Return of the Jedi (1983).

The game provides comedic retellings of the films’ events through dialogue-free cutscenes. The player takes over the role of one of the films’ characters in each level, gaining special abilities with each one. The co-op mode of the game allows a second player to join in at any time. In the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game, online co-op is available through PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. While playing each level, the player can obtain Lego studs, which act as the game’s currency.

Each player has their own health meter, visually symbolized by four hearts, that are shown on the heads-up display in the upper right-hand corner of the gameplay screen. Once the player has lost all four of their hearts, the player dies, exploding into Lego pieces and losing a few studs; but the player will quickly respawn and be given the chance to collect the studs they have lost. Like in Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, the hub world takes place in the Mos Eisley Cantina where players are free to roam; players walk amongst popular characters from the films through the shop, the junkyard outside, or the two-player arcade.

The Cantina has doors that allow the player to access the game’s story mode, which includes the levels for the six episodes of the Skywalker Saga included in the game. Each episode has six chapters, and after completing the introductory chapter for Star Wars Episode I – The Phantom Menace, players can access the introductory chapters of each episode. After completing each episode chapter, players are automatically given the ability to play through the chapter again in Free Play with whatever characters they want. Most of the story levels are the same as those found in their respective original games. 

The Complete Saga also includes two previously scrapped levels: “Anakin’s Flight” and “Bounty Hunter Pursuit,” which were intended to appear in Lego Star Wars: The Video Game but were cut during development. “Anakin’s Flight” is based on the Naboo space battle against the droid control ship seen in The Phantom Menace. It was originally envisioned as a rail shooter level, but was changed to the free-roam style used in almost all vehicles levels in the game. “Bounty Hunter Pursuit” focuses on Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker pursuing bounty hunter Zam Wesell across Coruscant from Attack of the Clones.

It was also made into a free-roam level, but unlike “Anakin’s Flight” was incorporated into Episode II, which only had five levels in the original game as opposed to six from the other episodes. The “Mos Espa Podrace” and “Gunship Cavalry” story levels were redesigned, although the versions from their respective original games are present as bonus levels. “Battle Over Coruscant,” though, remains the same, with the change that players can change vehicles in Free Play. Overall, there are 36 main story levels. The game also features 20 Bounty Hunter missions, six bonus levels, and Arcade games. 

The six bonus levels include two Lego City levels (“Lego City” and “New Town”, with the former originally appearing in Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy), two story levels (“Anakin’s Flight” and “A New Hope”, the latter of which was a special unlockable level found in Lego Star Wars: The Video Game), and the original versions of the “Mos Espa Podrace” and “Gunship Cavalry” levels. There are over 120 playable characters from the films in The Complete Saga, including Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Darth Sidious, Yoda, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca, and even characters new to the game like Watto, Zam Wessell, and Boss Nass.

Certain characters carry blasters that can be transformed into grappling hooks, while the Jedi and Sith characters wield lightsabers and come with the ability to use the force. There are also challenges in each level that can only be achieved by the abilities of certain characters; for example, only bounty hunters can open certain doors and only Sith lords can use the force to lift black Lego bricks. The Cantina features a character customizer, a key feature from Lego Star Wars II, that allows the player to mix and match different body parts from the previous Lego Star Wars games to create their own playable character.