LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga for the Nintendo Wii is an extremely fun game and it'll certainly take you plenty of time to complete the basic game. As with the original LEGO Star Wars I & II, each film is represented by 6 different levels, so you have a basic 36 levels in all. You play first in story mode, then when that's complete you unlock the free play mode - this is the same level, but with the possibility of swapping your characters at will, more areas open up. So in a sense, you could say that there are 72 levels - plus all the bonus levels.

Basically you control a character from the film, and have to defeat the bad guys, get around obstacles, solve puzzles and complete objectives to progress through each level. In Story Mode, the characters you control depend on what part of the film is being portrayed, and sometimes you get the option to switch characters - sometimes this is necessary to get past a particular part (for instance, certain doors can only be opened by R2-D2 / C3PO, some bits need a character who can use the force, etc). There are several main different cases of character, all with different abilities and weaknesses. The puzzles are really well designed and challenge the old cerebral cortex quite a bit.

Along the way you also have things that you need to find - not necessarily to complete the level, but to accomplish things in the game. Specifically there are red bricks, which give you the option of buying special abilities, and mini-kit pieces, which when you have collected all ten give you lots of studs and a vehicle to view in Mos Eisley Cantina (the base of the game where you can go between levels, buy stuff and start random fights with Jawas). Studs are the currency of the LEGO Star Wars game world, and can be used to buy hints, special items, and new characters. Once you have unlocked characters (by completing levels) or bough them, they are available for you to use in Free Play mode.

There are several bonus level that you can get to when all the levels in a film's story mode are completed, though to be honest I didn't find these particularly interesting or fun. The best of them is the SuperStory mode - you have to race through all 6 levels of an episode inside a time limit - though the levels are the same, having to do things as quickly as possible and not concentrate on exploration or collecting studs makes it a whole different kettle of fish. Other secret levels include becoming a bounty hunter for Jabba the Hutt, which basically involves finding a particular character within a time limit.

I've completed both original LEGO Star Wars games twice, so perhaps it's not fair of me to say that this game seemed a bit too easy - indeed, one review I read complained that it was too difficult! There is still an element of challenge anyway, and the game is as fun and addictive as possible. (While it's perfectly possible to play it as a single-player game [the other player is AI-controlled), I strongly recommend that you play this as a two-player game - it's a whole different (and far superior) experience to playing it on your own. Some of the vehicle levels were definitely easier than in the original games, in particular the notoriously awkward Pod Racer level in The Phantom Menace has been rendered extremely easy to finish because there is no time limit now. Though the feeling of accomplishment is less due to this, the frustration factor that could set in has been eradicated. With over twice the levels as either original game, the reduced challenge factor doesn't result in a shorter game experience overall.

Compared to the original versions, there is practically no difference in level design in The Complete Saga - I was a little disappointed with this, but not too much because the level design was superb anyway. The graphics are probably the best I've yet seen on the WII (not that I've played a huge number of games for it yet), basically coming across as the graphics I would expect for a mid-range PC. The original games were quite buggy, and it's nice to see that this version has (almost) all of the bugs and graphical glitches cleared up. Unlike the originals, I've not come across any show-stoppers yet.

The game manual is, typically of LucasArts manuals, informative but not too fussy. What I would have liked to see is a section specifically listing the extra features of this version compared to the originals, but this wasn't included. The main differences are the bonus levels and features from the second game being incorporated into the first three episodes, and the introduction of power-ups (which effectively seem to give you "fast" powers for a short time). There are one or two more extra features, but I'll let you find them out for yourselves. The music and sound effects are superb - the timeless John Williams music score is of course present, along with some excellent rearrangements that are instantly identifiable as LEGO Star Wars music, all backed up by lots of high-quality sound effects.

One of the main reasons why you would want to get LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga on the WII as opposed to any other system is the excellent use it makes of the WII controllers. You hold the nunchuck in your left hand and use the joystick to move your characters, Z to use the force and C to change characters. Holding the Wiimote in your right hand, you fire your weapon or use your lightsaber with button B, while jumping with button A. brings up the menu. While all this works great anyway, the real genius of the system is that some sound effects - most notably the swishing of your lightsaber - come out of the Wiimote, and you can also wave the mote round like a mad thing to use your lightsaber. (The mad thing in the previous sentence can refer to either your Wiimote or you yourself... either works!) Admittedly the movements of the Wiimote bear no relation to the lightsaber actions, but it's still a fun feature. Also when building items, you can wave the Wiimote and nunchuck about frantically to speed up the building process. All in all, the control method and having sound effects coming from your right hand area make the game a much more immersive experience.

Overall, despite the somewhat disappointing bonus levels (some of them are fun, some of them are just... there), the strengths of the game far outweigh any grumbles I might have. The games were great anyway, but the innovative use of the WII controllers takes it to a new level. If you liked the original games, you'll love this, and if not... get it anyway, I'm still confident you'll love it.


Links:

WII Game Reviews

WII Sports
Big Beach Sports
WII Play

Star Wars Computer Games (PC versions)

LEGO Star Wars
LEGO Star Wars 2: The Original Trilogy

Jedi Knight: Dark Forces & Mysteries of the Sith
Knights of the Old Republic
Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords
Jedi Academy
Star Wars: Battlefront 2

Recommended: Yes