A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, Lego and Lucas Arts teamed up. Twenty years and millions of minifigures later, we’re seeing the ultimate culmination of this partnership. In today’s review, we cover the Nintendo Switch version. Was Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga worth it?
Table of Contents
This series doesn’t need much in the way of introduction. Lego branded videogames are a cultural touchstone at this point. You play as minifigure versions of series characters and traverse levels by with light puzzle, action, and building elements. There is occasional combat, plenty of collectibles, and tons of studs to gather to unlock characters and content. The family friendly games have sold over 50 million copies and are likely as close as we’ll ever get to a “definitive” Star Wars video game experience.
This game was originally scheduled to release in 2020, but saw several delays. It finally released in Spring 2022, and is arguably both the most ambitious Star Wars and Lego game to date.
To say there is a lot of content is an understatement. This game crams an incredible amount into a single package. I genuinely enjoyed revisiting the individual movies and liked (and even laughed at) many of the cutscenes in game. There are also some light RPG elements, though the combat is never hard enough to necessitate the upgrades.
While I did notice some glitches while playing, none of them were related to performance. The game runs well and looks good on the Switch. Full transparency: I did not try multiplayer so I can’t speak to performance in co-op.
The inclusion of voice actors is a surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one. You can actually opt into the mumble mode as in the classic games, but I found that the voice actors were pleasant to listen to, and sounded similar to the original actors. It gives the characters an opportunity to spout catchphrases, memes, and references.
There are a plethora of options to tailor your experience.
As per usual, there are a lot of things to collect. Actually, that’s an understatement. There are over a thousand Kyber Bricks, hundreds of characters, ships, data cards, etc. Once you unlock the ability to highlight collectibles, it’s easy to spend hours going from puzzle to puzzle.
The extra development time likely helped a lot, but there are some flaws. Since it’s a Lego game, maybe we should call it illegal builds? Misprints?
I was going to save the Disney Star Wars movies for last. In all honesty, I figured I would be over the game before I actually got to them.
Annoyingly, I ended up having to play through a bit of TFA so I could unlock certain abilities for the scavenger class. I couldn’t get certain Kyber bricks without these abilities, and having to stop my numerical journey through the movies in order to play as Rey threw off my groove. It also reminded me of how terrible the writing is in new Star Wars, but that’s not this game’s fault.
There are hundreds of characters in this game, and sometimes character swapping gets buggy. It’s only an issue in free play, but it can get annoying.
Hilariously, there was a bug featuring the Mandalorian. He spawns in with Grogu, and you could replace Grogu with another Mandalorian, causing yet another pair of character to spawn. Rinse and repeat until you have enough Mandos to offset the purge of Mandalore.
The menus are functional but cumbersome. Navigation can be annoying.
Certain minigames or brick challenges expect a certain amount of precision from the player. This is all fine and well, but sometimes certain things don’t trigger correctly, and don’t get me started on the aiming in this game. The shooting gallery minigames are hell with a controller. Spoiler alert: turn off auto aim for shooting-related challenges.
You may encounter some glitches that keep you from progressing. For example, there was a glitch regarding Jango Fett in episode 2.
I’ve personally run into a few glitches, though fortunately they didn’t make me lose very much progress. In Episode 7 I was talking to an NPC during the scene where Rey is escaping after talking to someone. An event triggered during my conversation, and the conversation never ended, so I had to restart. During Episode 1, the screen went black – I thought it was loading until I realized I could hear ambient sounds. I was concerned at first that my Switch or TV had malfunctioned.
Some of these issues may have been fixed by patches.
The “Classic Obi Wan Kenobi” character is a digital-only character. This game came with a higher incentive than most titles when it came to physical copies due to the inclusion of a unique minifigure. Certain retailers had other bonuses, such as special cases, or a small Lego set. You can appreciate how an actual physical bonus might be enticing, which is why it’s frustrating that a character would be gated behind a digital purchase.
This is a common theme in the videogame industry, but that doesn’t mean that it should be ignored. Releasing a fun game doesn’t give you license to abuse your employees.
I had a blast with this game. I initially missed the boat on Lego games but I’ve grown to really appreciate the fun, upbeat nature of the games. The large number of collectibles and Easter eggs mean that you always feel like you’re progressing.
There’s certainly no lack of content. If your average game is an entree, this is a three course meal.
At this time, there are a few DLC character packs. It’s just additional playable minifigures. Even if you’re an enormous fan of The Mandalorian, Bad Batch, Solo, or Rogue One, the value isn’t quite there.
This is a great game for fans of all ages. The occasional speedbumps keep it from being a totally smooth ride, but there’s still a great time to be had. Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is worth it.
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