BY KATHY WILLIAMS, ASSOCIATE EDITOR
The highly anticipated “Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga,” the latest video game to enter the Lego gaming series, was released April 5 on physical and digital editions.
The game was originally previewed at the E3 convention in 2019 during a press conference with Microsoft and was set to be released in 2020. During 2019, around the time of the release of the movie “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” another trailer for the game was dropped, showing one scene from all nine core Star Wars movies.
The following year brought more trailers and gameplay preview, but the game was announced to have its release further delayed. The buildup of trailers and previews left Star Wars fans and video game lovers alike eagerly waiting to see what the game would entail. An official announcement for when the game would be available for the public along with a new trailer was released on Jan. 20.
Developed by Traveller’s Tales and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, this is the sixth video game to enter the Lego Star Wars series. The game is not short of action and adventure but done all in the Lego brick style. The “trilogy of trilogies” movies known as the Skywalker were all adapted to this game. Players can choose which of the three trilogies they would prefer to start in rather than the previous games that only allowed players to advance in a linear order.
After choosing where to start, players can expect to have five story missions in each episode for a total of 45 levels. The gameplay combat has changed from previous Lego Star Wars video games where there are now a variety of combination moves to attack with.
The game’s hub features several explorable planets such as Naboo and Tatooine, unlike the original “Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga,” and has 380 playable characters. There are also several ships, such as Star Destroyers and the iconic Death Star, with freely explorable areas.
The standard edition, which retails for $59.99, and deluxe edition, which retails for $69.99, were available for pre-order for the early birds and came with added bonuses for pre-ordered copies. A 1999 classic Obi-Wan Kenobi playable character and the base game came with the standard edition pre-order, and a Luke Skywalker mini figure with “blue milk” was exclusive to disc copy purchases. The deluxe edition is equipped with the same content as the standard edition, but includes seven character packs.
On March 7, several DLC packs were announced to give players the option to add and to customize their gameplay experience. Four of these packs were released on April 5 and included a character pack based on the hit show, “The Mandalorian.” The other packs are set to release in mid April and early May.
Overall, critics have given the game favorable reviews for its graphics, gameplay and humorous cut scenes. The video game journalism website, “Eurogamer” called it the best Lego game ever made. The game is recommended for anyone ten years or older and is able to be played on Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
