Legos + Star Wars + Video Game = Nerd Heaven

As I’ve admitted before, I’m a sucker for cute video games. If you are too, then you must get Lego Star Wars II. This game (available for all kinds of game systems, though I’m playing it on PS2), allows you to play a variety of characters, from Princess Leia to an anonymous stormtrooper, through a super-condensed version of the three original Star Wars movies. And everything is made of Legos!

The attention to detail in the cut scenes is delightful – if you’ve seen the movies in the past 10 years or so, you’ll recognize little bits of action from the movie, though they whizz by in a fraction of the time that they played out in the original.

In fact, it’s kind of an interesting study of the Star Wars epic as a shared cultural story: if you had never seen the movies, you would have no idea what is going on in the video game, there’s so much shorthand in the scenes.

As for the gaming action, it’s well designed, incorporating little Lego puzzles in addition to the shooting of stormtroopers. Come upon a pile of Lego blocks and you can make your character assemble them into a robot or secret exit at lightning speed.

Oh, and you can play with two people! It’s fun to make John do the boring work of keeping the bad guys at bay while I put all the Lego contraptions together.

So it’s cute, and fun, and multi-player. Highly recommended.

And if you’re wondering, yes, there apparently was a first Lego Star Wars game, but it takes you through the prequel movies, which nobody liked.