OK, Last week I tried the Demo of "Lego Star Wars II - The Original Trilogy" Never Tried the first one, but this one is something to check out.
The basic idea of this game, is that you take the characters from the old star wars movies, turn them into legos, and make a spoof game starring them. I reccomend trying the demo while it is still available, you can find it at
http://www.lucasarts.com/games/legostarwarsii/With my experience of the demo, here is what I noticed:
A Few Advantages +This game Can operate completely from the keyboard, which is mappable...even the opening menu is keyboard controllable. If this doesn't change for the full version, this means that you should have NO PROBLEM CONTROLLING WITH 8 WAY JOYSTICK AND BUTTONS.
+This game is two Player simultaneous.
+Play almost anybody from the game, good guys bad guys, and even make your own characters! 50+ Playable characters
+Unique abilities for different characters, such as force lightning for Palpatine, or thermal detonator for Greedo
+If you own the first Lego star wars, you can import up to 54 characters from that game to be played in lego star wars 2.
+ Ride in vechicles, use mobile artillery, and ride on animals from the star wars movies.
A Few Disadvantages-The game is partially based on coin collecting, fun for some, Tiresome for most. Coin collection is how things are unlocked.
-Some characters really suck, fortunately you get to mostly choose who to be and when, but C3PO is about as slow, useless, and annoying as he was in the movies. On a positive side, you can shoot at him, and he will lose limbs just like in the movies.
-System Requirements are too high for many cabinets. Also, it requires the CD to be in the drive to play, so you may want to find a NO-CD patch to avoid Disc Swapping.
ReviewThis game is just good theme fun. It Follows A New Hope (Star Wars), The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi from beginning to end. The cut scenes may seem ackward sometimes with no dialogue, but mostly it just makes the whole thing funny and lighthearted.
One aspect of it is you cannot truly die. You can keep playing and playing, when your character is shot down, you lose some coins and keep playing. For me, this created a sense of easy going gaming that can be easily picked up with a friend who is new to the game. However, this game automatically adapts the difficulty to your abilities, and should provide a challege even for more experianced players.
The Lego versions of each character creates a cartoony version of each character. It is almost as if Star Wars crossed with a Warner Brothers Cartoon.
Not only are the characters "legoized", but the creators gave them only the ability to grunt, and lowered their IQ to 12. It makes the game pretty darn funny. When you kill an enemy, they fall to pieces, which makes this game have rating for all ages. (E-10 to be exact) Yet it is funny enough to be appreciated by anyone with a sense of humor.
You play the game with the characters that are present in various scenes of the movie, and have the ability to switch to different characters. For example, to defeat foes and jump really high, you might want to be Obi Wan, but you will need to switch to R2 to get that blast door open. There are also other specialities that each character has. Chewie rips the arms off of bad guys, Obi Wan can mess with use the force to lift objects and confuse enemies.
Another Cool Feture is the Free Play Mode, which allows you to play already completed areas with about any star wars character you want or create. Good or Evil...Or just messecd up, Playing with a Darth Vader/Chewbacca Hybrid character is just entertaining.
System RequirementsSupported Operating Systems:
Windows 2000 or XP
Required:
100% DirectX 9.0c compatible computer
CPU:
Required: Intel Pentium III 1.0 GHz or AMD Athlon 1.0 GHz
Recommended: Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 2.4 GHz
Memory:
Required: 256 MB RAM
Recommended: 512 MB RAM
Graphics Card:
Required: 32 MB 3D Graphics card with Vertex and Pixel
Shader (VS/PS) with V1.1 Capability
Recommended: 64 MB 3D Graphics card with Vertex and Pixel
Shader (VS/PS) with V1.1 Capability
Sound Card:
Required: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible Audio Device
DVD-ROM:
Required: DVD-ROM drive (I'm not sure about this one, It might be OK with CD)
Input Device:
Required: Keyboard, mouse, joystick or gamepad
Recommended: Joystick
Installation requires 600 MB of free hard drive space. We
recommend that you have an additional 60 MB of free space
available after installing the game for save games and
Windows file caching.
Final ReccomendationPlease keep in mind, I only played the demo, but I give this game 4 out of 5 stars based on the Demo only.
Try the Demo, While you still can! It is worth at least this much.
If you like the game, buy it for your cab! Cabinet Friendly games are hard to find. The full Version will be released Sept. 12