What makes Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga so good?
The new Lego Star Wars game is excellent (you can read the full review here), but what makes it so good? There are a huge number of things that make it well worth playing but we would be here for hours if I were to go through them all so I'm narrowing it down to just a handful of things that really set the Skywalker Saga apart.
The space travel:
Granted, flying from planet to planet isn't quite as seamless as in No Man's Sky but it's a massive step in the direction of what fans have wanted in a Star Wars game for so long. The ability to fly from Hoth, to Bespin, to Crait is something that I never would have expected from a Lego Star Wars but in the Skywalker Saga you can do just that, yes you have to spend a couple seconds each time in hyperspace but taking off from Hoth and actually flying to and landing on Bespin is something that will never get old. I said in my review that this game is the best way to experience the huge Star Wars galaxy and this plays a massive part in that, flying from Geonosis to Tatooine in the Razorcrest or Millenium Falcon is something every Star Wars fan would want to do and in this game you can do just that. The best part is that space isn't just an empty area either, you can run into and take a mission from Nien Nunb or throw yourself into a war between the Empire and Rebels if that's what you want to do, there's always stuff to do in space.
The combat:
The totally revamped combat in the Skywalker Saga is better than the combat we've recieved in pretty much any Star Wars game up to this point, with the exception of Jedi Fallen Order. The over the shoulder third person camera makes gunplay infinitely better than in previous Lego entries in the sense that it actually feels like a big budget game now (which for some reason people seem to forget that these games are). But the best bit by a million miles is the Lightsaber duelling. The lightsaber duels are so much better than I expected, it feels more in line with what you would expect rather than the glowing baseball bat fest we often see in games like Battlefront. When you begin a duel such as Luke vs Vader on Cloud City the camera zooms in close, blocking switches to manual, dodging has a dedicated button and the gameplay slows down from the usual high pace to create the best possible cinematic style fight possible and it never gets old.
The amount of content:
Sometimes there are too many side missions and collectibles in games, yes I'm looking at you and your riddler trophies Rocksteady. Somehow it never feels like there are too many characters or kyber bricks to collect in the Skywalker Saga, but there are literally thousands of collectibles dotted around the galaxy and all of them are a joy to hunt down. Once you set your mind to obtaining a character (aside from story unlockables) it really never takes more than about five to ten minutes to find them and do the mission required, I decided I wanted Nien Nunb earlier and within five minutes I was tearing through space on my way to Naboo as the fan favourite Sullustan. It might sound like you'll be finished with it all too quickly but there's enough to keep you playing for hours and hours without ever having to touch the story (once you unlock freeplay that is) and that's where some of the best gameplay lies too, there's nothing better than teaming up as Kit Fisto and Kuiil to hunt down those Kyber bricks on Tatooine.
The pure nostalgia:
Lego Star Wars perfectly capitalizes on two things, Lego nostalgia and Star Wars nostalgia. I can almost guarantee you that by the time you're done with the Phantom Menace you'll want to break out the Star Wars boxset and Lego AT-ST (yes I know it's the AT-RT in the prequels but the AT-ST is much cooler). The condensed nature of the saga means that only the best bits make it in and you'll immediately forget all of the flaws of the nine films as you play through them and you'll be left wanting to watch them start to finish. No Star Wars game has ever evoked quite the same nostalgic feeling that the Skywalker Saga does and it's very possible that no game ever will, there's just something about the way that Traveller's Tales present these games that does it so perfectly.
The light-hearted approach:
At heart Star Wars is a movie for kids and so there's no reason for it to take itself overly seriously and its fans shouldn't either. Lego Star Wars forces (pun not intended) you to just enjoy it for what it is, a bit of intergalactic fun, and for that it deserves praise. Star Wars should be fun and if nothing else, the Lego Skywalker Saga is extremely fun. That's really all I have to say about that. Stop taking Star Wars too seriously.
As you can tell, I'm a huge fan of the new Lego Star Wars game. If you haven't read it yet now's a great time to read the full review and if you like what you see you can buy it from Amazon using the link below, we get a little monetary kickback from it at no extra cost to you and it helps us out a tonne.
And if you liked this article why not download the first episode of the Cloven Hoof podcast, with the second episode coming this Friday now is the perfect time to check it out!