Why Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is nine episodes done right
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (2022)
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (2022)
Perhaps I was just seeing things, but when looking through my game collection the other day, I could have sworn I saw a PS3 game on my shelf called Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga.
In fact, I even wrote about it already, essentially calling it a Lego game from the same basic cookie cutter as the Lego Batman, Lego Indiana Jones or Lego Harry Potter games that you may have played before. Although, because Star Wars is arguably the best of those IPs, so Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga takes the crown as the best of those Lego games.
But, oh pish posh, that game is out of date now, isn’t it? The Complete Saga contains only a measly 6 Star Wars films, crossbred with the world of Lego. It does not include the Sequel Trilogy, that show of financial muscle from Disney that got all of us re-invested in Star Wars from 2015-2019, before just as quickly disappearing from the cultural consciousness.
These days, of course, things are following a depressingly predictable pattern: mega company buys intellectual property, before churning out unwanted spin-off after unwanted spin-off, and when the movies get critically panned, they try TV shows instead. Those spin-offs are fine, sure, but they're only just that - fine, and no more.
Star Wars was hallowed and beautiful when it was just a trilogy of three tightly connected films. The more slop that gets barfed onto the top of it, the more enticing even The Phantom Menace appears. Frankly, when it comes to creative control, I think the dictatorial approach works; in so saying, Star Wars without George Lucas is simply not Star Wars. It is a pale imitation.
But we'll get onto pale imitations later, because there’s been a new development in the world of Lego Star Wars. This game is The Skywalker Saga. In essence, all nine mainline Star Wars films have been given a dedicated, from-the-ground-up Lego rendition. Even now I hesitate to write “all nine mainline” movies because you can bet it'll soon be 12, then 15 and then 18 films.
Oh well, what of it? Can't say I blame old Georgey boy for cashing in. Yes, it's like selling your highly talented, creative baby to a rich and soulless benefactor. But the Star Wars story had already been told, in its entirety. The proper stuff that is, not the nine million books and comics that comprised the head-melting “expanded universe”.
Imagine Disney came up to you, and offered you over 4 billion dollars to sell them your already concluded story. Actually, two already concluded stories - Indiana Jones was included in the deal to acquire LucasFilm as well. You'd be hard-pressed to say no to a deal like that, wouldn't you?
And what was the Skywalker Saga of movies, in essence? What were they all about? Like the weather, Star Wars is something we all have opinions on, so we might as well run through the nine movies together now and I'll give you my appraisal of them, if it's worth anything.
Going chronologically we start with the original Star Wars, later titled Episode IV: A New Hope. You can easily see why it became a smash-hit blockbuster and a cultural phenomenon, and it's still my favourite movie of the entire saga.
A New Hope introduces nearly all of the iconic characters. The intro, setup and music of the whole picture was fantastic, and it's just got that wonderful 70s campy vibe, yet it never descends too far into silliness. It's a movie to be taken seriously, and I could rewatch this one any day of the week.
Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, meanwhile, is probably objectively the best Star Wars film overall. You've got Han Solo at his best, with even better music including the first time we heard the Imperial March. Then there’s unforgettable scenes like Luke fighting Darth Vader, and Yoda teaching Luke in the ways of the force.
Episode VI: Return of the Jedi seems to be universally considered a slight step-down in quality. That's probably true, but it wrapped up the trilogy beautifully, it had its own range of iconic scenes, and the Ewoks weren't so bad really. Male viewers will automatically add a few points to the film's score for Carrie Fisher in a metal bikini as well.
Then we move onto the Prequel Trilogy, with Episode I: The Phantom Menace coming out in 1999. This should have been the Star Wars trilogy for my generation, given that I was a young lad when these films were released. In practice though, we much preferred the original trilogy over these CGI-heavy, messy prequel movies.
In Episode I's case, it's not even necessary to watch any of it. Just know that Anakin Skywalker was a young boy taken in by two older Jedi, one of them being Obi-Wan Kenobi. Then watch the pod racing scene and the Darth Maul fight, and skip the rest. It's not necessarily bad, it's just very boring.
Actually, boring might be worse than bad. But if you want a bad movie, move onto Episode II: Attack of the Clones. It's more about Anakin falling in love with Padme, while falling out of love with sand. There's a decent battle at the end, and Christopher Lee tries his best to save it all.
Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is actually quite competent. Still far too much CGI and very heavy on the green-screen, but at the same time very watchable, and finally we see some relevant plot, ending with Anakin's downfall and becoming Darth Vader (little spoiler for you there).
But then it's the Sequel Trilogy, starting in 2015 and good God did we get hoodwinked. I saw all of these in the cinema, landmark cultural moments I don't think, though Episode VII: The Force Awakens was actually decent. Some good tension and intensity, it set things up well for the next two movies, though it certainly was a complete rehash of A New Hope.
But then it was Episode VIII: The Last Jedi and you knew it was over. Marvel-level humour, cheap attempts at tension, more character plot-points and side-plots that never get resolved, and possibly the worst scene of the entire saga - General Leia getting blown into space, before suddenly using the Force or something to pull herself back onto the spaceship. Just when you thought the movie was going to be a bit dignified, that it might give the recently deceased Carrie Fisher a nice send-off, it goes and jumps the Wamprat in spectacular fashion.
By Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, all hope was already lost that things would get better, though I have to give due props to one of the worst lines in screenwriting history: "somehow Palpatine returned". By that stage, it was clear that they weren't even trying, they knew that the box-office numbers would be good and that the turbo-dweebs would lap up anything. We had all firmly shut our brains off by this point.
It's a shame, because new Star Wars films means new planets, new settings and new characters. And this is what makes Lego Star Wars: Skywalker Saga so great, if we can get back to video games for just a moment. With nearly 1,200 hidden Lego Bricks to find, 120 ships to unlock and almost 400 characters to find, many of them voiced with decent impressions of the movie characters, there is an awful lot in this game to sink your teeth into.
You can play through a Lego-ified version of each of the saga's nine movies, but the best part is that, after you've beaten some levels, you can access the Galaxy Free-Play open-world mode and freely traipse around the planets, as well as the space surrounding these planets, and interact with dozens of characters and puzzles to chase unlockables.
The genre may not be as popular anymore, but every so often a great 3D collectathon comes around, and The Skywalker Saga is one of those. It's wonderful fun just doing all the little puzzles and quests and ticking them all off your list, and even better if you have someone to do this with co-operatively. The game’s humour is great fun as well.
I can't pretend the game's performance is magnificent when you play it split-screen gaming, especially on the Nintendo Switch version. You might also have some minor gripes with other things, like the characters being fully voiced, though you can switch on Mumble Mode for some classic Lego gaming. It can be a bit glitchy too, with some occasional crashes. But make no mistake, this game was made with lots of love, clearly by people who nerd out over Star Wars, and for my money this is the best Lego game out there.
What about the best Star Wars game? Well, there’s hundreds of those so I’ve lost track, but let’s put it this way: there's an awful lot of Star Wars Lego sets out there, and it ain't cheap collecting them. Stick with the video game, play it with a friend, and you'll get dozens of hours more enjoyment. It beats watching the Star Wars sequel trilogy and the countless spin-offs, trust me.
27 June 2025