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»Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
"Hey, mediocre licensed GBA game."
Silly me to hope that a licensed game at the end of the Game Boy
Advance's lifespan would even begin to compare to its 3D brethren.
Thankfully, I was able to borrow the copy from my friend, a foolish
Game Boy Advance fanboy instead of having to purchase it myself. Unlike
the rest of the versions of Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
(with the exception of the DS version), this game features original
levels (although similar themes). Unlike the rest of the versions of
this otherwise good game, this is a fine example of your typical
mediocre licensed Game Boy Advance game.
Lego Star Wars II, along with its prequel Lego Star Wars, is as far
from serious as any Star Wars game has been. It is more or less a
satire of the original Star Wars trilogy, like the first Lego Star Wars
was a satire of the prequel trilogy. In the 3D versions, speech is done
through mumbling and noises. The Game Boy Advance couldn't handle even
these voices, so LucasArts opted to have characters communicate through
speech boxes, similar to the ones in the Golden Sun series or The Sims
series. However, this is not nearly as humorous as the mumbling found
in the 3D versions, because not only is less expressed this way, but
the game's limited visuals prevent much of the visual humor. Of course,
the game isn't entirely at fault; the console it was on prevented it
from being an accurate handheld adaptation. Unfortunately, this was not
the worst part of the game. Not even close.
This game is obviously not capable of 3D like the other iterations of
the game, so LucasArts did the next "best" thing - an isometric two
dimensional style. It plays similarly enough, although it has
noticeable tweaks to gameplay performance. For instance, blaster
characters no longer have a diving jump assigned to their double jump,
and Jedi characters have one high jump instead of the double jump they
had in the 3D iterations. Since it is in a quasi-3D perspective,
there's some problems with movement. The d-pad isn't as precise as the
analog stick or analog nub is (even the DS's D-Pad works better with
its game). There are two styles of play - ground levels and vehicle
levels. Most of the levels in the three episodes are ground levels,
where you shoot/saber/et al. enemies and complete puzzles by building
Lego structures, swapping between available characters and using the
force to manipulate objects. There are a large variety of character
types, including blaster, Jedi, droid, bounty hunter, Jawas and more.
Each one has their own unique skill that can be put to use in order to
clear the level, either in Story mode where the particular character is
one of your only options or in Free Play (the mode unlocked when its
level is beaten in Story mode), where you can play as any available
character. For instance, blaster characters can build objects with
Legos, Jedis can use the force on enemies and objects, bounty hunters
can plant bombs and droids can activate devices and open doors. The
vehicle levels involve you flying in a wide variety of space ships with
an isometric viewpoint, where you can use any ship available to you in
Free Play. There are many levels that require you to fly in vehicles,
such as speeder bikes in Endor, snowspeeders at Hoth and X-Wings at the
Death Star.
While the concept works fine on the other consoles, the game is pretty
broken on the GBA. Aiming is difficult, thanks to the d-pad controls
and isometric viewpoint. When you actually succeed in firing in the
direction of an enemy, for the most part, you will either hit or miss
anyway, thanks to poor collision detection, or you will hit and yet be
hit before you can even react to them. Basically, it's both difficult
to hit the enemy and difficult to not be hit by the enemy - unless you
flat-out avoid them. This is not the only problem with battling;
another major problem is the enemy and ally Artificial intelligence (AI
for short). They are idiots, to put it bluntly. I would be standing
around doing nothing, along with my ally Chewie, and there will be two
Storm Troopers just standing around with their thumb up their asses (as
is Chewie). Hell, I even shot at them and they stood around as I killed
them off. I could run circles around them sometimes and they wouldn't
do crap to me. I've also found myself and Lego studs just flying up
cliffs for no explainable reason, but not being able to access the area
up there once I am up there.
It's also difficult sometimes to manipulate objects with the force or
build Lego objects. I remember fighting Boba Fett on Jabba's barge as
Luke; I had to use the force to power down Boba's jet pack.
Unfortunately, it was an exercise in futility. I had to jump back and
forth between two platforms following him and attempting not to die,
while I tried to use the force against him. Because of the game's
design, however, you have to be at a certain angle and location in
order to even be able to use the force! With the Lego building, I had
to wander around a Lego object to find the exact point where I could
build it, unlike the other versions, where you could start building by
merely being near it.
The visuals... are alright, I guess. They are nothing really special or
impressive for a Game Boy Advance game, because it tries too hard to
feel as close as possible to the 3D games instead of working with what
the GBA is capable of. There are really no noticeable visual glitches
however to accompany the numerous gameplay glitches, so it landed on
its feet with that. The audio is equally as impressive (regardless of
how impressive the visuals were in the first place), but that doesn't
necessarily make it that good. It uses the quality soundtrack found in
the three movies from the original Star Wars trilogy, and it sounds
good despite the GBA's poor audio quality.
Like the other iterations of Lego Star Wars II, this one has tons of
unlockables. Not only can you unlock characters and vehicles, but you
can unlock cheats as well, including Invincibility, Lightsaber
modifications and Cantina music. In order to get these things, you must
first accomplish a certain task, such as completing a particular level
in the game or by collecting a certain amount of Lego studs in a
particular level. Afterwards, you can spend these Lego studs on
characters, vehicles and cheats. There are about 50 vehicles and
characters available to unlock, and while I am one who enjoys unlocking
everything there is to unlock in a game, I just couldn't dredge through
Free Play to get all of the available unlockables. I'd rather spend my
time on the real Lego Star Wars II.
Overall, Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy is a typical GBA
version of an otherwise good game. Like many developers, LucasArts
realized that Game Boy Advance gamers don't really care much about how
good their licensed crap is, so they don't bother to assign a quality
team to these games. The problem with Game Boy Advance licensed crap is
that they try too hard to make it the "best looking and performing game
on the GBA" by trying this isometric crap. It looked terrible with
Super Mario RPG and it looks terrible with Lego Star Wars II - not all
games were meant to look like that! If you want to experience the real
Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, I suggest checking out the PC,
PlayStation 2, GameCube or Xbox versions. The Xbox 360 version is too
pricey for the little content and visual improvements added from the
older-gen versions, the PlayStation Portable version, while good, just
isn't quite as good, the DS version has a lot of bugs and isn't nearly
quite as good as the PSP version and, well, the GBA version just plain
sucks. But to sum it up: Xbox if you want it on consoles, PSP if you
want it on handhelds and PC if you want the best period.
Article by: Alttp
Posted on: Sep. 21st, 2006 |
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Review Recap |
| Gameplay |
| It's a seven until you run into the glitches, collision detection and bad AI. |
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Graphics |
| They're not terrible, just generic crap. When will developers learn that this doesn't look good on the GBA? |
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Sound |
| Good soundtrack on bad GBA audio. |
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Replay Value |
| Lots of stuff to unlock, but it requires you to play the game. No deal. |
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Comments |
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October 3, 2006 |
Concerned Reader |
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Why the hell are you reviewing GBA games, if you're going to call people who enjoy GBA games "foolish Game Boy Advance fans"? If you don't like the platform, then don't review games on that platform.
Seriously. This is one of the most negatively biased reviews I've read. A reviewer should be able to look at something without pre-judging...which you clearly can not.
And then you go on to slam the game for being unable to compare to 3D CONSOLES? You REALISE the GBA platform CAN'T DO 3D GAMES, right? Only an idiot would compare a GBA game to a game on some other platform (capable of bigger better things). If you want to compare games, compare them to other GBA games...or at least to other games on similiar hardware.
This is a terrible review. It reads like it was written by someone who hates GBA games, was given an assignment to review a GBA game, and is generally pissed off at having to give up their valuable WOW time to review a "lowly handheld game".
Try developing some journalistic integrity the next time you go to review a hand held game.
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October 7, 2006 |
ALttP |
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I was referring to those who would buy this game.
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October 7, 2006 |
ALttP |
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And, think before you make flames. I bashed a bad, licensed games on the GBA on the basis that it'll sell well, like many other GBA games. I have two GBA games in my top ten, one DS game in my top ten, all of which aren't ports. In the top 50, a great deal of my games are handhelds. Hell, look at you - I referred to one person as a foolish Game Boy Advance fan, and for the reason that they bought this game. I won't bash you as a foolish GBA fan because I have no way to know if you are or not. However, I can guarantee that you are a fool beyond all fools, and I should ask you to learn to read.
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October 8, 2006 |
zaDOG |
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what do you mean!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111
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October 11, 2006 |
ALttP |
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How do I shot those who do not read
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December 17, 2006 |
Oscar Wong |
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HOW THE HELL DO I PASS THE SECOND LEVEL OF EPISODE SIX
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January 8, 2007 |
purple |
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how do i get all the mini-kits on emperer fight
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August 4, 2007 |
Coopdoo95 |
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How do I get All mini canisters on level 4 in episode 6? TELL ME !!!!!!:P
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