It's been over a decade and a half since Tt Games released LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game, introducing us to modern LEGO game formula. What better place to issue a massive overhaul to that formula than with franchise that we started with?

Firstly, my biggest takeaway is that LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga strikes me primarily as a collectathon game more than any prior LEGO game. There are over 1500 collectibles, from characters to khyber bricks, spread across over 2 dozen large free roam environments. These can be just lying about for you to pick up, or require you to solve a puzzle of some sort; many even take you on fairly lengthy quest lines. If you enjoy games like Super Mario Odyssey, for example, this is more of the same.

The level structure of LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is very different from it's predecessors. A vast majority of the stories take place within the free roam environments, sending you to various locations to progress the story. Every now and again you'll be taken to a proper "level:" there are 5 per film, and these levels seem to be mostly reserved for scenes that majorly involve vehicles, space battles, and boss fights.

There are some remarks about what has all been represented in this video game. The battle over Coruscant from the start of Revenge of the Sith, for example, is almost completely skipped, with the game throwing you directly into the Invisible Hand to fight Count Dooku. The Death Star assault is an incredibly short skirmish, despite being the grand finale of A New Hope. Meanwhile, the submarine segment from The Phantom Menace has been drawn out into an easy but prolonged boss battle of sorts. There are also a lot of wishes for representation from other media, such as The Clone Wars; while I'm not expecting it, as it's not the focus of this game, I would certainly enjoy some fully fleshed story DLC for these instances, instead of just mere character packs (previous games have had level packs, so it's not entirely out of the question).

As for what it did right with the story, I think it did well. I was much more engaged in this than I was with the corny original story-line of, say, LEGO DC Super-villains. The voice acting is mostly excellent, as far as the main cast goes, featuring voices previously heard in Star Wars works such as The Clone Wars. The writing has also improved; it's not too serious, being filled with gags, but it's also not packed with tasteless jokes (LEGO Marvel Superheroes must've had at least 100 different "chicken vs egg" lines recorded). Although I still miss the time before voice acting was introduced to LEGO games (Mumble Mode can only go so far without any pantomiming), I was still very happy with what we got.

The rest of the gameplay overhauled in LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga has made major strides. With the new over-the-shoulder view, static camera angles have been completely eradicated. Shooting is made more entertaining with free aiming, a cover system, and enemies that react to where you shoot them. And melee combat is not slept on, either, as every character can mix up combos from 3 different attack buttons, as well as a dodge and counter. Enemies will even block attacks if you mash only a single button, encouraging you to mix things up. Overall, this is a significantly more interactive game than prior games.

At the end of the day, this is easily my favorite LEGO game to this date, and I'm excited to see where Tt Games goes next with its updated formula (I, for one, would be down for Harry Potter + Fantastical Beasts).

It's been over a decade and a half since Tt Games released [i]LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game,[/i] introducing us to modern LEGO game formula. What better place to issue a massive overhaul to that formula than with franchise that we started with? Firstly, my biggest takeaway is that [i]LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga[/i] strikes me primarily as a collectathon game more than any prior LEGO game. There are over 1500 collectibles, from characters to khyber bricks, spread across over 2 dozen large free roam environments. These can be just lying about for you to pick up, or require you to solve a puzzle of some sort; many even take you on fairly lengthy quest lines. If you enjoy games like [i]Super Mario Odyssey,[/i] for example, this is more of the same. The level structure of [i]LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga[/i] is very different from it's predecessors. A vast majority of the stories take place within the free roam environments, sending you to various locations to progress the story. Every now and again you'll be taken to a proper "level:" there are 5 per film, and these levels seem to be mostly reserved for scenes that majorly involve vehicles, space battles, and boss fights. There are some remarks about what has all been represented in this video game. The battle over Coruscant from the start of [i]Revenge of the Sith,[/i] for example, is almost completely skipped, with the game throwing you directly into the Invisible Hand to fight Count Dooku. The Death Star assault is an incredibly short skirmish, despite being the grand finale of [i]A New Hope.[/i] Meanwhile, the submarine segment from [i]The Phantom Menace[/i] has been drawn out into an easy but prolonged boss battle of sorts. There are also a lot of wishes for representation from other media, such as [i]The Clone Wars[/i]; while I'm not expecting it, as it's not the focus of this game, I would certainly enjoy some fully fleshed story DLC for these instances, instead of just mere character packs (previous games have had level packs, so it's not entirely out of the question). As for what it did right with the story, I think it did well. I was much more engaged in this than I was with the corny original story-line of, say, [i]LEGO DC Super-villains.[/i] The voice acting is mostly excellent, as far as the main cast goes, featuring voices previously heard in Star Wars works such as [i]The Clone Wars.[/i] The writing has also improved; it's not too serious, being filled with gags, but it's also not packed with tasteless jokes ([i]LEGO Marvel Superheroes[/i] must've had at least 100 different "chicken vs egg" lines recorded). Although I still miss the time before voice acting was introduced to LEGO games (Mumble Mode can only go so far without any pantomiming), I was still very happy with what we got. The rest of the gameplay overhauled in [i]LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga[/i] has made major strides. With the new over-the-shoulder view, static camera angles have been completely eradicated. Shooting is made more entertaining with free aiming, a cover system, and enemies that react to where you shoot them. And melee combat is not slept on, either, as every character can mix up combos from 3 different attack buttons, as well as a dodge and counter. Enemies will even block attacks if you mash only a single button, encouraging you to mix things up. Overall, this is a significantly more interactive game than prior games. At the end of the day, this is easily my favorite LEGO game to this date, and I'm excited to see where Tt Games goes next with its updated formula (I, for one, would be down for Harry Potter + Fantastical Beasts).