Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga combines Lego Star Wars and Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy into one game, covering Episodes I-VI in typical Lego game fare. Lego Star Wars I and II were the original Lego games of this style, and despite some annoyances, this combined package makes for a rather solid experience despite being just the start of a long-running series. Unlike some game collections which let players tackle each game separately, this mashes both games together and includes additional bonus content, meaning that the game has a surprising amount of depth. Some of this new content feels more like padding, but overall, I had a lot of fun revisiting one of my old childhood favorites.

As stated before, The Complete Saga covers both the original and prequel trilogies of Star Wars. Each Episode has six chapters that recreate iconic scenes from each movie; they all also have a few bonus missions, but I’ll get to those later. There’s also a room that contains six bonus levels with a variety of focuses. There are a few different types of levels: standard levels focus on your group of characters going through a larger area such as Naboo or Hoth, solving puzzles to progress to the end of the stage; ship levels put you in control of a vehicle as you push your way through a slightly more open space and bring down barriers to reach the end; and boss stages are shorter bouts focused primarily on defeating a single enemy. It’s worth noting that two ship levels from the original game (Mos Espa Pod Race and Gunship Cavalry) have been reworked to fit more in line with the sequel’s ship level design, though you can unlock the original versions in the bonus level room. Each level is filled with all sorts of collectibles, and after playing through for the story, you can tackle the level in free play with any character you’ve unlocked and bought through the cantina store. The game definitely encourages playing through each level multiple times, and while this is fine for the most part, this is where my biggest complaint came in.

Entering each level’s door gives you three different ways to play the stage: Story, Free Play, and Challenge (essentially a speedrun where you’re tasked with finding ten collectibles hidden through the level). However, each episode also has a bonus door that contains the Superstory option. This puts players through every chapter in a row without a break, and to win, you either need to collect 100,000 studs (in-game currency) or pass the challenge in less than an hour. Even excluding this, you already have to play through each level a minimum of three times. While these three times still felt varied and fun, the fourth time felt like a bit of a chore and I found myself just racing through to get it over with. The game also does not tell you that you only need to do one of the aforementioned tasks to pass; up until the very last Superstory, I thought I needed to hit both the stud and time requirements. You also have to sit through every cutscene all over again without an option to skip, which breaks the pace and gets very repetitive. These bonus doors also include character and minikit bonuses; these are a race between player 1 and 2 to get 1 million studs, though it can also be played in single player. These bonus levels felt like a side multiplayer mode thrown into 100% for extra padding and they weren’t very engaging. Overall, I found myself disappointed by the bonus stages and I only did them so I could get 100% completion, not because I particularly enjoyed them.

However, the other playthroughs of each level are a lot of fun. Each playthrough requires a different mindset and holds a different goal, and as such, I had to tackle the same level multiple ways if I wanted to complete the game. Each character falls into some sort of group (Jedi, Sith, Blaster, Astromech, etc.), and each group has its own use somewhere. You have to thoroughly explore each level from top to bottom if you want every collectible, and while this takes a lot of time, I found it a lot of fun. The game also has items called red bricks that serve as cheats; after you find them, you can buy an extra that either powers up your characters, helps you track collectibles, provides extra money, or just includes a little visual/auditory gag. The game provides a ton of ways to play through it, and this experimentation and exploration is the main draw. Some of the bonus levels in the extra room were fun as well.

Despite all the fun, varied gameplay, Superstory isn’t my only problem with the game. One of my biggest problems is the really simple combat. Particularly in boss fights, battles come down to just spamming your jump attacks because you’ll get stuck in an endless blade clash if you try your ground move. It gets a little boring doing the same thing for each boss fight. There are also a few stages that have infinite enemy reinforcements, making it annoying to slow down and really explore when you’re constantly getting interrupted. In addition, the reward for 100% is a bit underwhelming; I won’t spoil it all, but I think that it would have been cool if you unlocked a teaser stage for Lego Indiana Jones (the next Lego game to come after this, Dr. Jones himself is available as an Easter Egg for watching the game trailer) similarly to how Lego Star Wars I gave a teaser stage for Lego Star Wars II. The game also has some technical issues: particularly towards the end of my playthrough, I had a few cases of frame drops. However, these are all fairly minor problems and they didn’t do much to hamper my enjoyment of the game as a whole.

As for presentation, the game looks fantastic for one of its time. The characters are expressive and the animations are all pretty fluid. The Lego aesthetic does an excellent job of capturing the tone and settings of the films as well. The sounds and music are, for the most part, pulled right out of the movies, adding to the sense of authenticity. Despite the repetitive nature of each Episode’s bonus challenges and a few other minor quibbles, I found Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga to be a fun classic that was just as fun as I remembered it being when I was a kid. I played the original two games a lot on the PS2, and this collection faithfully captures each game while improving on the overall experience. I give Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga an 8/10.