Our thoughts on the latest 'Lego Star Wars' video game.
Update (04/06/2022): SuperParent had the chance to test the Switch version of the game after this review was originally published. We’ve updated our review with information about this version of the game.
Original Story:
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga will be released on consoles and PC on April 5, 2022. We had the chance to try the Xbox and Switch versions of the game (we played the game on an Xbox Series X).
Please note this review contains some light story spoilers for the Star Wars films.
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is the latest Lego Star Wars video game from TT Games. The game allows players to play through all nine films (Episodes) in the three Star Wars trilogies, with the in-game world featuring characters, objects, and more that are made out of Lego bricks. As players make their way through the films, they’ll be able to experience a simplified version of each story that’s told through a combination of realism (that is, content directly inspired by the films) and Lego-themed humor.
When players first begin Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, they can choose to start playing Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Episode IV – A New Hope, or Episode VII – The Force Awakens. Once players finish one film, they’ll unlock the next film in the series until they’ve eventually unlocked all nine.
Outside of this unlock restriction, players can complete the nine Episodes in any order they’d like. Plus, once players begin an Episode, they can jump into another Episode that they’ve unlocked at any time without losing progress in their previous story.
As players make their way through each Episode, they’ll be able to explore a series of “open-world” areas, as well as complete structured levels that have set beginning and end points. Levels tend to focus on “action-heavy” portions of films, like combat encounters and outer space battles.
Generally speaking, the rest of each Episode will ask players to make their way through the open-world areas in order to reach a particular character or location to push the story forward. While the game’s Episodes touch on the major plot points in each film, some creative liberty has been taken here, which results in some film segments becoming much longer or shorter, depending on how much “gameplay” has been created for those segments (for instance, players will need to complete a few tasks before the Millenium Falcon can leave Mos Eisley in Episode IV – A New Hope).
As players make their way through each Episode, they’ll be able to build and/or destroy tons of Lego structures, defeat Lego minifigure enemies in combat, solve some simple puzzles, collect thousands of studs (the game’s currency), and more. Once players complete a level for the first time, they’ll unlock the “Free Play” version of that level. Plus, as players complete Episodes, they’ll unlock the locations featured in each Episode in the game’s “Galaxy Free Play” mode. These “Free Play” modes give players unlimited access to all of the locations and content they’ve unlocked, without any story-based restrictions.
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga features more than 300 playable characters that can be unlocked over time. Each character has a “class” or “type,” such as “Jedi,” “Hero,” “Scavenger,” and “Protocol Droid” (among others), with different classes having different specialities and access to different skills (and sometimes weapons). The game also allows players to unlock a wide variety of flyable spaceships.
In addition to collecting characters and spaceships, players can collect over 1,000 hidden collectibles that have been scattered throughout the in-game universe. Many of these collectibles are “Kyber bricks,” which are a kind of currency that can be spent on upgrades for the game’s different character classes, as well as upgrades that apply to every character (like a maximum health upgrade).
While players can make their way through the entire game on their own, Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga also supports cooperative multiplayer for two people in the same room.
For the most part, yes, Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is a fun experience and we’ve enjoyed our time with the game. However, we do have a few complaints.
For one, the game’s menus are overly complicated and take time to get used to. We don’t want to get into too many technical details, but suffice it to say that some information that should be readily available is found many “layers” down in the game’s menus. Once you get used to the menus, this issue isn’t as noticeable, but there’s a definite learning curve here.
In addition, we’re torn about the game’s “Rumor” system. This system allows players to spend studs to receive clues related to completing optional challenges, finding collectibles, and more. While we appreciate that the clues exist in the first place, if you want to finish the game to a 100 percent completion rate, purchasing all of the clues will become very expensive very quickly.
Elsewhere, some of the game’s environments are incredibly dark, making them difficult to navigate. In our testing, we found this issue doesn’t apply to the Switch version of the game.
Finally, while the game features voice acting, many of the characters aren’t voiced by their original actors, and some of the differences in voices are quite jarring. These issues aren’t enough to ruin the experience, but we did find them bothersome.
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga features a number of options that allow players to customize the experience to suit their play style. This includes (but is not limited to) the ability to change the size of on-screen text, activate “fall recovery” (this stops players from falling into “hazardous areas”), and turn on (or off) aiming assist, which can help during combat.
In addition, while the Star Wars films have some mature scenes (like those that feature a character being killed), parents should know that these moments are typically presented in a comedic, rather than realistic, manner throughout the game, or are not shown on screen. There’s no blood or gore here.
Similarly, when players run out of health, they don’t really “die.” Instead, their minifigure will temporarily break into individual bricks and players will lose some of the studs they’ve collected. A moment later, their character will respawn so they can continue playing.
All told, this is a family-friendly experience that’s tamer than the films that inspired it.
Finally, parents should also know that the Switch version of the game has lower quality graphics than the Xbox version (we played on an Xbox Series X), but if you only play the game on Switch (and don’t compare it to another platform), it looks fine. We also experienced technical issues in one level in the Switch version of the game, where the game temporarily froze before we were allowed to continue playing.
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga has a few problems, but the overall experience is an enjoyable one. We also appreciate the large scale of the in-game universe, which gives players tons to do in addition to completing the nine Episodes. If your family enjoys Lego games and/or the Star Wars franchise, we recommend checking this one out.
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga will be released on April 5, 2022 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC. The regular version of the game will be priced at $59.99. The Deluxe Edition of the game, which includes access to seven downloadable content (DLC) packs of playable characters, will cost $69.99. Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is rated E10+ for Everyone 10+ by the ESRB.
Disclosure: SuperParent received the Xbox and Switch versions of Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga for coverage purposes.
Brandy Berthelson has been writing about video games and technology since 2006, with her work appearing on sites including AOL Games, Digital Spy, and Adweek. When she’s not gaming, Brandy enjoys crafting, baking, and traveling with her husband.
