LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga will be the most innovative LEGO game to-date. It will not only bring huge change to all Traveller’s Tales LEGO games going forward, but it will also be the largest LEGO Star Wars game to hit shelves. The series has seen much change both graphically and mechanically throughout all six mainline titles, with Skywalker Saga being perhaps the largest leap forward.
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LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game
LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game launched in 2005 and served as the first video game in Traveller’s Tales LEGO franchise. It adapted all three films in the prequel trilogy and introduced many of the franchise’s staples. Players begin the game in Dexter’s Diner where they could roam around, check out their minikit collection, buy new characters, fight others, and choose a movie to play. Each movie was composed of six chapters, filled to the brim with studs and minkits to collect. Throughout each chapter players would unlock more characters to play as - 56 playable characters in total (or 59 if played on the Game Boy Advance). LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game set up what fans love about the LEGO series, and for that it is fondly remembered
LEGO Star Wars 2: The Original Trilogy
A year later, Traveller’s Tales released LEGO Star Wars 2: The Original Trilogy, which adapted the original Star Wars trilogy. Instead of perusing Dexter’s Diner, players got to hang out in the Mos Eisley Cantina. The game itself was pretty similar to LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game; three movies with six chapters each that players could play through.
It did expand upon vehicle levels and introduce a new collectable known as Gold Bricks, which unlocked rewards like a spigot that shot studs. It also increased the playable character count to 68 based on the original trilogy, and introduced a new mission type called Bounty Hunter missions which tasked players with capturing iconic Star Wars characters for Jabba the Hutt. Perhaps the biggest addition to the LEGO franchise was the introduction of custom characters. Players were able to construct two custom characters that they could play around with, and there were over a million possible combinations.
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
Only a year after LEGO Star Wars 2: The Original Trilogy hit store shelves, Traveller’s Tales returned with LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga. The Complete Saga combined the prequel and original trilogy games into one title; the first iteration of LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. The hub world was once again Mos Eisley Cantina and every movie’s chapters are virtually identical to the chapters in the original two titles.
Traveller’s Tales even included two scrapped levels from LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game. The character count was raised to 128 characters with many receiving reworks to modernize them, and even Indiana Jones made an appearance. LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga is the LEGO game that many remember most, and is often cited as one of the best in the series.
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LEGO Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars
Traveller’s Tales returned in 2011 for the third non-rehashed entry in its series, LEGO Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars. The game adapts the animated film and episodes from the first two seasons of Clone Wars, with the first level taking place during Attack of the Clones. The gameplay stayed relatively the same, but it did introduce two new features to the series. First, scene swap allowed players to switch between separate teams in different locations to complete multi-part puzzles and boss battles. Alongside that, a new form of level was added that had players fight battles with real-time strategy mechanics, building up bases and gathering troops to destroy the enemy.
The hub world for LEGO Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars was also a departure from previous LEGO Star Wars titles, swapping a diner or cantina for two warring cruisers that players could fly ships between. Each cruiser was fully explorable by all 115 unlockable characters, with the separatists attacking republic characters and vice versa. The game also introduced split screen gameplay to the LEGO Star Wars series, so players no longer had to constantly follow each other.
LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens
In 2016, the first episode in the sequel trilogy, The Force Awakens, had recently released. Traveller’s Tales capitalized on this by releasing its next LEGO Star Wars title, LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This was the first LEGO Star Wars title to only adapt one movie, though it also included a level set during Return of the Jedi. The game introduced a brand-new hub world that allowed players to freely explore Jakku, Takodana, D’Qar, and Starkiller Base; the first iteration of expansive hub worlds coming with LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. Gameplay was again similar to past LEGO games, but it did introduce cover-based blaster battles and large scale Multi-builds to the series. It also upped the playable character count to 200, including characters from The Force Awakens and other Star Wars movies.
LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens was also the first LEGO Star Wars title to include post-launch DLC. There were 12 packs in total, each one adding a set of characters from previous Star Wars movies and shows. Some packs also included levels that told different stories connected to The Force Awakens, like the story of C-3PO’s red arm or Poe’s escape from Jakku. While the game did not include the same amount of movies as previous titles, it did make many advancements to the gameplay that are being further examined for the next entry.
The LEGO Star Wars franchise has seen immense innovation and growth over its five titles. LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is shaping up to be the biggest change for the series yet, and for LEGO games in general. If successful, it could become the definitive version of LEGO Star Wars that fans have always wanted.
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