Looking Back At LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game – Over Six Million Sold!

For the last 15 years, LEGO fans and video gamers have been able to control their favorite LEGO Star Wars minifigures with their thumbs, and living alongside pixellated minifigures has become taken for granted because, nowadays, we can play one of the many LEGO Star Wars games by turning on a computer, console, phone, handheld or tablet.

But there was a time when this wasn’t possible.

The thought of playing a video game as a LEGO minifigure in a brick-built world seemed very bizarre when the concept was first pitched to LEGO, and the construction toy company – who had just divested itself of its video game department in an effort to get their profits back in the black – was hesitant. Encouraged by Lucasfilm and the enthusiasm of Giant Interactive Entertainment (the private company that rose out of the ashes of LEGO Interactive when it was closed in 2004), LEGO forged ahead with LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game.

Developed by Traveller’s Tales and published by Eidos Interactive, the initial versions – which reached video game store shelves on March 29th (exactly three weeks ahead of the theatrical release of Revenge of the Sith) – was for Windows, Microsoft Xbox, Playstation 2 and GameBoy Advance followed by the Macintosh version in August 2005, the Nintendo Gamecube version in October 2005 and a Java-based cell phone version in March 2007.

Each of the levels, which were rendered in the highest spec 3D graphics of the day, held numerous brick-built features that served as puzzles that opened up new areas of the map, provided power-ups and new characters – all the while preventing the gameplay from becoming linear.

The primary version, which incorporated The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and the upcoming Revenge of the Sith, came with 18 levels; six for each of the three prequel trilogy movies, with gameplay beginning with the opening scene from The Phantom Menace, before following the action and locations of the movie. Completing the first episode unlocked Attack of the Clones, which – in turn – opened up the Revenge of the Sith levels.

In addition to collecting studs (the in-game currency) and finding new playable characters (who had special skills that increased the player’s chance of completing the game), rewards were hidden throughout the game. These allowed the collection of minikits – virtual mini-scale versions of vehicles found in the current level. Dedicated players could achieve the status of True Jedi by completing the level to its full extent, as well as collecting special canisters to reveal minikits at the end of each level, as well as unlock the final superkit.

The game introduced a hub, a novel feature that soon became commonplace in video games. The central location, which was depicted as Dexter’s Diner, allowed the player to access all of three sections of the game in order to replay levels, rather than work through each of them in turn to achieve a higher score or unlock features, characters and skills. Dexter’s Diner also allowed the player to spend collected studs to unlock new playable characters as well as check on their minikit progress by visiting the diner’s landing pad.

As with many game releases, versions for handheld systems were also catered for and LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game was no exception with the computer/console game and handheld adaptations being released.

The GameBoy Advance’s iteration (developed by the now-dissolved Griptonite Games) included 15 playable characters and had 14 levels split across The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. The game was a multi-player game (though only one could play at time) portrayed from an isometric perspective. Following the storyline of each movie, defeating enemies and collecting studs were still part of the game, however rather than collecting minikit canisters, bonus points were awarded for picking up Death Star plans.

The Java version of the game, which preceded the arrival of the smartphone by a number of months, is the third adaptation of LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game. Taking place at the start of Revenge of the Sith and player takes on the role of Anakin Skywalker, who is on board Invisible Hand, and had to advance through 21 rooms of General Grievous’s flagship -defeating droids or Force moving blocks to solve puzzles with the occasional unlocking of doors – in order to rescue Supreme Chancellor Palpatine.

Though it was aimed at younger gamers, it proved popular with adults too and took top slots in sales charts in North America and Europe during April and May (only to be knocked off the number one spot by the official Revenge of the Sith video game).

If you’re a parent, LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game should be at the top of your child’s birthday list. It has everything a family-oriented title needs: it has personality, puzzles, cooperative modes, replay value, low violence, a lack of frustrating difficulty, and most importantly, it has Darth Vader. And that’s what makes it enjoyable for adults too, because let’s face it; Darth Vader makes everything better — it’s a fact.

Source: IGN

Despite a game concept considered bizarre at the time, the critics who derided the game had to eat their words once the sales figures came in. To date, LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game has sold over 6 million copies worldwide and is still one of the highest-rated Playstation 2 games of all time.

Nostalgia aside, the question of whether the game holds up today is worth considering. Certainly, the easiest way to play LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game would be to dig out an old gaming console, plug it into a period CRT television, dust off an original copy of the game, sit back and enjoy.

Getting the game to load these days is not as straightforward as you’d expect. A few hoops need to be jumped through to play the Windows version on a modern PC, and to get it to play on a modern macOS-enabled computer is impossible. While the original Playstation 2 and original Xbox games will work on many modern flat-screen (with some investment in cable adapters to get the correct input), the graphics are a let-down and those gamers used to Playstation 5 or Xbox Series X quality gaming will be disappointed. While the gameplay still holds up, LEGO Star Wars isn’t best suited to a high-def TV.

For those not lucky enough to have a retro gaming center, the easiest route to LEGO Star Wars minifigure mayhem is using built-in backward compatibility; the Xbox version also plays on the Xbox 360, the Playstation 2 version plays on the early Playstation 3 models and the Nintendo Gamecube version plays on the Nintendo Wii.

An alternate way is to use load the original game discs (or even ROMs if you can find them) on an emulator. As well as simply playing the games, many emulators will have improved functionality over the hardware, improved display resolutions via upscaling, improved widescreen functionality and improved framerates so the display could be better than it ever was via the original hardware.

Whilst the game’s medium means that is it blocky by nature, the graphics don’t stand up to the test of time and though the screen image is understandably low resolution and grainy it lacks any retro appeal. Benchmarking the game against another home entertainment format, it is VHS quality compared to today’s 4K releases.

The great thing about LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game is that it nailed the storyline/gameplay/puzzle-solving/combat action formula while keeping true to both the LEGO aesthetic and the Star Wars (largely) canon intact. Such was the game’s success that Traveller’s Tales used it as the template for all their follow-up LEGO Star Wars video games – as well as their LEGO Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter, Marvel Super Heroes, DC Super Villains, Ninjago, LEGO Batman, Lord of the Rings and both LEGO Movie tie-ins.

Despite, however, founding such an amazing dynasty LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game was superseded four years later by the LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga which recompiled the three prequel movie levels and tacked on on the original trilogy. As it stands, this is still the go-to LEGO Star Wars video game for non-sequel trilogy gamers, and consequently, LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game met its end at the hands of its apprentice.

Long since out of production, second-hand copies of the game that started it off can be purchased on eBay.com or at pre-loved electronica/vintage tech stores between $5 and $10.