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Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga

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Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga

While Star Wars fans cross theirs fingers hoping that JJ Abrams doesn't balls up the franchise in a swirl of arch winks and lens flare, here's a little reminder of how it's done.

Across two games in the mid-noughties, Traveller's Tales managed to summarise the six Star Wars films in all their unevenly epic glory and transform them into witty, rewarding, and universally playable adventure games.

Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga sees those two games brought together in their entirety on iOS. We'd say it's Christmas come early, but this late in December we'll just say that it's a really good thing to have on the App Store.

Solid foundations

You may well have played one of the other Lego game conversions on iOS, whether that's Lego Batman, Lego Lord of the Rings, or Lego Harry Potter. This is where the whole template was established, though.

The concepts of running around relatively confined levels as crude Lego caricatures of famous movie characters, collecting studs, smashing up enemies, 'building' Lego constructs, and watching light-hearted reenactments of key scenes, had its birth in Lego Star Wars: The Video Game.

There's nothing particularly deep about any of these games, with a basic movement system and simple attacks easy enough to pull off. But the joy, as ever, is in the worlds themselves, each bursting with recognisable details and amusing diversions.

It probably goes without saying, but we'd give the original trilogy the nod over the prequels. Besides the obvious story and character superiority, they're simply newer and more confidently executed games. But each game has its highlights, and there isn't a duff one among them.

Force feedback

Like previous conversions in the Lego series, the translation to iOS has come at the expense of one main thing - control clarity.

You have the option of dragging your characters around the screen or utilising a virtual joypad. The latter is preferable, but still far from perfect, and you'll find yourself snagging on scenery and falling to your death often.

Of course, the fact that you'll re-appear precisely where you fell with no penalty mitigates most of the annoyance involved. But not all.

The controls also come unstuck during some of the vehicular sections, such as the introductory space battle in Episode III.

There is good in it

But complaining too much seems churlish (though while we're at it, where's the multiplayer?). Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga features in-app purchases, but it's not one of those games that fleeces you repeatedly.

Pay £6.99 and you'll have all of the episodes unlocked for you, which is genuinely excellent value given the sheer amount of gameplay on offer across the two games.

The option to skip the episodes you don't like, paying for just one trilogy (perfect for all you prequel deniers) or even individual episodes (you can pretend The Phantom Menace never happened!) actually makes perfect sense in this context.

Any way you cut it, you'll be paying for a prime slice of light-hearted family entertainment. Whether you're a kid or a big kid, looking to gorge on Star Wars lore or have a quick palate cleanser in between meatier fare, this is the compendium you're looking for.

Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga

Some of the best family-friendly gaming seen in the past decade, all gathered together in one affordable iOS package. Controls aside, there is no conflict
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Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.