Now for twist three: the arcade adventure sections aren’t all the game has to offer. Just when things start to get repetitive, Lego Star Wars throws in pod-racing or space combat to add a touch of spice. Admittedly, these sections are amongst the weakest in the game, and the space combat in particular might prove a little frustrating for smaller kids, not to mention bigger kids (who are in greater danger of throwing a controller through the TV). All the same, you can’t ever say this game is running out of ideas.

At this point we come to our major complaint. Lego Star Wars is pitifully short, and – for the most part – stupidly easy. You could probably clock the game within six hours, and while there are spikes of difficulty, you have infinite lives to push past them. All you need is the patience to do so. Sorry, Lego Star Wars, your charms can’t save you this time.

What can save it, is twist four. The game is brilliantly replayable. Completing levels adds new characters to your roster, and you can use these to go back and retry earlier scenes. With hidden vehicle mini-kits and stud caches scattered throughout, this becomes the only way to truly complete the game. What’s more, studs can be spent on amusing bonuses – moustaches, silly weapons, Lego shovels and other oddities – or on unlocking defeated baddies to add to the playable selection.

The more you play, the more the central mission select hub fills up with cute Lego Star Wars characters, going about their business and getting suckered into ad-hoc duels. Want Lego Darth Maul to teach Lego Yoda a new kind of wisdom? This is your one and only chance. Okay, this isn’t a Zelda or a Final Fantasy where you’ll play for eight hours at a stretch until the game goes down, but this is the sort of game where you give it a rest for a week then come back to collect a few more parts. It’s not deep, but it’s stupidly entertaining.

And lest we forget, this is Lego and Star Wars in one cute gaming package. Watching key prequel trilogy moments lovingly re-enacted in Lego form is just a blast, particularly when peppered with a few silly comic moments. It’s both surreal and faintly ridiculous as the score swells during an epic confrontation, or as Lego Anakin starts twitching his eyebrows to show he’s about to go darkside. The graphics aren’t amazing, complex or particularly detailed, yet somehow they capture the look and feel of both Lego and Star Wars almost perfectly. Dismemberment never looked so sweetly harmless as it does when Lego arms, legs or heads go for a roll.

Most amazingly, with only walk animations, mouths and eyes to work with, the characters do a fantastic job of replicating their human inspirations. Admittedly, reproducing Natalie Portman’s performance in plastic form was never going to be a challenge, but Anakin’s teenage pout, Obi-Wan’s cheeky grin and C3-PO’s effeminate waddle are very much present and correct.

In fact, I only have one really serious complaint: if you buy this now, and play it all the way through, it will spoil Episode III. I stopped halfway through the final campaign, and I already know more of what will happen than I’d like. Still, if you can show a little more restraint, then Episodes I and II should keep you busy until the third comes out in the cinema. Lego Star Wars isn’t big, and it’s not really all that clever, but it’s much too much fun to leave to the kids to play. Grab it, hog it, and make up for what you’re missing out on now.

Verdict

Short, sweet and maybe too slight, Lego Star Wars is still one of the most entertaining things to have come from the prequel trilogy. A game so good, it almost has you liking Jar-Jar Binks.

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