During this last holiday sale, I picked upLEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. It had always been on my radar, I’ve loved theLEGOtie-in games ever since getting my hands on a PS2 copy of LEGO Star Wars 2: The Original Trilogy, to the point I even went back to also buy and play LEGO Star Wars 1 not long after. Even with all the loveTraveller’s Talesgave the Star Wars IP in terms of callbacks and character selection, what won me over was the fresh gameplay and delivery.
You’d play a level based on the story beats of the movies, collecting LEGO studs along the way, then could replay those levels in “Freeplay” with any unlocked character to find the other collectibles, such as Minikits (which would often unlock playable vehicles) and Red Bricks (powerups/cheat codes).
I’ve played almost every single LEGO tie-in game, and it’s funny how sometimes what made the game fantastic was how much it pushed the formula forward, but then other times it was fantastic just because of how simple yet rewarding it was.Skywalker Sagais the former, and I’m finding myself wondering what I often wonder when a LEGO game pushes the envelope this much. Which is that, as much as I love this formula, is it time to admit it’s peaked and move on to a different style?
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Skywalker Saga’s emphasis is on roaming the iconic planets of Star Wars canon. A vast majority of the collectibles are in the open-world sections hidden behind quest lines and secret passages you can only open when you take a break from the story and then swap to the correct character classes. The story levels are the shortest they’ve ever been, something that I originally didn’t love, but once I played the game a bit longer, I got into the groove of how this trade-off worked.
LEGO Indiana Jones was the first time I began wondering where LEGO games would go next. The hub world of Indy’s college was more involved in terms of rooms unlocking collectibles, and character powers were more specifically catered to classes in ways that made replaying the story levels worthwhile. These philosophies persisted all the way up to Skywalker Saga, but were repeated as far back as LEGOBatman1 and Pirates Of The Caribbean. In those games, both Batman and Jack Sparrow were gifted a ton of gadgets only they could use to attempt to widen the gameplay, but in practice, it disincentivised you from playing as the other heroes.
Batman being the answer to over 70% of the puzzles got tiring, and Jack Sparrow’s gimmick of finding specific level treasure meant combing every area in freeplay at a much slower pace than every previous game. The hubs for these games felt restrictive, lacking the connective tissue that made Star Wars 1 and Indiana Jones' hubs feel like fleshed out levels in their own right.The level selection room in LEGO Pirates was barely more than a horizontal line.
I may love this formula, but only a handful of the games end up as games I would replay. Sometimes the formula honestly ruins them; LEGO Dimensions failed to hook me the way other Toys-To-Life, where instead of a little rush that made me want to try out all the new characters I bought, I felt forced into constantly swapping out characters thanks to a constant shift in what ability was needed. And while I did enjoyLEGO City Undercover, I also feel it would have been amuchstronger game had it leaned more into parodyingGrand Theft Auto’sgameplay structure instead of relying on the “replay in freeplay” stuff.
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So how should Lego tie-in games move forward? A possible answer would be to look at the newer Lego gamesnotmade by TT Games.
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Take LEGOFortnite, whose design is completely different from LEGO Star Wars.You just collect rocks and sticks to do the same type of crafting as regular Fortnite. But people are happy with it, to the point it’s now one of the most popular modes in Fortnite history. It’s a premise simple enough to get people hooked, which ultimately can be all you need to make a strong Lego game.
2K Drive didn’t quite work out, but a LEGO racing game is still a great idea. Couple that with Star Wars again, and you could create LEGO Podracing. DC comics is home to many iconic vehicles such as the Batmobile or even Wonder Woman’s invisible jet, so there’s also reason to try something along the lines of LEGO DC Racing.
And let’s just use the Lego Brawl brand as an excuse to make a straight-up Lego version of a fighting game. No, not a fighting game based off a movie series where everyone is Lego. I mean something along the lines of LegoStreet Fighter.
As for what Traveller’s Tales did recently, The Skywalker Saga does such a beautiful job at making space travel interesting, I would love to see that return with the alien home worlds found in the pages of DC comics. Oa, Apokolips, New Genesis, heck throw Krypton in there somehow.
Traveler’s Tales are incredibly talented, and made some incredible games following a strong formula. I trust them no matter what they do, but I think it’s time for them to evolve, and make a game without any Minikits in sight.
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