Chris Connor looks at LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game twenty years on from its release…
These days, LEGO and many of the largest pop culture franchises go hand in hand, be it Marvel, DC, Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog to movies like Jurassic Park and Dune. We’ve seen this especially in video games, with LEGO tie-ins for The Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter and much more.
While The LEGO Company had dabbled in its own games like LEGO Creator and LEGO Racers since the 1990s, the first to usher in and set the template for this series of licensed tie-ins was 2005’s LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game. Released ahead Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and retelling the events of the Prequel Trilogy in LEGO form, little did we know that LEGO Star Wars would come to redefine video game tie-in movies and spawn such a juggernaut.
This was an era where new Star Wars video games performed incredibly well, with the original two Battlefront games and Revenge of the Sith game going down very well with the fanbase. However, LEGO Star Wars offered was a gateway for more casual fans, sparking and levels of imagination and creativity we hadn’t seen with regular tie-ins.
Dialogue free, there was so much fun to be found in character reactions, recreating moments from across the films in a way that felt fresh and engaging. While it may seem slight from the standards set by the recent LEGO Skywalker Saga, at the time it felt like an incredibly fresh spin on the franchise and other franchises and studios clearly felt the same way.
Rather than being restricted like in previous official tie-in games, part of the fun was being able to free-play across the franchise, bringing, for example, Darth Maul into Revenge of the Sith, or Clone Troopers into The Phantom Menace. The possibilities seemed endless for a generation of youngsters and fans of the franchise. The co-op element also allowed families and friends to join in, spawning endless sessions.
The foundations for the later LEGO tie-ins were laid here with the trademark humour and puzzle solving components, such as force users having to move bricks in a certain way to progress to the next stage in a level. While LEGO games have become big business and the model may now feel stale comparatively with fans knowing what to expect, in 2005 this was incredibly fresh, seeing one of the world’s hottest franchises and toy brands intersecting in some of the trilogy’s most iconic moments.
In addition to being a fun gimmick, this made for a genuinely entertaining and enjoyable tie in for the Prequel Trilogy. It allowed gamers to encounter and experience moments that would have been difficult to replicate with the technology and graphics available at the time, so far from being disposable, for many this presented the definitive record of that trilogy in video game form.
The huge success of LEGO Star Wars led to an Original Trilogy follow-up just a year later which was also a huge success and larger in scale. The two together were combined in 2007 with LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga, while the less known but equally enjoyable LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars followed in 2011. The Force Awakens game in 2016 was perhaps the most disappointing entry, covering just the one film and earning a mixed reception.
2022 saw the release of LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga , which took everything that worked with the original games, delivering by far the largest Star Wars video game that players can pour tens/hundreds of hours into to enjoy in its full glory. In addition to the main nine franchise films there are tie in packs and skins for the likes of The Mandalorian, Rebels, Rogue One, Andor and so much more besides, meaning it truly covers the whole franchise.
LEGO Star Wars really opened up the possibilities for what a brand/video game tie-in could look like. While there were moments of silly humour and goofiness, the sheer fun and re-playable qualities meant it was a hit for all ages, and the series has continued to resonate with fans of Star Wars and other franchises in the two decades since. The Skywalker Saga might feel definitive but surely we can expect further instalments as the Star Wars saga returns to its cinematic roots in 2026 with a pivot back to the big screen.
What are your thoughts on LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
Chris Connor
