Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is, without a doubt, the best Lego game. It has a few bugs that hinder the experience, but the ridiculous amount of content and the sheer amount of love for Star Wars on display, alongside several newly expanded upon mechanics, makes this a straight-up addictive experience.
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
Developer: TT Games
Price: $60
Platform: PS5 (reviewed), PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch (reviewed), and PC.
MonsterVine was provided with a PS5 and Switch code for review
To say that I love Star Wars would be a pretty big understatement. I was a kid when the prequels were being released, and I watched the originals alongside the prequels over and over for years. I played all the Lego Star Wars games that came before this and excitedly previewed The Skywalker Saga at the last in-person E3 back in 2019. This has been one of my most anticipated games for three years, so my expectations were ridiculously high. Beyond some technical issues that I hope to see patched and a bit of weird voice acting, it’s everything I dreamt of and more.
The Skywalker Saga covers all nine main Star Wars films, portraying their main story beats with classic Lego goofs and gags peppered in. You can start at any first installment from the three trilogies, so as a late-90’s lad, I went with The Phantom Menace. Some of the jokes are hit-or-miss, but this is primarily a kids game, so I’m not peeved that it isn’t constantly hilarious to a mid-20’s man. There’s lots of love for Star Wars in the jokes, from basic stuff like Chewie not getting his medal to Anakin’s disdain for sand. A lot of work went into giving the serious moments their due while also making them more silly, and I enjoyed quite a lot of it.
You probably have a certain expectation in mind when it comes to the gameplay of Lego titles: free-roam collect-a-thons where combat and movement are simple but pleasant. This isn’t wrong this time around, rather, such an assumption is a vast underestimation. The last thing I expected in a Lego game was a fairly technical melee combo system, a full stat/perk upgrade system, free-roam across a whopping 24 planets, and improved third-person aiming. All this adds a great deal of depth to an already very fun game and mixes up the Lego game formula in a way that doesn’t stray too far from its fundamentals. It’s impressive, to say the least, and I hope future Lego games keep these exciting advancements.
“There’s so much to find and collect throughout each planet that I can already tell I’ll be fully occupied for tens more hours, on top of my 20 or so hours of playtime of story and minor exploration.“
Even outside of the core gameplay, the amount of content is simply stunning. This is also where a lot of the developers’ love for Star Wars comes into play, as the scenery is filled with little details and dialogue that show just how passionate these folks are about the series. There’s so much to find and collect throughout each planet that I can already tell I’ll be fully occupied for tens more hours, on top of my 20 or so hours of playtime of story and minor exploration. Boosting my stats, unlocking everyone, and finding every collectible promises to be a grand old time, and I can’t wait to do it.
I did run into some frustrating bugs in my time with The Skywalker Saga, which often had me restarting stages and, on one occasion, had me close and restart the whole game. Vehicle sections would occasionally loop or shooting would glitch, which could be fairly annoying. These happened just often enough to irk me, and I hope a lot of these issues are patched. I get that it’s a huge game to do QA for, but restarting stages is no fun.
“The music is incredible, that goes without saying really. Stuff like Duel of the Fates and Battle of Heroes is eternally etched in my mind, and hearing it while little minifigs smack each other really harkens back to childhood play sessions.“
Visually, this is a pretty sharp Lego game. We checked it out on both the PS5 and the Nintendo Switch, and while the PS5 obviously looks better, both versions were completely acceptable and impressive, with no real performance issues on either console. The weathering effects on the minifigures really adds to the feeling of playing with Lego outside, as you’ll get sand on your figure on Tatooine, or mud on Dagobah. It’s a small thing, but it adds to the experience in a pleasant way. Seeing such huge vehicles and settings built from or filled with Lego creations is quite a sight as well, and I commend TT for how much insane work that must have been to do.
The music is incredible, that goes without saying really. Stuff like Duel of the Fates and Battle of Heroes is eternally etched in my mind, and hearing it while little minifigs smack each other really harkens back to childhood play sessions. I’m not so hot on all of the voice acting though. Some characters are great and even nail the cadence of certain famous lines, while others aren’t even close to the character’s established voice. It’s very mixed, so your mileage may vary here.
The Final Word
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is a triumphant celebration of both Star Wars and Lego games up to this point. It has some bugs and wonky voice acting, but the incredibly expanded gameplay, ridiculous breadth of content, and clear love for Star Wars present in every facet of the game make this a must-play for fans of the franchise or just chill, fun games in general.
MonsterVine Rating: 4.5 out of 5 – Great
