LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga review for Xbox Series X/One, PS5/5, Switch

There are a ton of LEGO games out there, most of them are based off of some sort of popular IP. Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, DC and Marvel. There are some that are not, LEGO City Undercover was a particularly good one. LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is an ambitious project that covers all nine mainstream movies with some content from other Star Wars media, including DLC from the Mandalorian, Solo and Rogue One. With so much packed in, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is the most complete LEGO Star Wars game to date.

At the start of the game, players have access to the first movie of each trilogy, The Phantom Menace, A New Hope and The Force Awakens, and I decided to work through the games from The Phantom Menace forward. Each episode starts with the traditional Star Wars crawl, once the crawl goes away, you get right into the action. Like Episode 1 starting with flying the Jedi cruiser to the trade federation blockade. Or episode IV, Leia?s ship getting captured by Darth Vader?s Star Destroyer.

As with most of the LEGO games, all the cutscenes feature laugh out loud moments and anyone who has played LEGO games before will be very accustomed to this kind of humor that transcends all ages. For the first time in LEGO Star Wars history there is voice acting, but don?t worry there is a mumble mode if you want to use it.

Most LEGO games are all about smashing things. Running around and smashing anything that looks like it?s built of LEGOs will net you studs, which are used as money in the game and the formula here is no different, which can get a little repetitive. There are a TON of things to smash and almost anything that looks like it?s made of LEGO?s can be smashed for studs. There are some that are smashed and put back together to build other things to interact with, and some that can be moved around, both are used to solve puzzles.

Then there are the collectables… wow? I thought previous LEGO games were nuts. There are 380 playable characters in The Skywalker Saga, more than 2 dozen worlds to explore, and more than 100 different vehicles to get you there. Top it off with the Kyber Bricks you collect to upgrade your character classes — yes, I said character classes in a LEGO game. There are almost 1200 Kyber Bricks in the game with some are obtained by collecting studs during the story, and others are collected by solving puzzles in the over world levels while traveling to and from the missions. The Kyber Bricks alone will keep you collecting for hours on end.

Character classes in the game are dependent on the character you are playing at the time, from Jedi to Sith, Scoundrels to Bounty Hunters and Scavengers to? Droids. Each character class has four different upgrades, and each can be upgraded three times. There is also core upgrades, things like building faster, sprinting and collectables detection. Each upgrade costs several Kyber bricks and studs, the more powerful the upgrade the higher the cost.

The voice cast in the game is mostly a success and a lot of the voice cast reprised their roles from The Clone Wars, Rebels and the LEGO Star Wars Holiday special. Two iconic veteran Star Wars actors in particular have also returned: Billy Dee Williams, reprising his role as Lando Calrissian from the movies, and Anthony Daniels who played C-3PO in all nine films. While it is disappointing, yet understandable, not to have Mark Hamill or Harrison Ford, it is even more shocking that none of the big characters from the most recent trilogy were voiced by their counterparts, Daisy Ridley, Oscar Issac, John Boyega or Adam Driver.

The music is spot on, from the iconic theme in the opening crawls to just exploring the galaxy, and John Williams’ scores are always undeniably amazing! For those of us who grew up with the original trilogy all the way to the new movies, the score is instantly familiar and a major part of movie history.

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is the best-looking LEGO game by far. The visuals feature ?real? looking environments mixed with d?cor made with LEGO bricks, and while it sounds like a strange juxtaposition, it works very well. The statues at the Jedi temple are probably one of the best examples of this. Giant metallic two-story tall LEGO Jedi characters that reflect sources of light, including your lightsaber. Looking at the bricks, especially in the ?real? part of the environment, they have the LEGO logo clearly written on the bricks.

The characters add to this with as realistic expressions as they can be in a LEGO game. From young Anakin going ?oooo? to everything he sees on Coruscant to Obi-Wan?s face looking angry as he runs around with his lightsaber. Even the plastic on the characters accurately reflect light.

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is the definitive LEGO Star Wars experience. It?s the only game that contains all nine of the main films in LEGO format and it will also include some content from Rouge One, Solo, The Mandalorian, and The Bad Batch via DLC. The iconic LEGO game humor is everywhere. The destruction of all LEGO items in an area does get a little repetitive after a while, however, the collectables will keep you playing for hours on end.  This game is a jump forward for LEGO titles, with the awesome bonus of it being a Star Wars game. LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is a must own for any LEGO fan.

Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment provided us with a LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Xbox Series X code for review purposes.