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Another great addition the LEGO game family.

Over the years, Traveller's Tales/TT Games has taken many pop icons and made them into LEGO games and none is more famous than LEGO Star Wars. Being that the movies have already been made into LEGO games, TT decided to turn to the animated series for inspiration. With a new storyline, new game play elements, and even different characters, the game play is very much the same. The premise is this; you take a well-known theme such Harry Potter, Indiana Jones or Star Wars, in this case. You then re-create the whole story using LEGOs, sprinkle in some silliness and hijinks, and you have yourself a LEGO game. The game play is pretty simple; break everything possible into little cubes while working your way linearly to the goal of the level and collecting as many things along the way as possible. Once you complete the level you can replay it with any of the characters that you have unlocked. One of the best parts of the LEGO games is how easy it is to have a second co-op player jump in and out of the game at any time. A magical formula that has worked numerous times before and it still works to this day.

LEGO Star Wars III takes this formula and bumps it up a notch by introducing new squad based Command and Conquer type of game play. The purpose of the mode, in single player, is to occupy small areas on the level that have a power generator. Once you occupy the area, by removing all existing foreign buildings, you are able to construct any of the available buildings from your inventory for a price. The list of constructible items varies on the level, as well as, how many areas you have occupied. The more areas you have, the more types of buildings you can create such as barracks which produce troops. LSW III adds a novel character type that is able to command these troops as well, and commanding them in some cases is absolutely necessary, as you need multiple characters firing on the same object or building in order to destroy it. Besides several levels in the story mode, LSW III uses this game play type in a multitude of additional ways to decent effect; including variations that allow multiplayer matches against a friend locally or against the computer. When playing against a friend the game allows you to set the game length, type and amount of money each side starts with. This strategic gameplay mode is not the best thing ever, but it is a nice break from the main game.

Another cool addition, albeit a small one, is the ability to land during a flying mission. You now get to fly around blasting things to pieces but still have the ability to land and take care of business old school style. With light sabers and blasters! Speaking of weapons, there are a few new character weapons. There are now clone troopers using pistols, rifles and rocket launchers, with the rocket launcher clone trooper easily being my favorite character in the game. It's really funny to place a rocket launcher barrack in the strategy mode and then command them all to fire on a specific location. Better yet, take a speeder and drive through a group of droids to watch them fly in every direction. Good times.

If you have ever played a LEGO Star Wars game then you will know that they all have a central hub area from which you select and go through levels. Once you finish up the level you are returned to the hub world to explore. Most of the other LSW games featured a relatively small hub world that was easy to traverse. In LSW III the hub world is gigantic. I say world but it is actually two large space cruisers locked in battle (one very large, the enemy's is just large). Normally I wouldn't complain but getting around became a real chore when trying to navigate to an area that I had seen before. I wish there was some way of selecting where you want go from a terminal or something, but instead, it ends up taking forever to go all over the place. That said, the one positive to crawling all over the hub is that you will usually find new areas to explore as you beat new levels. On top of that you will come across new characters walking around for you to purchase which I really like. Buying vehicles is slightly different, as they don't just walk around the ship. You go to little kiosks in different parts of the hub world and purchase them through there. A cool thing is you can try them out in the area where you bought them even if the areas are relatively tiny; except when it comes to buying ships.

Things were not all peaches and cream, as the saying goes. There was a serious bug that caused me to have to restart a level three times. On the third time I tried it playing without a co-op partner and was finally able to get past it. The worst part is that it was one of strategy levels and they take a long time to complete though since I had to play it three times, I became very adept at completing it quickly. I have already mentioned how annoying moving around the hub world can be but I wanted to reiterate it here with the rest of my complaints. There are some other small annoyances, but they did not interfere with my enjoyment of the game, therefore, they are not worth going into.

While I am a bit biased when it comes to the LEGO games, I still think that most people would agree that LEGO Star Wars III is an amusing and entertaining game, and a great addition to the series. With the new game modes and game play elements, LSW III is a must have for any fan.