Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga

Gameplay

The mission for the game is to collect Gold Bricks while successfully progressing through the entire story. The Complete Saga spans the events that take place from the Trade Federation negotiations above Naboo in Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace to the attack on the second Death Star above Endor in Return of the Jedi.

In the Wii, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions there are 160 to collect; 120 of these are for the main levels. For iOS, there are 200 overall. There are three for each of the levels. One is for completing the level in story mode, the second is for achieving "True Jedi" status by collecting a certain amount of studs/coins, and the third is by collecting 10 LEGO "minikit" canisters, which are hidden across the level. For iOS, there are 200 Gold Bricks overall with an additional available for each level with the completion of a challenge mode where the player must find the 10 hidden blue minkits.

There are 20 gold bricks for completing the Bounty Hunter missions, which involve capturing key figures of the Old Republic and Rebellion for Jabba the Hutt. There are 6 further gold bricks for completing the bonus missions and another 14 available to purchase at the Cantina.

Overall, there are 36 story levels, 20 bounty hunter missions, and 6 bonus levels (two Lego Cities, two story levels (Anakin's Flight and A New Hope, the latter of which was a special unlockable level found in Lego Star Wars: The Video Game), and the original Mos Espa Pod Race and Gunship Cavalry levels).

Most of the story levels are the same as those found in their respective original games. This game incorporates two previously deleted levels: "Anakin's Flight" and "Bounty Hunter Pursuit," which at one time were intended to appear in Lego Star Wars: The Video Game but were cut during development. "Anakin's Flight" is based on the Naboo space battle against the droid control ship seen in The Phantom Menace. It was originally envisioned as a rail-shooter level, but was changed to the free-roam style used in almost all vehicles levels in the game. "Bounty Hunter Pursuit," focuses on Obi Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker pursuing bounty hunter Zam Wesell across Coruscant from Attack of the Clones. It was also made into a free-roam level, but unlike "Anakin's Flight" was incorporated into Episode II. (In Lego Star Wars: The Video Game, there were only five story levels for Attack of the Clones rather than the standard of six levels per episode for all other episodes).

The "Mos Espa Podrace" and "Gunship Cavalry" story levels have been redesigned, although the versions from their respective original games are present as bonus levels. "Battle over Coruscant," though, remains the same except players can change vehicles in free-play. New additions to The Complete Saga include a 2-player Battle Arena mode called "Arcade Mode", new minikit vehicle bonus missions, the red power bricks from Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy returning and being incorporated into the prequel trilogy levels, and 10 additional bounty hunter missions add new challenges to the Prequel Trilogy portions originally seen in Lego Star Wars: The Video Game.

The Episodes I, II, and III levels have been updated so that characters can build and ride vehicles, wear helmets and gain access to bounty hunter and stormtrooper areas. Prequel trilogy characters now have the ability to dodge blaster fire and have their own special melee attack (for example, Chewbacca rips off arms). New Force moves are included (force lightning and force choke). New characters have also been added, bringing the total up to 160. Indiana Jones is an unlockable playable character (to foreshadow Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures).

Development

Traveller's Tales created the Complete Saga in response to the success of the original game and its sequel with LucasArts publishing the game.

Variations between platforms

The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions allow for co-op play online, and support for high definition on HDTVs. The Wii version includes motion-sensitive inputs and the Nintendo DS version incorporates exclusive touch-screen action and challenges. All of the console versions feature support for the SD resolutions of 480i and 480p, and the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions feature the HD resolutions of 720p, 1080i and 1080p, all of which are available in both 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios. The PlayStation 3 version also allows the use of Sixaxis' motion-sensing, which allows the player to drive vehicles on the PlayStation 3.

On the Wii, the motion-sensing Wii remote gives the player an option to use gestures to make actions faster, such as swinging a Lightsaber and using the force as a Lighsaber-wielding character, melee attacks and grappling with blaster-wielding characters, as well as other general actions such as building. The speed of these depend on the intensity with which the player performs the gestures.

The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions do not have a V-Sync feature which later Lego video games have, meaning that there is a possibility of tearing in the image despite the fact that they are running in progressive scan mode, depending on the HDTV's native resolution & refresh rate, due to the simplistic nature of the engine. The Nintendo DS version allows multi-player co-op similar to the console versions, however it is only available on an ad-hoc connection with two Nintendo DS devices. Additionally, the Nintendo DS version does not add any new levels or playable characters, and several levels have been removed. However it does introduce a few new-mini games which utilise the device's touch screen and are not seen on any other platform.

The Xbox 360 version is backwards compatible with Xbox One.

The iOS version is available as a free download on the App Store, with Episode I able to be played for free. Episodes II through VI though are available through in-app purchase. Co-op play is currently unsupported. The Cantina Shop and Character Customization aspects of the game were initially restricted until the player purchased an episode bundle. Following user criticism, this was changed in a later update. The iOS version has since been ported to Android and released via the Google Play Store and Amazon Appstore.

Reception

The game received generally positive reviews. On aggregate review website Metacritic, the game attained overall scores of 80 out of 100 on all platforms.

In April 2009, the game was the fourth-highest selling on the Wii, and ninth for the DS. By 2 May 2009, the game's worldwide sales total exceeded 3.4 million. Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2009 ranked The Complete Saga as the 23rd greatest video game of all time. The game was nominated for Best Video Game at the 2012 Kids' Choice Awards.