Backlog Assault: Lego Star Wars

In the last few years I've built up a pretty crazy gaming backlog. This year, I've decided it's high time I do something about it. Join me as I begin to regret more than ever all those impulse Steam buys and 99 cent PS2 bargains:

Title: Lego Star Wars: The Video Game
Platform: PS2

Bought: 19 September 2008
From: GameStop
Price: €7.99

Beaten: 18 March 2011
Final Game Time: 6:00 approx.
Cost/Hour: €1.33 approx.

Backloggery Dump:

• ??/??/09 - Finished Episode I Chapter 2.
  
• 04/03/11 - On Episode III, Chapter 3 now. Looking forward to slaughtering me some Lego younglings later.
  
• 18/03/11 - And I'm done. Pizza rolls anyone?

Thoughts:

I didn't go into this game with the highest of expectations having played and not really enjoyed Lego Star Wars II a few years ago. There were certainly elements of the second game I liked: the music, the look, the cute cutscenes and the funny, little hidden areas. The actual gameplay though, I just found incredibly dull. The platforming was simple, the combat was basic and aside from a few puzzles here and there, there was barley any challenge to be found in the game at all.

You need next to no skill to progress in these games. If you die for any reason, you instantly respawn, in the same spot, with next to no penalties. All you need to do to get through the game is to keep slogging through the levels, death after death and you'll get there in the end. I suppose this inability to fail is part of the reason the Lego games are so popular, but along with the bland game design, it makes playing these feel like a complete waste of my gaming time.

Unsurprisingly, this game is very similar to it's sequel, just based on the shitty half of the Star Wars saga. :D Though, the puzzles in this one tend to be quite a bit simpler than the second game, making it feel slightly more pointless to play through (and I didn't even get to kill a single youngling).