The LEGO games have been a staple of gamers' childhoods for years. Whether players remember LEGO Batman, LEGO Marvel Superheroes, or LEGO Lord of the Rings, those memories are likely to be full of nostalgic warmth. But there's one series of LEGO games in particular that has endured through childhoods and continues today: LEGO Star Wars.
The LEGO Star Wars series of games found immediate widespread success upon the first game's release in 2005. Capitalizing on the hype of the prequel trilogy and coinciding with the release of Revenge of the Sith, the first LEGO Star Wars hit the market at exactly the right time, with exactly the right type of product. LEGO Star Wars brought the accessible and joyful nature of LEGO to a video game, and combined it with one of the most popular franchises on the globe, creating a game that both kids and adults loved. And with LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga on the horizon, it seems like the perfect time to analyze just what made the original so great for kids, and why The Skywalker Saga should keep some elements, even despite the apparent departure from the core formula.
Simple Action and Puzzles
At its heart, LEGO Star Wars has always been an action-adventure series with simple puzzles. In fact, the vast majority of beloved, classic LEGO games follow the same simple gameplay formula. Whether you're playing as Batman or Anakin Skywalker, the gameplay formula is the same; journey through a level (usually based on an iconic location or scene,) punch or slash cute LEGO enemies in a PG-fashion, and collect as many studs as possible along the way. Occasionally, there are environmental puzzles, often only tasking the player with moving an object, pressing a panel, or stepping on the right thing at the right time, but nothing is too mentally taxing.
But that's exactly what made those original LEGO games so good. These original games, LEGO Star Wars in particular, gave players of all ages and skill levels an easily accessible gaming experience, based around beloved IPs, making it the perfect starter game. The level design slowly takes a player through the general formula of practically any video game: kill a few things, collect a few things, jump on a few platforms, solve a puzzle. The same formula can be found in almost any game, from Halo to Mario, but here, players are taught in a gradual and stress-free environment, where death only means that you lose some currency as opposed to progress, keeping the experience light-hearted and fun.
LEGO Is For Everyone
In recent years, LEGO has started to be embraced a bit more by the adult public, with sets like the Adidas Original Superstar and the Ultimate Collector Series of Star Wars LEGO finding mainstream appeal. Similarly, the hype surrounding the upcoming LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga seems to extend to adults of all ages, especially from those who played the original games growing up. And although The Skywalker Saga is said to be heading in a new direction for the series gameplay-wise, hopefully, it still remembers its roots.
At the end of the day, the LEGO games are designed primarily for kids, and should therefore be accessible for all ages and all skill levels, just like those original games were. So while The Skywalker Saga seems to be adding more complex mechanics and a grander scale, the inherent level design of each stage should still retain the same level of accessibility that's always been present in LEGO games, and should provide new gamers with an experience that eases them gently into the world of gaming and teaches them general puzzle and platforming skills that they can use throughout their future gaming lives. After all, LEGO is for everyone.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga launches in 2022 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
