Lego Star Wars (LSW) – The Complete Saga. LSW allows people to play through all six episodes of the Star Wars Saga. Each episode is broken into chapters and each chapter loosely follows the storyline of the corresponding movie.
My son was first introduced to LSW at three years and nine months of age,while visiting friends. My son asked to play a game on their XBOX 360. Not having any kid friendly games at the time our friends downloaded the demo for LSW off XBOX Live. The demo left little impression on me. There was no tutorial and the object seemed non-existent or way to simple, in other words, we didn’t know what we were doing.
The next day my son asked to play at our house. I wasn’t thrilled with the idea, having found the game pointless, but it did have excellent two player gameplay and at the very least allowed me to play with him, rather than just stand over his shoulder and watch.
It’s amazing how the second time around things make a lot more sense. We discovered that bricks bouncing on the ground were intended to be built and more times than not, created necessary tools used by the characters to complete each level. We also discovered Jedi’s can use the force to move, create or destroy objects. Each level was not a mindless exploration of the world, but a puzzle needing to be solved to gain access to the next part of the story.
We finished the first level of episode IV with smiles on our faces. A cut screen at the end of the episode showed princess leia captured and being threatened with the destruction of her home world. Not believing the threats leia mumbles, ‘blah, blah, blah’ and motions her hand in similar fashion. The empire proceeds to destroy her world and leia is left crying…and me laughing. For those of us old enough to have seen the original movies…again and again and again…the cut scenes will provide much laughter as they playfully mock characters and scenes to help bring the story together. Kids however will be left asking ‘What’s so funny Daddy?’ It’s OK, let it be your little secret.
Needless to say, not only was my son excited about the game, but so was I. We had found a game both Father and Son enjoyed to play, and better yet, could have fun, while working together to complete puzzles within the game.
I ran out and purchased ‘Lego Star Wars II – The Original Trilogy’ for XBOX 360. We have since purchased “Lego Star Wars – The Complete Saga’ for Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii systems. The DS system allows us to play anywhere we are and comes with extra mini-puzzles to challenge my son. The Wii version allows my son to play at home, and at his grandparents, yes his grandparents own a Wii.
The game helps children learn character recognition, puzzle solving and cooperative gameplay.
ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+
AGEd Tested: 3 years 9 Months
Academic Benefits:
- Puzzles
- Cause and effect associations
- Character recognition
Social Benefits:
- Teamwork – Two Player
A Gamer's Education 