Thoughts on the LEGO Star Wars video game

Like many boys in their thirties two of my favorite things were LEGOs and the Star Wars movies growing up.  Years later LEGO actual came out with branded Star Wars LEGOs.  They even have cool models but it is hard for me to justify spending $200-300 for one of the models like the second Death Star or an Imperial Destroyer.  I have been eagerly awaiting the release of the LEGO Star Wars video game.  The premise is that the whole video game is as one of the little LEGO figures in a full LEGO environment.  Owning an XBOX I imagine a world where I could get on Live and battle other LEGO characters in scenes from Episode I-III.  The early reviews made it clear that at best it was a co-op game and that there was no Live support, only two people playing in the same room.  LEGO has always had the idea that playing together is more fun and this should be done in the same room – you really cannot play LEGOs with some in different places.
You can find a demo of the PC version of the game on the game website.  I downloaded the game demo to take a look before the XBOX version comes out.  At first I felt, and something I kind of thought going in, that I am too old to really be playing this game.  There are many aspects that are just too easy where everything you need is almost in your face as you play it.  Your character walks up to a glowing place on the screen and you can collect LEGOs that give you points or health.  If you are not playing co-op then the second character just follows you along and will engage in battles but the AI is a bit lacking.  There are some fun puzzles to solve as you use the force to moving things around to make it easier to jump up to locations you cannot directly walk or jump to.  What I found in the demo was that the game really begs for you to have a second person playing along side you.  You need the second person to help solve the puzzles quicker and with less effort.  I worry that this will be the way the game plays on the XBOX also.  The game does a good job helping you to switch characters to control however.  For example say you are Anakin and you need R2-D2 to own a door.  You can walk up to R2 and hit a button and now you are controlling R2.  Some of the appeal of the final game is that once you solve levels you can go back and play with other characters you could not the first time which may or may not open up other areas of a level for you.  In the demo they unlock many of the different characters for you to play with and you can see that as a whole the game will be fun.  It is not on the level of Halo 2 nor do I think you need to rush out and get it when it comes out in the next week or so but I think it is an add to your collection of games if you are a Star Wars fan.  I am sure when many people I know are playing the new Splinter Cell I will be playing this game however (or maybe I should just get through the Rebel Commandos which I have really played at all yet).   

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