07-06-2007, 11:30 PM
I'm not sure if this has already been announced, but the first Star Wars game to allow players to use the Wii remote as a lightsaber is Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga. Here's a full hands-on preview via GameSpy:
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We had the good fortune to visit LucasArts' San Francisco offices recently, to get an exclusive first hands-on with the upcoming Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga. More to the point, we got to be the first people outside of LucasArts to use the Wii Remote, in its full motion-sensing glory, as a lightsaber in a videogame. And it was fun. If you love the original Lego Star Wars games for their charm, humor and visual style, then being able to swing your Wii Remote to slice your lightsaber through your adorable Lego foes is going to be delicious icing on the cake. The fresh content and revamped prequel levels won't hurt either. If you didn't enjoy the original games, and the sheer joy of swinging a controller to swing a lightsaber doesn't move you, we're not sure we have anything to say to you.
A More Elegant Weapon
The Complete Saga will ship with all of the content from the original two Lego Star Wars games, and will incorporate the improvements of Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy as well. That means, most importantly, you aren't limited to Force-using characters in order to build things. That also means improvement to Force powers, which is also pretty important to the gameplay. And your Prequel characters will be able to hop in and out of their created vehicles. But the most important Lego Star Wars II improvement that's now across all six episodes is the Character Customizer.
With the Complete Saga, you'll be able to take all the Prequel Trilogy characters through the Character Customizer. Yes, we find the idea of having a Lando Amidala to play as awesome, all right? The vehicle levels won't be substantially changed, with the Episodes I-III content being the on-rails gameplay they always were. The exceptions will be the Mos Espa Podrace and Gunship Cavalry levels, which are being redesigned to "encourage the open vehicle gameplay of Lego Star Wars II." Unfortunately, these redesigned levels weren't ready when we saw The Complete Saga, so we'll let you know how they fare once we actually get to see them.
In addition to incorporating II's improvements, The Complete Saga will include new levels, new characters, and more Bounty Hunter missions. The new Bounty Hunter missions will send you into the Prequel Trilogy, and the new character choices should bring the total selection of playable characters over 160. New levels will include choice parts of the films that the games have missed, such as a speeder chase after the bounty hunter in Episode II. That bounty hunter, Zam Wessell, is one of the newly playable characters. Others will include Boss Nass, Lama Su, R5-D4 and Watto, so we will admit that some of the new guys aren't quite A-list -- on the other hand, it means we should be able to make Darth Maul with a Watto head, which is entertaining.
Once we actually got the Wii remote in our hands, we were pleased to notice that you can just use the buttons to control your characters. Not that we weren't excited about finally chopping some (adorably Lego) Star Wars enemies to bits with waggle, but we've had enough of Wii games that we had to put down because we were sick of waggling and there was no "standard" control option. Standard controls are straightforward, with the trigger being your attack button, A your jump, force use and build as the Z button, and tagging to another character tied to C. You move using the analog stick. It's more or less the same control scheme the series has had until now.
I See You Have Constructed a New Lightsaber
To use the Wii's functionality, the Complete Saga team essentially added a layer of motion-sensing controls over the primary set. You can press the Z button to build, but if you piston your arms up and down to pantomime the character's animation, you'll build much faster. Similarly, you can just press the Z button to use your Force powers, but if you direct them with the Wii's controls you'll get a much faster or more powerful response. Although it might not make it into the final build, blaster characters will probably be able to fire their grapples by flicking the remote from down to up. And, finally, you can use the Wii Remote to swing your lightsaber.
If you waggle the Wii Remote, a character armed with a lightsaber will swing it with the same abandon you swing. If you jump or double jump first, you'll perform a slam or super slam attack. In addition, if you swing when a bolt is incoming, you'll be able to swat away blaster fire (rather than just having to hold your lightsaber still). Swinging the lightsaber with the Wii Remote is a bit faster than just pressing the trigger, and the effects you generate more powerful, but the real payoff is simply swinging your "lightsaber" in real life.
We spent a good chunk of time playing as a few Force-using characters in the Wii version of the game -- Yoda, Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon -- and were really pleased with the Wii control scheme. It's not the dueling game everyone is hoping for, but it fits the gameplay of Lego Star Wars and the Wii itself perfectly. It's fundamentally more fun to play Lego Star Wars swinging a lightsaber instead of clicking a trigger to make your character swing a lightsaber. LucasArts' task was to make the game a bit more ridiculously fun for adults but to keep it accessible for kids. It's a tall order, but one The Complete Saga looks ready to fill.
A More Elegant Weapon
The Complete Saga will ship with all of the content from the original two Lego Star Wars games, and will incorporate the improvements of Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy as well. That means, most importantly, you aren't limited to Force-using characters in order to build things. That also means improvement to Force powers, which is also pretty important to the gameplay. And your Prequel characters will be able to hop in and out of their created vehicles. But the most important Lego Star Wars II improvement that's now across all six episodes is the Character Customizer.
With the Complete Saga, you'll be able to take all the Prequel Trilogy characters through the Character Customizer. Yes, we find the idea of having a Lando Amidala to play as awesome, all right? The vehicle levels won't be substantially changed, with the Episodes I-III content being the on-rails gameplay they always were. The exceptions will be the Mos Espa Podrace and Gunship Cavalry levels, which are being redesigned to "encourage the open vehicle gameplay of Lego Star Wars II." Unfortunately, these redesigned levels weren't ready when we saw The Complete Saga, so we'll let you know how they fare once we actually get to see them.
In addition to incorporating II's improvements, The Complete Saga will include new levels, new characters, and more Bounty Hunter missions. The new Bounty Hunter missions will send you into the Prequel Trilogy, and the new character choices should bring the total selection of playable characters over 160. New levels will include choice parts of the films that the games have missed, such as a speeder chase after the bounty hunter in Episode II. That bounty hunter, Zam Wessell, is one of the newly playable characters. Others will include Boss Nass, Lama Su, R5-D4 and Watto, so we will admit that some of the new guys aren't quite A-list -- on the other hand, it means we should be able to make Darth Maul with a Watto head, which is entertaining.
Once we actually got the Wii remote in our hands, we were pleased to notice that you can just use the buttons to control your characters. Not that we weren't excited about finally chopping some (adorably Lego) Star Wars enemies to bits with waggle, but we've had enough of Wii games that we had to put down because we were sick of waggling and there was no "standard" control option. Standard controls are straightforward, with the trigger being your attack button, A your jump, force use and build as the Z button, and tagging to another character tied to C. You move using the analog stick. It's more or less the same control scheme the series has had until now.
I See You Have Constructed a New Lightsaber
To use the Wii's functionality, the Complete Saga team essentially added a layer of motion-sensing controls over the primary set. You can press the Z button to build, but if you piston your arms up and down to pantomime the character's animation, you'll build much faster. Similarly, you can just press the Z button to use your Force powers, but if you direct them with the Wii's controls you'll get a much faster or more powerful response. Although it might not make it into the final build, blaster characters will probably be able to fire their grapples by flicking the remote from down to up. And, finally, you can use the Wii Remote to swing your lightsaber.
If you waggle the Wii Remote, a character armed with a lightsaber will swing it with the same abandon you swing. If you jump or double jump first, you'll perform a slam or super slam attack. In addition, if you swing when a bolt is incoming, you'll be able to swat away blaster fire (rather than just having to hold your lightsaber still). Swinging the lightsaber with the Wii Remote is a bit faster than just pressing the trigger, and the effects you generate more powerful, but the real payoff is simply swinging your "lightsaber" in real life.
We spent a good chunk of time playing as a few Force-using characters in the Wii version of the game -- Yoda, Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon -- and were really pleased with the Wii control scheme. It's not the dueling game everyone is hoping for, but it fits the gameplay of Lego Star Wars and the Wii itself perfectly. It's fundamentally more fun to play Lego Star Wars swinging a lightsaber instead of clicking a trigger to make your character swing a lightsaber. LucasArts' task was to make the game a bit more ridiculously fun for adults but to keep it accessible for kids. It's a tall order, but one The Complete Saga looks ready to fill.
