Game review: Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (Xbox Series X)

The Lego Star Wars games have always been popular with both kids and adults as they are a cute way to relive the famous movies.

Now fans can experience the entire main series with this year's release of Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is not a remake as all of the movies have new levels and modernised controls. Not only are the prequel and original trilogies included, but the saga is now complete as this game also features the newer sequel trilogy from Disney. The only movies not covered are The Clone Wars, Rogue One, and Solo.

The older Lego Star Wars games were fun, but they were simplistic at the time. The graphics were based on older Lego toys, plus the characters did not talk as they mumbled instead. This new game looks and feels like a complete remake as the graphics are more realistic and the cutscenes have full voice acting.

The only sad thing about the voice acting in this game is that many of the movie actors have been recast. The only major actors to return are Billy Dee Williams, Daniel Logan, and Anthony Daniels as Lando Calrissian, Boba Fett, and C-3PO, respectively.

Graphically, Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is by far the best-looking Lego game that has been released to date. All the character models and ships have been recreated using modern Lego sets, and they all look awesome.

Since this game features the entire Star Wars saga, pretty much every planet from the franchise is in this game. You can visit famous locations such as Tatooine, Mustafar, and even Exegol from The Rise of Skywalker. In Free Play mode, you can fly to the planets to do side-missions that you may have missed out on the first time around.

In terms of gameplay, this game feels like it belongs in 2022. You no longer just have to button-mash the controls in order to attack enemies. Instead, characters can also aim guns using the right stick, and you can point at specific enemies and buttons.

The melee combat is also a huge improvement from the older video games. Jedi and Sith with lightsabers can now block using the left trigger. This makes lightsaber duels feel epic and more in line with the movies. Players can also juggle enemies in the air as they would in a fighting game!

While the combat is pretty easy for the most part, you can improve characters' abilities by collecting many Kyber Crystals. These crystals allow you to make some characters stronger and improve their overall attack power. It's something neat if you want to 100% your character's skills.

Developer TT Games has also improved the overall user experience to make the game feel more accessible to young and new players. For example, the game now has a more useful waypoint system telling players where to solve puzzles and their next destination. The game is also much easier to navigate thanks to it getting rid of the fixed camera system of the older Lego games.

As for its difficulty, nothing has really changed in that department. Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga still has infinite lives and infinite continues. Even when you 'die', the character is respawned automatically. If you're looking for a challenge, go play Elden Ring instead.

Piloting spaceships like the X-Wing and the Millennium Falcon has never felt better before in Lego form. TT Games has improved dogfights by allowing you to truly fly around and manoeuvre yourself through the planets and outer space. Not to mention there's an auto-targeting system that becomes really helpful when you are shooting down enemy ships and soldiers.

One thing that will satisfy Star Wars fans is the amount of content available in this game. The game covers nine films, and the main story includes around 45 different levels. On average, it should take most players around 18 hours to complete the main story missions.

You can prolong your fun in Free Play mode, which allows you to do lots of side missions outside of the main storyline. The game also has over 300 different characters that you can unlock, spanning the entire Star Wars saga.

You can also have a lot of fun playing with a mate via the co-op mode. Players can easily drop in or drop out in split-screen gameplay. Sadly only offline multiplayer is available as online co-op is not accessible at this stage.

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga covers the most important moments in the movies. However, there are still some scenes that have been rushed and skipped over. For example, Qui-Gon Jinn's first duel with Darth Maul is only featured in a cutscene, and blowing up the Death Star II isn't playable like it was in the older Lego games.

Another minor flaw I had during my playthrough was several game-breaking bugs. The Obi-Wan Kenobi vs Anakin Skywalker duel from Revenge of the Sith froze on me, while the speeder bike section in Return of the Jedi wouldn't allow me to continue with the mission. Some of these bugs may have already been addressed in update patches, although it's still annoying to experience them.

As a whole, though, Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is still one of the best ways to relive the main movie franchise. It features all of the movies and has very fun, action-packed gameplay. This game is a must-have if you are a huge fan of Star Wars.

Verdict: 8.5/10

A game code was given to us for review purposes.