Lego Star Wars: The Video Game

Anakin Skywalker flips over two droids, with several battle droids looking on. Studs, the game's currency, are visible on the overhead ledge and at the far right of the screen.

Gameplay in Lego Star Wars is geared towards family play, and does not feature a game-over scenario. Given a specific set of characters in each scenario, based on a scene from each of the movies, up to two players can control them, using their different abilities. By walking up to another friendly character, the player can switch control over to that character; this interaction is necessary in order to use another character's abilities to complete certain puzzles. Lego Studs, small coin-like collectibles which serve as the game's currency, can be collected by finding them, smashing or using the force on certain objects, or defeating enemies. Studs increase in value based on color, silver is the least valuable at only 10 points, going up to gold, valued at 100 points, blue at 1000, and the rarest, purple worth 10,000. Players also have a health meter consisting of four hearts that gets depleted if they get injured or shot at. When they lose all their hearts, their character is broken apart and they lose studs (as opposed to lives). These studs can be spent on unlocking new characters for Free Play mode, hints for playing the game, and cheats. Certain segments of the game feature players controlling spaceships flying on a flat plane. There are also several minikit canisters hidden throughout each level that, when collected, combine to form a vehicle.

When the player first starts the game, they must first complete Chapter I of The Phantom Menace ("Negotiations"). However, once that Chapter is completed, the player may choose to play any unlocked levels from the other two movies in their desired order.

Completing all the game's levels with full stud bars will unlock an additional chapter based on the opening scene of A New Hope, which features a 'prototype' Darth Vader, who uses Anakin's fighting style, and a Stormtrooper whose movements are identical to the Clone Troopers (both of these are remodeled in the next game).

The background music is the same music used in the Star Wars movies, but as the game was released before Episode III's soundtrack, music from the original trilogy (1977, 1980 and 1983) was used for that movie's levels. For instance, the alternate soundtrack for the "Binary Sunset" was used in the second Chapter of Episode III, while "The Battle of Endor I" was used in Chapter VI, "Princess Leia's Theme" for chapter V and "The Battle of Yavin" was used in Chapters 1 and 3. In The Complete Saga, the tracks that played during gameplay of that episode were replaced with ones from Episode III, although the original trilogy music remained in that episode's cutscenes.

The plot of the game is a humorous retelling of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, as well as a bonus level with the opening of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope from the viewpoint of Darth Vader aboard the Tantive IV.

In 2003, Traveller's Tales started the work on the game with assistance from Lego Interactive, who would also publish the game. After The Lego Group left the gaming industry and closed down Lego Interactive in 2004, a small team of former Lego Interactive employees went on to found their own publishing company, Giant Interactive Entertainment, and would be able to publish all future Lego titles, including Lego Star Wars: The Video Game.[1] After the huge success of the game, Traveller's Tales downright bought Giant, and renamed them to TT Games Publishing.

Lego Star Wars received generally positive reviews. The PC version received a score of 77/100 from Metacritic and the game maintained a consistently high position at the top of the UK charts in May 2005.[4]

Lego Star Wars was the thirteenth best-selling game of 2005.[21] Figures released by The NPD Group show the PlayStation 2 version as the tenth best-selling single-platform title of 2005.[22] The game's worldwide sales total exceeded 3.3 million copies in March 2006[21] and 6.7 million in May 2009.[23] In the United States, the game's Game Boy Advance version alone sold 580,000 copies and earned $17 million by August 2006. During the period between January 2000 and August 2006, it was the 49th highest-selling game launched for the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS or PlayStation Portable in that country.[24]

The PlayStation 2 version of Lego Star Wars: The Video Game received a "Double Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA),[25] indicating sales of at least 600,000 copies in the United Kingdom.[26] By July 2006, the PlayStation 2 version had sold 1 million copies and earned $34 million in the United States alone. Next Generation ranked it as the 54th highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country.[27]

It was one of The Best-Selling PS2 Games with more than four-fifths of the copies sold on the PlayStation 2.

IGN rated the game 8 out of 10 saying, "If you're a parent, LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game should be at the top of your child's birthday list. It has everything a family-oriented title needs: it has personality, puzzles, cooperative modes, replay value, low violence, a lack of frustrating difficulty, and most importantly, it has Darth Vader. And that's what makes it enjoyable for adults too, because let's face it; Darth Vader makes everything better -- it's a fact."

The game's sequel, Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, was released in September 2006, while a compilation, Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, was released in November 2007 and Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars was released in March 2011. Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens, based on the 2015 film of the same name, was released in June 2016, and Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, which will depict all nine films in the Skywalker Saga, including the three featured in Lego Star Wars: The Video Game, will be released in 2021.

• Lego Star Wars: The Video Game at MobyGames