Travellers Tales are an oddity. I have followed their fortunes ever since playing Leander on the Amiga, which was a classic, slick, anime platformer. Whenever I see a game by them, I know I need to at least try it. They range from the totally inspired to the, frankly, awful. Toy Story 2 was a great game; I think one of the best platformers around. Haven was, to be fair to it, shite.

So take the following recipe:
Lego game licence
Star Wars game licence
Travellers Tales' design

It's enough to make the stoutest of optimists shudder. However, by combining these elements, a truly spectacular game has been created. It has garnered award after award at events throughout the year and has won the hearts of all who play it. Some have even claimed that the cut-scenes, performed entirely in-engine by the Lego versions of their screen counterparts, carry more genuine feeling and humour than any member of George Lucas' recent casts.

I'm reviewing the PS2 version, as that is the version I have, but it is available for PC, 'Cube and XBox.

The game covers all three of the prequel movies over fifteen levels, plus 1 bonus level (more on that later). The bulk of the game is platform action, with one section from each movie represented with a more appropriate game style. The pod race is here, and is quite a rush. The episode II clone battle is a 3d scrolling shoot-em-up, complete with impressive boss. The Episode III opening space battle is an on-rails 3d space shooter. What it lacks in freedom it makes up for with truly spectacular visuals.

The game is very faithful to Star Wars. Somehow it manages to capture the atmosphere of the movies better than many, more straightforward approaches.

Lego Star Wars is a joy to play. The controls are excellent and intuitive, and the ability to switch between which friendly character you control simply by running up to them and selecting them is brilliant. Many levels require you to, say, find R2D2 to open a door, and then travel as R2D2 to the door and unlock it, then re-selecting the nearest Jedi to clear a room of Clone Troopers. Also, playing as many different star wars characters works very well, hovering above the ground as Jango, or rolling along corridors as a Battle Droid only to stop and deploy your cannons to make a room of enemies eat blaster while incoming fire simply bounces off your shield.

The Jedi are, of course, the bread and butter; able to block incoming lasers simply by holding the attack button. Block at the very last minute and enemy fire will be sent back towards them. Each Jedi character has their own fighting style, and real SW devotees with recognise some of the moves depicted. The force is employed to 'push' Droids to their death, but most is use to move Lego scenery. Many Lego objects can be transformed into other Lego objects, or moved out of the way entirely to aid progress.