Four-eyes, poindexter, weird beard; call him what you like but there’s no denying George Lucas’ contribution to cinema (not to mention the male psyche) over the years. However, if there’s one thing that the man likes more than a space adventure, it’s another space adventure. So with his love of sequels and the surprise success of last year’s delightful Lucas/Lego collaboration, you’d have to have the brains of a half-witted, scruffylooking nerf herder not to expect a follow-up. And thankfully, now that the merchandise machine is no longer required to publicise the recent trilogy, we have the game that every Star Wars fan has been waiting for, a Lego title based on the original movies. But was it worth the suffering of Jar Jars, the Padmés, and the annoying antics of a basin-haired little Anakin just to get here? Of course it was.

Made to a similar template as the first game, The Original Trilogy dissects each of the three movies into easily digestible pieces recreating the most memorable moments from each. Not concerned with script or high drama (much like Lucas himself, then) the story is told through a combination of hilarious sound effects and John Williams’ stirring score. And it’s this twisted Lego slant and unbridled authenticity that make it impossible to wipe the guilty grin from your face for the entire duration of the game. Every set piece has been recreated with such care and attention to detail that it simply can’t fail to please casual and super-fans alike. Want to bull’s-eye the fabled Womprats, take control of the Falcon or toss Boba Fett into the pit of Sarlacc? Then it’s all here waiting for you.

Again, the series’ simple point-to-point dynamic sees you travelling with a party of major players from the movies and utilising each character’s individual skills and traits to solve puzzles, gun down Stormtroopers and generally tan the hide of the Republic. The characters have been fleshed out with their very own unique personalities and strengths; divided into droids, gunners and Jedi, their skills must be exploited in order to progress to the end. What’s pleasing to see this time around is a very effective close-combat system that sees Luke throwing fists, Leia landing slaps and Chewy wrenching arms straight out of sockets (just as Captain Solo warned us). But, yes, in case you were wondering, other than being camper than a row of tents, C3PO serves very little purpose – the bottler.

As well as personalities being made bigger and bolder, every other element of the game has been extended; there are more companions in your party, more enemies to contend with and a hell of a lot more environment-based brainteasers to solve. The Original Trilogy is saturated with puzzles to both positive and negative ends – it’s obvious that a lot more thought has gone into the puzzle element, as it panders towards a more adult player with some real beard-strokers thrown into the mix. A lot more emphasis has been placed on the destruction and subsequent rebuilding of the environment in order to progress too, which places the onus on the Lego side of the partnership as well as the Star Wars. Plants, computer consoles, and fuel tanks – all must be destroyed in order to make new platforms, uncover switches or construct grapple hook points. Where the first game made it painstakingly obvious what had to be done and exactly how to do it, this game demands much more contemplation and exploration to achieve your goal.

Fail to push the right button or miss a strategically placed item and you’ll be stomping around a room to find that missing piece of the jigsaw, and switching furiously between characters to see which one has the skills to suit that particular scenario. Whilst this might sound like a welcome challenge, a combination of awkward camera and near-constant ‘fight while you think’ situations can make progress much more difficult than it needs to be. Elements such as deceptively hidden passageways are all well and good when you find them, but not for the ten minutes leading up to that moment when you were chasing around, revisiting other parts of the level in an effort to locate the elusive exit. It’s elements like this – and the slight overreliance on the same puzzle-solving techniques – that make many levels feel just a little too drawn out. After all, there’s only so many times you can push a crate onto a square or throw a lever before it starts to become stale. In fact, at times we were a little concerned that the Lego aspect was starting to impinge on the Star Wars goodness. We don’t know about you, but what we crave from a Star Wars game is lightsabers, Trench Runs and Princess Leia’s golden bikini. While you certainly get all of that, you also get plenty of extraneous material that needs splicing with a cut-scene or two in order to remind us that we’re still in a galaxy far, far away. A little overcritical, perhaps, but we’re pretty sure that in the original movie trilogy we didn’t see Luke driving around on a stupid tractor on Dagobah or Han doing tumbling tricks on Hoth.

Though these things do start to nibble away at the Star Wars essence of the game, you’re always brought back to familiar territory. Probably the most poignant examples are when you get to leave the third-person adventuring behind and experience one of the numerous vehicle sections. No longer stuck on rails, these sections – from the speeder bike pursuit on Endor to the flight of the Falcon – all make you feel like a genuine Rebel freedom fighter and provide much needed punctuation from the on-foot exploration. Despite being extremely straightforward, between the pulsing of your laser cannons and shaking off several hundred Tie Fighters, the one-button bashing never becomes too repetitive. Then again, you’re never really going to get tired of trying to escape from the mouth of a space monster shaped like a giant shlong or sending those all-important missiles to the very core of the Death Star. As well as being blessed with their own separate sections, vehicles and galactic beasts often appear mid-level to help make short work of some oncoming enemies or providing some heavy artillery when a blaster or lightsaber doesn’t pack enough of a punch.

Having vehicles to use during the Story mode is a treat, but it isn’t until you see what’s waiting for you in Free Play mode that you fully appreciate their inclusion. As anyone who has played the original Lego SW game will testify, whilst the Story mode was put to bed within just a couple of hours, the amount of collectible items made it worth returning as one of your favourite characters and doing it all over again. Carrying on the tradition, The Original Trilogy is plumped so full of extras it dwarfs even the gelatinous Jabba. Just to provide an example of how much additional material the game boasts, when we had played the Story mode from start to finish (not going out of our way to seek out the hidden extras but certainly grabbing what we could see) the game was only 40 per cent complete. This means that going back and collecting all the characters, creatures and mini-kits the game has buried away makes for a completely reinvigorated experience second time round. Using different characters also grants access to different areas of the game, such as the Bounty Hunter-only sections, which are lockedup first time round.

Not completely devoid of the problems inherent in the first game, Traveller’s Tales has certainly worked hard to smooth over the cracks with The Original Trilogy. The Story mode is extended, improved and geared towards an audience old enough to remember the original three movies. Still an exceptional title for younglings, the additional puzzle solving, character skill set and replay value has made this a worthy successor to the first title. Whilst some sections contain almost as much frustration as they do fun, and the game’s tendency to slip away from the subject matter is a concern, the sheer amount of charm and personality shoehorned into each and every level is enough to keep you hooked. The problem here though, is whilst this is a real crowd pleaser it contains no elements that could be remotely considered ‘next-gen’ and games coming out at this stage in the Xbox 360’s lifespan really should.

As with the movies we can safely say that if we had to pick between the two games it would be The Original Trilogy every time. Not since the likes of Super Star Wars have we enjoyed an adventure-based SW game this much, but now that all six films have been covered, what’s next for Traveller’s Tales? Lego Star Wars Holiday Special? Hmm, maybe not.

Keith Hennessey