If you can't understand why last year's LEGO Star Wars was one of the best and most fun games of the year then I'm afraid I can't help you. If you avoided it simply out of loathing the prequel movies then shame on you - but your salvation is at hand, because LucasArts have released a game based upon the Original Trilogy. LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy is every bit as fun as the first, adds a few new twists and remains a wonderfully compelling and fun experience from start to finish.

Describing the game is easy enough - you play through a light-hearted and slightly twisted version of The Original Trilogy broken down into various levels. Almost everything from the movies is here, from Han Solo blasting Greedo to Luke losing his hand on Bespin to the Ewoks drumming on Stormtrooper helmets after the second Death Star is destroyed. Once you complete a level in Story Mode, you can continue the story, or replay the level with any of the characters you have unlocked in a free-for-all romp called Free Play.

The basic gameplay mechanism is simple, and virtually identical to the original game. You start off in a hub (the Mos Eisley Cantina from Tatooine) and move around until you find a small room with doorways representing Episodes IV, V and VI. Each Episode has doors representing the chapters available within it, plus there are other doors within the Cantina for special areas that you can unlock by gathering up a special set of characters (such as bounty hunters to get through Jabba's door), a bar where you can purchase extras and hints, and even a character creator that lets you combine LEGO body parts in any way imaginable to create your own unique and fully playable LEGO character. Take a step outside the Cantina and you can use the vehicles and spaceships you have constructed - once completed, you can take them into the vehicle missions in Free Play.

So what does playing the game actually feel like? Well, after the opening crawl is complete, you will see that the graphics are highly detailed and … um … blocky! Graphically everything is represented as LEGO, and when something explodes, it breaks down into constituent LEGO blocks. This sounds simple enough, but it is extremely good fun and very effective. Everything you encounter looks like it has come straight from a LEGO kit, right down to the characters. The other thing that is readily apparent is the humor; from the opening cut-scene of Episode IV, expect chuckles galore. There are many times where you just stop for a minute and enjoy the fun and a few times where you want to restart the level to experience it again; you will be amazed at how quickly the LEGO world feels perfectly natural.

Progress through the movies is made linearly - you need to complete Chapter 1 to proceed to Chapter 2 and so on, but aside from completing the first Chapter of Episode IV to begin the game, you can jump from Episode to Episode as you wish. You can also immediately proceed to Free Play, although your character set will be very limited, so it's best to wait until you have a better repertoire if you expect to uncover some secret areas and hidden goodies. Aside from not having save points within a level there are very few restrictions on your ability to change direction at any point; there is an unprecedented level of freedom for a story-based game. Objectives within each Chapter are communicated in a simple and effective way - you either need to get someplace, rescue someone, destroy a certain amount of enemies or complete a task in a given time. Whatever the requirement, it is shown in a clear way on-screen. While the levels are generally linear, there are loads of side trips - little things you can do to collect mini-kits or LEGO studs, or just have some fun - pull a couple of switches and watch through a window as Vader Force Chokes someone who then crumbles into his component LEGO blocks.

The LEGO studs are the currency of LEGO Star Wars and they do two things for you. First, collecting a certain amount in a Chapter allows you to achieve True Jedi Status, which awards one of the 100 possible Gold Bricks, usable in building vehicles and unlock areas. LEGO Studs also allow you to purchase things from the Cantina. You can get characters, options and hints. Certain characters are unlocked after completing a Chapter. For instance, Princess Leia and Captain Antilles are unlocked after the first Chapter, while others are unlocked for purchase, meaning that you can pay a certain amount of studs to make that character available for Free Play mode. You can also purchase options, which include silly things such as moustaches for all characters, to things like a mini-kit locator and invincibility. You can also buy hints, which are inexpensive and might help if you are stuck. The ultimate goal of LEGO Star Wars is not simply to get to the end of Chapter VI, but rather to get there, then go back and get to True Jedi Status on all levels in both Story Mode and Free Play, find all of the Power Bricks, and also to find all ten canisters per level to build all of the Chapter vehicles. Doing this allows you to purchase all of the extra characters and unlock all possible extra areas in the game.

Free Play allows you to go back through any level with characters of your choice. You choose two characters before entering a door in Free Play and the game then auto-fills a bunch of other characters into your inventory. During the Chapter you can toggle characters at will to take advantage of special abilities they may possess. If you have played the demo you would have noticed that there are mini kits your characters simply can't get to because they don't have the correct droid or special ability. For these, you go back with the droid or other character you might need and grab the items that you missed before. But Free Play is more than that - it's a romp! Sure, you still have the same goals and areas to get through, but once you know how to get through them, the difficulty is reduced, so you just have fun breaking things and finding hidden items. It is fun taking Vader through missions, or one of the Stormtroopers in their bathing suits that you find in a hot tub early in the game!

Free Play is pure fun - but it depends on the fact that the levels and challenges are laid out in a way that makes replaying them so entertaining. This is one area that has been improved since the first game, which had places (such as the pod race) that were a pain to get through even once. Certainly some levels are better than others, but every area has some fun stuff to explore and none of them feel like a chore. Free Play gets to the core attraction of the LEGO Star Wars games - almost unlimited replayability. You can replay in single player Story Mode, or with a friend in co-op play or even in Free Play - it all combines into your save file and it never gets old.

The game encompasses several types of playing styles within the action and platforming genres. Most of these work perfectly with an eight-key keyboard control setup. Movement can be a bit tricky on narrow walkways; since the arrow keys offer only four directions of motion, you will occasionally need to slowly alternate forward and side steps to avoid falling off a ledge. The vehicles also handle very well with the keyboard, with one exception - there is a small vehicle that is required for a timed switch puzzle that is very hard to drive in a straight line at full speed using the keyboard. I managed to complete the puzzle, but found that mouse control worked better for controlling this vehicle, and that a gamepad worked better still. Still, aside from that single thirty-second puzzle, the keyboard controls work great for the entirety of the game. The location of keys has been changed from the original and indeed from the demo of this game, and the layout is now much friendlier for two players sharing the keyboard in co-op. In the original game my kids struggled to make things work for both of them, but the new configuration is much more comfortable. Still, don't kid yourself - playing with a dual gamepad or a gamepad/keyboard configuration is a much better idea.

I mentioned that the graphics are detailed yet blocky - how is that possible? Yep - it is because everything is made up of LEGO bricks! The initial impression is that the graphics are chunky or simplistic, but playing for a few minutes makes it clear that this is not the case. The characters and environments are highly detailed while the effects are extremely well done - this is not much different than explosions in other recent games … except for all the LEGO bricks. The animation quality is extremely important, as there is basically no dialogue, so scenes that depended on key dialogue ("Luke, I am your father!" anyone?) now need visuals to communicate the same information. Lighting effects and reflective surfaces add to the realistic feel of the environment - everything is done effectively to make you feel immersed in a world built out of bricks.

Beyond the high quality of the graphics, the user interface and visual cues on-screen are clear and readable, quickly communicating information and then disappearing. As you collect LEGO Studs or Canisters, a quick indicator appears on screen, and when your achieve True Jedi Status the indicator changes and you get a quick message and sound effect. The sound quality is another highlight; the excellent John Williams music is expected, as are the top-notch sound effects from Skywalker sound - we've had many Star Wars games and the sound quality has just gotten better with each passing year. Even so, the character effects are more effective than in the original game - the slaps as Leia engages in close attacks or the pops when Chewie pulls the arms off a Stormtrooper add to the action and humor of almost every scene. The non-dialogue vocals of the characters (they use short mumbles instead of words) are also very effective - in many games it would be annoying or unacceptable, but here it is perfectly implemented and actually adds to the experience.

So, it's all great so far - are there any problems? A few, but really nothing of significance - there is the vehicle control I mentioned, but since that is one instance and is on the smallest vehicle area, it didn't make a big impression on me. The camera control is handled by the game and can occasionally obscure your characters - it is better than the first game, but the ability to move the camera as in the console versions would have been nice. In Free Play I had a problem once where I set my two characters to Boba Fett and Darth Vader to get through an area, but as I alternated back and forth the other character would occasionally change to another character for no apparent reason.

Perhaps the greatest appeal of the game is that it makes things easy enough for anyone to pick it up and play successfully, yet challenging enough that it can provide hours of gaming fun even for seasoned gamers. LSW II just cries out to be played! It's a fun, energetic gaming experience, constantly giving you feedback without being annoying about it. For instance, if you are a Jedi, anything you can interact with using the Force glows when you look at it. Piles of LEGO that other characters can build into useful items rattle around when you are close. All of these help without making the player feel like they are being spoon-fed; everything is done in a way that enhances playability.

I don't think I can make it more clear that LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy is an excellent gaming experience. By comparison, my measure of excellence for a role-playing game is whether I start a new character immediately after finishing the game without quitting in between. In LEGO Star Wars II, I was already doing some Free Play before I had even left Tatooine in Episode IV! And before I saw the end celebration I had spent many hours going back and forth between Story Mode and Free Play, building custom characters and tinkering around with other extras. This is the most pure fun I have had playing a game since… well, since the original LEGO Star Wars. Despite my love of the original, all I expected from this game was the same experience but with the story and characters from The Original Trilogy. This is a better and deeper experience than I had ever anticipated; it has already found a place as the premier family game in my house and I reiterate my challenge from the first game: any developers making family-friendly and/or licensed games need to play this with some kids at their side, then start taking notes.

Reviewed by Michael Anderson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).