The attack on the Death Star, the bit with the massive party everybody had with pointless CG fireworks, it's all in here. You take command of a tiny brick edition of a Star Wars character, playing through the biggest scenes of each of the classic movies. The on-foot sections, for example, are essentially the same as in the previous game. The gameplay itself is quite basic, and without the deliciously subtle (and entirely mute) humour, the game just wouldn't have any impetus. In fact, it's what carries the game through three episodes. Whether it's in a plastic Princess Leia's attempts to jam a disc into R2-D2 where the slot would normally be, before just opening his head and chucking it in, or Obi-Wan Kenobi using the Force to disassemble an Imperial blast door and arbitrarily reassemble it as a TIE fighter in order to proceed, LEGO Star Wars' charisma is evident throughout. It's just brilliant, and that's where the game's charm lies. It's a parody of Lucas and it's a parody of knobbly bits of plastic, sometimes both at the same time. LEGO Star Wars is so appealing because it never takes either of its foundations seriously. The snap-together combination of a very rich Dane's plastic bricks and a very rich American's space opera, it's what a more traditional journalist might call a nerdgasm (that's a nerd's orgasm). Lucas rants aside (for now), if you haven't played LEGO Star Wars, this game will appear intimidating in its childlike innocence. This doesn't need pointing out, but the trilogy of movies this game is based on gives this game a very big triptych of reasons to gloat over its sibling. And I won't insult you by comparing Chewbacca and Jar Jar Binks - that's like comparing peppermint ice cream and some sort of poisonous version of the same thing. Luke Skywalker is way cooler than Anakin 'Nooooooooo' Skywalker. Princess Leia is hotter than Patty or Panda or whatever her name was. The reason LEGO Star Wars II is better than its precursor is simply because A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Buck and Return Of The Jedi are far better movies than those other ones George Lucas made. But not because Traveller's Tales have taken the gameplay in a different direction.

Star wars themes windows 7