Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy - first look

Our first real glimpse of Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy was of Luke Skywalker running over pedestrians in a landspeeder. As he thoughtlessly careened around the streets of Mos Eisley, any Lego people who got in his way were reduced to flailing their limbs while lying helplessly on their backs. No wonder those goons in the cantina don't like him.

While it still features plenty of the adorable lightsaber-swinging, puzzle-solving, multiple-character-controlling action that made the original game a hit, Lego Star Wars II looks to give fans a lot more freedom. While the first game restricted building stuff out of Legos to Jedi, any non-droid character can now sling bricks like a pro. A second player can jump in at any time. And if you play as Chewbacca, you can pop the plastic arms right off any stormtrooper you meet.

You'll also be able to build your own vehicles from the ground up and take them just about anywhere (to the point of flying a swoop bike through the Death Star trench run, according to the presenter). We saw this demonstrated as Obi-Wan used the Force to uncover a few large caches of bricks, which he then built into an AT-ST walker. A stormtrooper immediately hopped in, though, giving Obi-Wan a chance to show off his Jedi carjacking powers and yank out the usurper with the Force. This new mechanic will let a second player steal their own ride when building materials are scarce, allowing both to stomp around and blow stuff up cooperatively.

Mikel Reparaz
After graduating from college in 2000 with a BA in journalism, I worked for five years as a copy editor, page designer and videogame-review columnist at a couple of mid-sized newspapers you've never heard of. My column eventually got me a freelancing gig with GMR magazine, which folded a few months later. I was hired on full-time by GamesRadar in late 2005, and have since been paid actual money to write silly articles about lovable blobs.