The level design is sparklingly special - every corridor corner, every Clone ambush, every enticing trail of shiny gems has been placed to perfection. It reminds us of GoldenEye, the way the smile creeps across your face as you learn the maps by heart through repeated play. Be warned, though: LEGO Star Wars just loves killing you, safe in the knowledge you've got infinite lives. The endless hordes of Droid Fighters on Naboo actually made us scream into our fists.
So, what if you've already played the previous LEGO Star Wars? The vehicle sections from that game have been completely reworked - but then the new-style vehicle bits didn't feature prominently in The Original Trilogy anyway. And the lightsabering? It works like Twilight Princess (wiggle, and your character performs a fixed animation) rather than with one-to-one movement. It's a shame, but not a deal-breaker. Lightsaber characters are a pain anyway; like us, you'll probably default to blaster-carrying characters.
On the upside, you get plenty of new characters. It's now easier to unlock some of the two games' best bonus features - including LEGO Town. It reeks of joy. And there's the near-Mario levels of hidden stuff tucked away on each stage. It's tummy-tinglingly brilliant to discover how much variety there is in the secrets (jigsaw wall puzzles, secret vehicle sections, building little piles of LEGO into everything from televisions to AT-ATs) when, on first sight, the levels seem like little more than a few fixed corridors. It's one of those games you instantly know you'll be going back to for every last hidden bit - it's the least you can do to reward the developers' enthusiasm and sense of fun.
