GREAT game - may be hard for newbies though
I am NOT a gamer - or, haven't been since I was in high school (which was over 20 years ago). For years I hesitated bringing a video game console into my house because I knew I'd get very absorbed. However, the Wii was too good to pass up. Since I don't consider myself a gamer AT ALL, my review is from the perspective of a video game novice.
I love the game. Plain and simple. But it did take me a long time to get the "point" of it. I was stuck on that very first scene of ROTLA for a LONG time because I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing outside of collecting coins and occasionally digging something out of the ground. In the end, I opted to go online. I went to the most popular video website on the planet and saw a movie of the entire first video game scene. And that's when the lightbulb went on.
From there I became obsessed. Yes, I stayed up late many nights in a row, my fingers clicking like crazy while my family slept all snug in their beds. And yes, one worknight I even played until 5 a.m. and STILL made it to work at 9:30 a.m. (I was very tired that day, though).
The things I like most about the game:
1) Your characters don't die - that's key for a novice like me who takes a long time to get going. If my character kept dying and forcing me to start from scratch I'd HATE this game.
2) There are two ways to play the games. Besides story play wherein you are assigned characters, I much prefer freeplay when I can tear loose with up to eight different characters with different skills. You can do a lot more that way.
3) The secret surprises. I love that they have hidden six Star Wars characters in the game (I've found four of them thus far).
4) You can play this one a long time before you "beat" it. When I first began saving my game, I presumed that ROTLA was Game 1, TOD was Game 2, and LC was Game 3. Not so! I've gone through all three movies a couple times and STILL have only done about 73% of GAME ONE. There are two other games to go after this one! That's awesome and I can't wait to unlock Game 2 (I know how to unlock it - I just need to get to the point where I have all the pieces in place to unlock it).
My almost-4yo son plays the game with me sometimes. He gets frustrated because he can't hold both the remote and nunchuk in his little hands. So he almost always has tears and tantrums when he plays because he can't get his character to do what he wants. But he still loves it and every night he asks if we can play "for a few minutes." Yes, the game seems violent (what with the hand-to-hand combat and guns and such), but it is seriously downplayed because it's all LEGOS. When someone "dies" in the game, they just break up into little lego pieces and then reform again. There's no real carnage like other more mature games out there.
All in all I heartily recommend this game to anyone, but be aware that there WILL be a learning curve if you've never played this type of game before. I highly recommend you visit the most popular video website on the planet and watch the first ROTLA scene clip so you can get an idea of how to play the game. You'll never look back and you'll love every minute of it!
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