of the night. Homies before homes,
right? £12 and a server move later, I
found myself standing in front of a
random plot in Ishgard, registering
for the lottery. I waited anxiously for
the day the results would be shown,
but soon reports of an in-game bug
started pouring in. The game counted
the number zero as an entry even
though no one could claim it;
hundreds of properties were
rendered unwinnable because of it,
much to the frustration of players
and developers alike as they rushed
to try to fix it.
Nervously I approached my
placard. It wasn’t my number. My
gamble didn’t pay off, but hey, I had
an active guild now and could try
again when the bug was fixed. With a
heavy sigh I went to get my housing
deposit back, only to find I couldn’t...
I was standing at the right plot,
but in the wrong ward. In my rush to
check the result I had teleported to
the wrong area. Now standing in
front of the actual right plot, I held
my breath as I clicked again.
“Congratulations! You are the winner
of this lottery. Finalise your purchase
and claim your plot of land?”
Sweet relief. My gamble paid off,
but I don’t think I could do it again.
My heart can’t take it.
THE GAMES WE LOVE RIGHT NOW
NOW PL AYING
Miraculously, the game
even finds useful things
for C-3PO to do.D
eveloper Traveller’s
Tales has achieved
something really
special with Lego Star
Wars: The Skywalker
Saga. Making all nine mainline
films playable in one game was
hugely ambitious, and the result
is a lovely tribute to an iconic
series. But that structure does end
up shining a light on the fact that,
taken as a totality, Star Wars is
mostly... well, not very good.Out of nine movies, any sensible
person can agree that at least five of
them are rubbish, perhaps up to
seven (depending on your tolerance
for Rian Johnson, Daisy Ridley, and
teddy bears somehow overthrowing
fascist empires).
From that angle, you’d think the
full series might actually not be a
good basis for a game. But the
alchemy of Lego is the vital element
here – by turning each film into a
toybox adventure full of gentle
parody and pure silliness, it makes
them all fun, and even nostalgic,
regardless of cinematic quality.
The prequels were dry and
weightless on screen (no historical
revisionism here, please), but theirabundance of visual creativity and
set-piece action makes them an oddly
good basis for a game. In The
Phantom Menace alone, you go from
a lightsaber fight, to a submarine
chase, to a podrace, to a pitched
battle, to a spaceship dogfight – all
in the space of a few hours.MOVIE MAGIC
Similarly the modern trilogy was
scatterbrained and mired in the past,
with a middle chapter you either love
or hate. In Lego form it shines even if
you never connected at all with Rey,
Finn, or Oscar Isaac’s perfect jawline.
The first and third films felt like
Star Wars theme park rides, but
in this context that’s an ideal
foundation for light-hearted,
nostalgic adventure. And The Last
Jedi is the perfect target for gags,
receiving a good-natured ribbing that
serves both camps: a fun parody for
the film’s fans, and a bit of gentle
catharsis for its detractors.
Being a Star Wars fan has been
rough since 1999. God bless
Traveller’s Tales, then, for finding a
spark of goodness in all of the films.
If you’re not at peace with the series
in 2022, let The Skywalker Saga be
your nine-part therapy session.Even the bad movies are good in LEGO STAR WARS
“It makes all the
films fun regardless”
ROBIN VALENTINE
THIS MONTH
Hit the ‘Talk to Maz’ bug. If you
know, you know.
ALSO PL AYED
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order,
Elden Ring