There's something about Legos. Even adults (myself included) would be hard pressed to turn down a free Lego set without putting it together at least once. Knowing that, Eidos and Lucasarts along with Lego have created Lego Star Wars: the Video Game. The idea seems simple, and somewhat obvious, but this is the first time that the Lego license and the Star Wars license have been combined into video game form. The result is quite possibly the best Star Wars game in recent memory, and a game that is perfectly suited to all ages.

Lego Star Wars gives you the opportunity to play through scenes from all three prequel movies (including the soon-to-be released Episode III: Revenge of the Sith) with Lego characters in Lego environments. As any child will tell you, no one wants to set up Legos to recreate the scene where young Anakin leaves his mother or when the jedi council meets. The designers of Lego Star Wars know this as well, so don't expect to hit every scene in every movie. You'll be playing through the high points like the invasion of Naboo, the fight with Darth Maul, and the huge jedi battle in the pit on Geonosis from Episode II.

The game opens with Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon Jinn in Dexter's Diner, which acts as your home base during the game. The diner is where you'll buy new characters and items and move from chapter to chapter through the movies. You can only play through each section in Story Mode first, but once you complete each level, you can go back and play it in Free Play mode. Free Play allows you to draw from your bank of unlocked characters so you can get to certain areas of the game that were previously inaccessible. There are over 30 unlockable characters in the game and many of them have special abilities that will allow them to traverse a variety of terrain. Throughout all the stages there are puzzles that will require a special ability from one of your characters. Sometimes you'll have to be controlling a jedi (or sith) character to use the force to build a bridge out of Legos, or you'll need to take control of a guard that can fire a grappling hook to a higher ledge. There are, often times, more than one solution to the puzzles, and none of them are hard enough to stump anyone.

Like many console platform games before it, Lego Star Wars features "coin collecting" in the form of Lego studs. You can find these studs scattered all over the levels and enemies drop them when they are defeated. These studs act as currency allowing you to purchase new characters and items, and basically act as a score to measure how well you're doing. Feel free to venture into hard-to-get-to places to get the studs because you cannot lose the game. There is basically no penalty for dying, so there is very little in the way of frustration. When you die, you get some of your Lego stud currency taken away, but you just respawn right back where you were and you never run out of lives. This does make the game's running time a little short (you can play through all three movies in a day), but you'll want to replay the levels anyway so you can unlock all the special features and characters. Doing so unlocks Lego vehicles that are viewable in the parking lot outside of the diner. All of the characters that you unlock walk around the diner and the parking lot outside, so by the time you have them all unlocked the diner resembles a sort of hip Star Wars cocktail party. The parking lot is also where you will see impromptu combat break out between good and evil characters that you've unlocked.

The gameplay really couldn't be more fun, and I mean for everyone. A four-year old could play this and get as much enjoyment out of it as the adult that bought it. Parents, do not pass up the opportunity to play this with your kids. The manual even has a special page titled Help For Parents which lays out the basic controls and elements of the game for you. Both Story Mode and Free Play mode allow for cooperative play, so you can just pick up a controller and jump right in, as well as quit whenever you want without interrupting the flow of the game for the other player. The game is rated by the ESRB as E for Everyone for good reason. Whenever you defeat an opponent, they just fall apart into their corresponding Lego parts, and all the characters look EXACTLY like Legos, so there is no mistaking them for anything real. They even have the "Lego" brand stamped on all the round interlocking pieces just like the toys. There is also no dialogue in the game; just Star Wars music and Star Wars sound effects.

This is a perfect game for any kid, but a must have for Lego fans and Star Wars fans. You have all the enjoyment of playing with Legos without having to worry about swallowing the pieces. I can't help but wish they had a "builder" mode where you could draw from a library of Lego pieces to build new ships or environments, but I guess that is most fun with real Legos anyway. The only concern I could imagine a parent having is a younger child wanting to see Episode III after playing through those sections of the game. The word is that the final Star Wars movie is dark and disturbing and may end up with a PG-13 rating. The game treats Episode III sections with the same humor and fun as the other movies, but you might want to check out Episode III for yourself before taking younger kids in to see it.