LEGO Star Wars turns 15 today, as the game originally released on April 2nd of 2005. As far as LEGO games are concerned, this one was easily a big jump for the franchise and an important turning point as well. Since then, 15 years of LEGO games have brought fans through the stories of Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, Batman, Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, Marvel, and more, and it seems that Traveller's Tales plans to keep on going. The momentous birthday makes today a great day to look back on the history of LEGO games as a whole, with an emphasis on Star Wars.
For those unaware, LEGO Star Wars was one of the first LEGO games to adapt a major franchise. Although there had been some attempts at adapting Harry Potter with LEGO Creator: Harry Potter, but this was more of a building simulator than the story-based LEGO games fans are familiar with now, and the more recent LEGO Harry Potter games wouldn't release until 2010 and 2011. Interestingly, the LEGO Star Wars that released 15 years ago actually adapted the prequel trilogy, and the original trilogy wouldn't come in LEGO form until a year later in 2006.
LEGO Star Wars - 15 Years
Seeing as Star Wars is one of the biggest and most recognizable franchises of all time, it's no wonder that Traveller's Tales opted to aim for this franchise for its first story-based LEGO game. Doing so has resulted in incredible success for the LEGO franchise, as although the games are often littered with bugs and don't tend to have very deep combat systems, they resonate incredibly well with more casual gamers or with parents who want to engage with their children. Naturally, the rest of the Star Wars movies, including parts of the more recent sequel trilogy, have all been adapted in LEGO form since.
LEGO Games
LEGO games have been received well by the public, some going so far as to recreate other popular games like The Last of Us in LEGO style. Beyond fan recreations, though, Traveller's Tales has also adapted numerous properties, including Indiana Jones and even The Lego Movie, into LEGO games. All of these games feature extremely watered down versions of the story, hitting all the major plot points but replacing dialogue with grunts and anything deemed to intense for children with gag jokes, and unsurprisingly have a focus on building using LEGO blocks to solve puzzles and progress through levels.
Celebrating 15 Years of LEGO Star Wars
The best way to celebrate this milestone for the LEGO video game franchise is to simply play LEGO games! In case readers don't have their PS2, Gamecube, or Xbox handy alongside their copy of LEGO Star Wars, there are plenty of other LEGO games that one can get for pretty cheap online. While some of the newer ones are still going for $60, others such as LEGO Batman are just $20, and the PlayStation Store has even more on sale for just $6 or $7 right now, including the LEGO Harry Potter Collection, LEGO Jurassic World, and perhaps most relevant, LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Birthdays in gaming like this are important for any game, but for LEGO Star Wars, it is doubly so. Being the game that really kicked off the LEGO franchise and led to the huge library of games that have been delighting gamers with their whimsical attitude, it is only natural that fans should celebrate, especially given that there are so many good deals for LEGO games going on right now. It will be interesting to see where Traveller's Tales takes the LEGO game franchise next.
LEGO Star Wars is available now for Game Boy Advance, GameCube, PS2, and Xbox.