Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review: New Elements Give A Familiar Formula Replay Value

If you’ve played Lego games before, you’ll get the hang of this one quickly.

- Chris Barylick

Even after a slew of Lego video game adaptations over the years, Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens (go.macworld.com/legosw; $40 on the Mac App Store, go.macworld.com/legosw2) is able to offer new elements and add humor and replay value. Beginning with the Battle of Endor from Return of the Jedi, the game has you and your Ewok allies take on the Imperial forces while Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader team up against Emperor Palpatine aboard the second Death Star, the game running you through its tutorial segments all the while.

From here, you then hop into the plotline of The Force Awakens, taking on the roles of Poe Dameron, Finn, Rey, Han Solo, Chewbacca, BB-8, and others. Like its Lego-adapted predecessors, the basic gameplay style of “enter a new screen, smash everything, collect the Lego pieces, and see what you can build in order to solve the puzzles to advance to the next section” remains familiar. Even so, the game designers have added a new multi-build feature, expanding on the number of solutions available for the puzzles.