From: Traveller's Tales
For: Xbox 360, PS3, PSP, PC, DS, Wii
IT'S GREAT
Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars is a really fun, action-filled game where you relive the clone wars.
The space battles are intense and there are also massive ground battles, which means you have to fight lots.
But you also need to fall back and think a bit more strategically by putting in stuff like cannons, barracks and shield generators.
It probably helps to know the characters and the series, but I don't think it is essential. I would recommend the game for anyone, but especially for gamers aged between 9 and 13.
If I had to rate it, I would have to give it an eight out of 10. It's not perfect, but it's pretty good.
If you like games featuring explosions, shooting and Lego, then this is the game for you.
• Josef Sigmund (aged 11)
IT'S DISAPPOINTING
I have played almost every Lego game since the series was so imaginatively revived six years ago.
Lego Star Wars, Lego Indiana Jones, Lego Batman and Lego Harry Potter were all magnificent. I expect Lego Pirates of the Caribbean (out later this year) to be equally good, and I long for the day a Lego Lord of the Rings can be developed.
The combination of simple gameplay, addictive stud-gathering, character unlocking and replayable levels, mixed with the superb sense of humour inherent in all the titles, has made for hours of fun for everyone in the family.
So why am I not feeling the love for Lego Star Wars III?
Why have I let my stepson have it all to himself in recent days?
Possibly, it's because I was born in 1977, the year the first Star Wars movie was released, so I have grown up watching repeats of the first trilogy.
I know and like the stories of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and the Ewoks. I really struggle to identify with the Clone Wars addition, and its strange characters such as Ahsoka Tano and Asajj Ventress (for goodness' sake, what a ridiculous name).
Or maybe it's because the beauty of some of the earlier Lego games was their relatively measured pace.
Which, you know, is good for us gaming dinosaurs.
Everything seems to happen quickly in Lego Star Wars III. The screen becomes a frenzied pastiche of light and colour. Once you fight off 50 droids, another 100 await.
In many respects, the game follows the same formula that made the others so successful. But there's something not right, and that surprises me as much as it saddens me.
• Hayden Meikle
