LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (Nintendo Switch) – The test

After many postponements, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga has finally drawn the end of its lightsaber. It must be said that the game was eagerly awaited by fans and the various trailers, Warner Bros. Games has made great promises to us. But have these various postponements been beneficial or detrimental to the new LEGO opus? This is what we will see…

A family story

It must be said that LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga was eagerly awaited by fans. Announced at E3 2019, the game took a while to arrive. It was eagerly awaited since it is the first LEGO Star Wars game which brings together the nine films of the saga initiated by Georges Lucas on the big screen in 1977. We therefore have the immense joy of (re)discovering the prelogy centered on the young Anakin Skywalker dreaming of becoming a Jedi Knight, the original trilogy centered on Luke Skywalker, a young man finding himself unwillingly drawn into the war against the Empire, as well as the postlogy centered on the character of Rey, a young hunter of wreck in search of its origins.

The game offers us the possibility to start with the trilogy that we want, either with episode I, or with episode IV, or with episode VII. You will have to complete the first episode of each trilogy to unlock the next one and so on. Something to revive the family debate on the order to follow to discover the saga (even in video games).

Teams from TT Games and Warner Bros. Games have taken over what seemed to them to be the most emblematic passages of each film and the least we can say is that they hit the bullseye with each episode. We take real pleasure in reliving the greatest moments of this beautiful saga. The mythical music of John Williams is also part of it of course.

The LEGO humor, which does not necessarily appeal to everyone, but that’s what makes the charm of this license, is there, will hit the mark very often, especially among the youngest. Despite the fact that the game is aimed primarily at Star Wars fans, it is also aimed at a younger audience. This implies that certain sequences have been reworked so as not to offend the sensibilities of the youngest (we note the deaths of Jango Fett or Count Dooku for example). The goal of the game is to stay in line with previous games. Fun and intended for all. In addition, in order to facilitate the game for the youngest (or older) who wish, the game offers various accessibility options, such as an aiming aid, an automatic regeneration of life for example. Like all LEGO games, the game also offers the possibility of cooperative play, enough to have fun with the family.

A faithful and respected universe with enormous content

The developers have done a very good job on this new LEGO Star Wars opus, since in addition to reliving the greatest moments of the saga, we find the key locations of the nine Naboo films, including Tatooine, Mustafar and Crait. . There are no less than twenty-three planets that we have to visit, not counting the ships whether in free play or during the story.

Exactly, let’s get to the story part. We will not return to the scenario which is no longer to be presented, but we will dwell a little more on the content. Small interesting point, at the beginning of each episode, we have the traditional credits of Star Wars. Where this is very well thought out is that when we resume our game, we still find ourselves with the credits BUT, it has evolved according to our progress in history. Each episode is made up of five levels, during which we will have to solve some puzzles, optional or not, and complete some secondary quests along the way. Between two levels, we find ourselves in free play. This phase is in a way the hub of the game. However, this hub is huge because we can walk around in all the places that we have previously unlocked, which means that it is possible to go from one planet to another as you see fit. We take pleasure in piloting the most emblematic ships of the saga during space combat.

The game is however not in an open world, but rather semi-open because each place, even if the maps are rather large, remain compartmentalized. The developers have done an excellent job on the environments because each place offers a complete change of scenery and is different from the others, which offers a unique side to each. However, it should be noted that the level design tends to repeat itself in the levels.

It takes about two hours to finish an episode and a little less than twenty hours to finish the game in a straight line, and much more if you aim for 100% in free play. The replayability is huge. We stay there in the very essence of the LEGO game, finish the story and return to free play in the different places and levels to unlock what was not accessible the first time. Challenge lovers will be disappointed because the game remains very easy in classic fights and against bosses. In terms of content, as has been mentioned in the past, there are indeed 300 characters to be unlocked. We’re still going to dot the i’s. These are not 300 unique characters, the list of 300 counts the variations of some characters (for example for Obi-Wan Kenobi, we have the Episode I, II, III version for example). Admittedly, this number remains significant. Added to this are a hundred ships and no less than 1,300 side missions. In short, we find ourselves here with enormous content, the most ambitious to date on a LEGO game.

Enjoyable new game mechanics

We expected a lot from this LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga to discover the new game mechanics and the least we can say is that they are pleasant. The LEGO coins that act as in-game currency are always present. The red bricks are also present but in a new form, datacartes. Their function does not change, they allow us to unlock, with a few LEGO coins, significant bonuses, such as coin multipliers, combat aids for example, or completely useless but funny bonuses such as lightsabers wands , as the name suggests, lightsabers are replaced with cool wands.

On the new side, we discover the Keyber bricks and the presence of a skill tree containing so-called main improvements, such as an increase in life, coin magnets or detectors of collectibles for example, and improvements divided by class of characters (Jedi, Hero, Dark Side, Bounty Hunter, etc… there are nine classes in total) that will improve the particularities of each character class. These improvements can be made in exchange for Keyber bricks and LEGO pieces. The title also offers a combo system that will allow us to earn a few more LEGO pieces during our adventure, and we will need some if we aim for 100%.

Would there be a disturbance in the Force regarding the Switch version?

The various trailers of the game we were full of peepers to the point that the owners of a Nintendo Switch that we were led to ask ourselves questions about the final rendering of the title. Rest assured TT Games has done a very good job again. In terms of content, whether missions, characters, music or other, the content is identical on all platforms, nothing has been amputated on Switch. It is on the graphics side, as often, that we find differences. Indeed, as one might expect, the graphics are less fine, the display distance is lower than with the competition and there is sometimes a blur on certain elements. However, during cutscenes, we observe a few framerate drops here and there, but it remains ¾ of the time during cutscenes. During the game, it remains fluid to offer us a constant 30 FPS which is a very good thing.

Loading times are also impacted on Nintendo Switch. Where the new generation consoles display a loading time of less than ten seconds, the Nintendo Switch displays about twenty seconds of loading time (compared to just under seventeen seconds of loading on Playstation 4 for example). In short, the Switch version had to undergo some technical adjustments, as always, but the game is fluid, rather clean and offers an optimal gaming experience whether in portable mode, or docked on the TV. Important precision also, the game of course offers quality French dubbing. However, you will have to go through the eShop to download the French patch.