LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Switch Review

When Warner Bros. and Travelers Tales decide it’s time to shake up the LEGO formula the results are generally positive. Shake-ups have resulted in the best LEGO game ever made, LEGO City Undercover, and now the most ambitious LEGO game ever made, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. This latest entry in the LEGO franchise is easily one of the franchises’ best, and there is no doubt in my mind that it will be a stepping stone for future titles.

There is a lot of content here for fans to unravel and enjoy – with all 9 Skywalker saga films represented, and five levels per episode, there is a lot to play and explore. And while 45 total episodes might not feel like much – especially when you realize how much shorter these levels are compared to previous releases – the hub worlds you can explore in between levels are packed with things to do, including characters to help, bricks to earn, and puzzles to solve.

While some may lament the lack of long, drawn out levels, I’m personally in favour of these smaller, more direct level designs. Each level still has some of the traditional elements we know and love – you still need to collect a certain number of studs to earn the True Jedi achievement on each level, and you will still be looking for building parts to finish a micro build for each level. There are new concepts here as well, including additional missions built within the level. These missions are not obvious either, so it might take a few laps through a level before you find and complete them all.

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Getting through all the episodes and levels isn’t all that hard. I was able to do it in just a few days, playing rather casually I might add. If you go from A to B to C on each episode, you can finish within an hour or two. And for those that decide they will rush through the game and then make a judgement call on the worthiness of it…well, I’m not sure you got the full experience. Over the past week, I’ve begun going back through collecting characters, figuring out hub puzzles, and more. And I’ve been having a good time. In fact, this is the best time I’ve had with a LEGO game since LEGO City Undercover. And that came out a LONG time ago.

In Galactic Mode, you don’t actually pick anyone episode to explore within, but rather just head out into the galaxy and check in on the various hubs you’ve unlocked to date. This is where I think most people will spend the majority of their time, completing all the awesome side quests and puzzles. These are varied enough to seem pretty fresh throughout – unfortunately, the most common tactical solution is to stack objects to reach items, which is easily the most frustrating aspect of this entire experience.

The Switch version I’m reviewing was supplied to me, but for the sake of seeing how the Switch holds up to the next generation versions of the game, I went ahead and purchase a copy for my kids on the Xbox Series X.  Not surprisingly, the game looks substantially better on the Series X on my 4K TV. It performs better as well. That being said, I’ve written in the past why I enjoy games on my Nintendo Switch so much, and it all comes down to my current lifestyle and the portability of the console. I don’t have the same amount of time I use to have to just plop in front of the TV and play for hours on end. And so despite a downgrade in both performance and graphics, I still would recommend the Nintendo Switch version over the versions you can get on Series X or the PlayStation 5.

Even on Nintendo Switch, the game still looks great, sounds great, and is well produced. Dialogue is humours in only the way LEGO games can be, and the stories are well stitched together if you have some concept of what has happened in the 9 films. Without that context…why are you playing this without Star Wars movie context?

Either way, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is a step in the right direction for a franchise that has felt a bit stale over the past few releases. It makes me excited to see what the development team is able to do next!