(Editor’s Note: You got your Lego in my Star Wars! You got your Star Wars in my Lego! Two great tastes that taste great together? Actually, Lego taste gross, so, no.)

We are huge fans of both Star Wars and Lego here at 2 Generations Gaming. it stands to reason that we would be fans of the Lego Star Wars games. in fact, we are not. We find the games lacking in depth of story and character development. They are derivative and insulting to the source material. I would go as far as to say–I’m kidding. We love all of the Lego games. Since our topic on the podcast this week is Star wars, I will focus on them in this article. I promise that won’t be a problem. While I have played almost all of the Lego video games, I haven’t played any of them as extensively as the Star Wars ones.

In fact, the first game that I bought for the XBox 360 was the complete saga. That was even after having beaten the original trilogy on PS2. That was even in the face of a new, and in some ways, more interesting Lego game. Having purchased the “family” version of the XBox 360, it came with Kung Fu Panda and Lego Indiana Jones. Don’t get your knickers in a bunch. I’m not saying that I prefer either the Indiana Jones movies or games to Star Wars. However, I had already beaten the Star Wars games, so I should have wanted to play Indy to try to beat the game and increase my nerd cred.

However, nerd cred be damned! I game what I want! Also, I’m pretty sure that they boys really preferred Star Wars at the time. So, in the name of one of our founding principles, I played games with my kids. I think that I mentioned in past articles what a nightmare that was. Those first Lego games required both players to share the same space. You were not able to break free and explore on your own as you now can. Therefore, half of the game was spent trying to convince your young child that he was the one hindering your progress through the level. The rest of the time was figuring out how to manipulate both controllers to solve the puzzles that required cooperation and, often fine motor or logic skills not usually possessed by the average preschool aged child.

Granted, preschool kids have their own versions of Lego in Duplo and now Juniors, but what lame kid wants to play with Duplo? All the cool kids play with Lego and Duplo are just there to suck up even more money from well meaning parents and grandparents. Kids certainly aren’t going to play a Duplo themed video game. Can you imagine how lame it would be? The mind boggles.

So, much of my exploration (such as it was in those days) and enjoyment of the first round of Lego Star Wars games happened alone when the kids were in bed. Imagine that. I went from Fatal Frame, Skyrim, Resident Evil, Fallout 3, and Dead Rising to trying to find that last mini kit piece in level 2 of The Empire Strikes Back. Having children changes you, Man.

However, I can’t blame my kids for the fact that this game led me to many years of purchasing and playing Lego video games. sure, I can say that I’m buying the games for the boys, but we all know the truth. Don’t get me wrong. I love sharing these things with others, especially my flesh and blood, but just like Power Rangers, Star Wars, and Marvel movies, I’m ultimately doing this for me and I have the boys for company because Christine wants nothing to do with any of it.

My kids, though, they’ve gotten my appreciation for the finer things in nerd life. I didn’t even have to buy Lego The Force Awakens because Liam asked for it for Christmas. Honestly, I wasn’t even going to get the game. Or, maybe, I’d have just ordered it from Gamefly to try it out, because I was going to wait for all 3 of the movies to be released and then the combination game would come out at half of the price of the single versions. I haven’t played it yet, but Liam and Aiden have and they seem to have had fun with it. Maybe I will play it over the next few days and add an addendum to the article with any new opinion on the game itself or the additions to the game.

Because, of all the game series I’ve ever played, Lego games are the ones that improve with every new game that is released. They included the ability to free roam away from the other character. They allow you to purchase characters by bumping into them in the world instead of having to go to the screen to do so. Some of the improvements are significant. Some are simply cosmetic or quality of life improvements. However, all are improvements. So, I’ll have to see how The Force Awakens has changed the series.

To be continued…

Sorry, I usually hate those, too, but it’ll get you to tune in next time!