LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy - Game Boy Advance - DE

The sequel to LEGO Star Wars, which focuses on the original Star Wars trilogy (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi), brings some innovations compared to the first title, making it more similar to its PC and console counterpart than the previous game. During Story mode, the player is accompanied on screen by two other characters, between whom they can switch to use their special abilities. The characters share a health bar with four hearts, with the speed of depletion changing depending on the character (a Stormtrooper loses three hearts when hit by a blaster; Vader needs two or three hits before losing one). When a support character is "dismantled" by attacks, it's not a problem, but if this happens to the controlled character, it means a loss of Stud points (the game currency) and a decline of the "Super Kit" meter, which replaces the Jedi rank rating of the previous titles. Gameplay has been changed to account for the lack of lightsaber combat in the later episodes, so blasters are much more effective and fire faster, but have lost their "charging" mode. New flight missions are also included. These are similar to earlier Star Wars games such as Return of the Jedi and allow the player to attack both Death Stars, glide over the surface of the forest moon Endor on a speeder, escape an asteroid field with the Millennium Falcon or pull wires around the legs of imperial walkers on Hoth. There are three main character classes: Droids (which cannot fight but are the only ones capable of opening most regular doors in Story mode), Jedi (melee fighters who can interact with larger objects to uncover hidden studs and possess various Jedi powers) and Blaster users, who shoot at enemies from a distance and can assemble smaller objects (such as short bridges or door switches). Gameplay remains an easy isometric jump-and-slash game, where the goal is usually to get from point A to point B while triggering a lever somewhere in the level. As in the first game, the game cannot be fully completed without playing Free mode (an almost perfect playthrough in Story mode will only complete about 50% of the game), as many doors can only be opened or even reached by using the unique special abilities of one of the 36 unlockable characters. To acquire characters for free play, the player must now do three things: earn enough credits (the value of each stud was increased tenfold), complete a level (to unlock playable characters such as the level variant of Luke or Leia) and collect all "Mini-Kits" (which replace the "Death Star Plans" of the predecessor). Characters that can be unlocked include enemies such as the Tusken Raider or Stormtroopers, as well as heroes such as Yoda. Additionally, there are extra items to purchase, including music, palette swaps, new game modes, lightsabre colours and hints.