Here's a hypothetical...

What would you rate a movie where a character gets their arms ripped off? Where it's actually seen as a good thing. Where the protagonist does it fairly often.

How about a video game? What rating does a game that does this deserve?

Ponder that while I ramble.

So, I bought this game today, and I must say, one of the best and most enjoyable games I've ever owned. Yeah, it's up there with San Andreas and the rest of the GTA siblings.

It's LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy. I've been playing the first game, LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game, for a few weeks now and just today decided to get the sequel. I think that the developers decided to pull out all the stops and packed the game with as much craziness as they could possibly fit on a single disk. The original had shorter levels and not as many classes. With the sequel, I find myself spending close to an hour per level!

The developers considered the LEGO Star Wars player and asked themselves "what would they like?" Obviously, their answer was "a Wookie that rips off his opponents' arms and more swag". Yes, in this game you can rip arms off your opponents (at least the Storm Troopers) when you play as Chewie. (And the game is rated Everyone 10+. Don't ask me about the oxymoronic rating.) And, knowing that Star Wars fans liked swag, like being able to buy lots of extra features in the game, the levels are jam-packed with money. In the original game, the bonus level at the end went above and beyond the average 30-40,000 "money" pieces by allowing the player to get as many as 100,000 pieces. The sequel offers that much per each level. Usually, a lot more. This last level I acquired close to 200,000 pieces. Oh, the swag I'll buy with that one! First on the list, improved light-sabers. Second, mustaches for everyone!

The game improves on the predecessor in many areas. Visuals are outstanding: not only is the game in glorious wide-screen, it also features light-bloom and beautiful depth-of-field effect, though I seriously suspect that they took the cheater's way out with that one. (Possibly the same approach I'm thinking of taking in my ray tracer. It gives gorgeous DOF results while increasing the cost by less than double, as opposed to other alternatives that can cost 4-16 times.) No longer are the Jedi/Sith restricted to building contraptions: anyone, except a droid, can assemble LEGO pieces now. Vehicles! After driving an AT-ST through the streets of Mos Eisley, I can truly say that this game earns a permanent place on my shelf. Ripping arms out of their sockets! Come on, who doesn't enjoy that? It's hella long (so far) and the levels are varied. Also, you have to come back in Free Play mode to complete a fair piece of the game, so I guess I've only seen about 2/3 of the level. The shooters, characters with blasters, are also much better. Or maybe I just think so. In the original, I didn't use them much. Didn't really see the need. Now, half my time is spent running around with a blaster. The other half is spent as a Jedi splicing enemies to pieces, which is relaxing in its own way. Yeah, I know, I'm weird. Whoo!