Honorable Mention #3: LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens
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Senior Editor Ishmael Romero: It’s funny seeing the LEGO games as they come out each year, taking on a new property or returning to an old one. Everyone has come to know what to expect from TT Games as they employed those lovable minifigs to pull off impossible stunts ripped straight from our favorite movies. Yet TT Games sometimes proves they can do so much more than just the tried and true, and they showed just that with LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens when it released at the tail end of June.
At its core, LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens is still another LEGO game, allowing players to break nearly everything in sight, solve puzzles by building, and use over 100 different characters from the Star Wars universe. But it also goes above and beyond by adding new mechanics and features. Multi-Builds add new depth to puzzles, forcing players to make choices and work with the other minifigs onscreen as a team. Blaster Battles throw some cover-based shooting into the mix, finally showing off why Han Solo is so cool. And then there’s the amazing dog fights that put you right into the cockpits of some of the most famous spacecraft ever seen. Want to take out a bunch of TIE Fighters in Poe Dameron’s X-Wing? Go right ahead. How about a spin in the Millennium Falcon? That can be done too, all across beautiful landscapes in the center of hectic battles.
What shines the most is that LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens serves as a vessel to build on the story that captivated audiences on the silver screen. Episode VII left fans with a lot of question, and this latest game actually fills in many of the gaps. It provides a glimpse before, after, and during the events of the movie that provides much greater insight into the growing lore, something fans would surely enjoy. LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a true Star Wars game, and that’s most definitely a good thing.
