When I started the Prequel Trilogy part and saw Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan's ship stopped at a traffic gate floating in space, I knew I was in for a good time with the LEGO Star Wars: Skywalker Saga. After a brief video conference with the Trade Federation, the Trade Federation hastily tries to hide their nefarious plans.

The Skywalker Saga pushes its charm, with virtually every cutscene featuring a visual gag or punchline at the expense of the film series. Kylo Ren does the iron pump-up and bend over as Rey makes contact with him in that infamous scene in The Last Jedi. Ben Kenobi eats popcorn before seeing Leia's message in A New Hope. At the beginning of Revenge of the Sith, Lego's Count Dooku makes a cheeky plastic popping sound when Anakin cuts off his head with scissors.

This crude sense of humor is reminiscent of the classic Star Wars parody film Spaceballs. LEGO Star Wars has been working its weird magic since 2005, and the series' sharp jokes have often elevated what could otherwise have been just a fusion of the two brands. The Skywalker Saga aims to encompass the entire series to date and be the first definitive LEGO collection of The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker. The result is a grab bag of different gameplay styles, held together by a single line of humor and charm.

While there is a great deal on offer, it is also a reminder of the recently reported crunch, bullying, and high staff turnover in developer TT Games' projects. While the final product is a delight, the human anguish behind it casts a pall over the game's release.

As with previous LEGO games, the characters, vehicles, and interactive objects in this game are all made of LEGO, with a focus on the destructibility and creativity inherent in the LEGO medium. The game often requires the destruction of trash and environmental objects to create raw materials for puzzle solving, and some of the playable droids can be cut in half to get through tight spots. The currency of the game is still "studs," those little one-peg pieces that you can always find in the sofa cushions.

The actual terrain of the world and most of the buildings in the series have always been realistic, not made out of Legos, but here in The Skywalker Saga, the ludicrously detailed environments add another layer of expression. The underwater city of Gungan on Naboo and the Stardestroyer graveyard on Jakku look like lost "Battlefront" maps. Instead, they are inhabited by cute Lego versions of iconic Star Wars characters. The effect is similar to Mario exploring New Donk City in Nintendo's Mario Odyssey, a brilliantly absurd combination of cartoonish characters and an authentic world.

The appeal of this setting extends to the voice acting, a trait I was unconvinced of before starting The Skywalker Saga; in the hazy prehistoric fog of the mid-2000s, I found a series filled with charismatic mimes who pantomime the events of the series I played Lego Star Wars. Thankfully, the "Skywalker Saga" has great voice actors handling the dialogue.

Not only is there a stellar cast of veteran voice actors, but also some old-timers who have reappeared from "The Clone Wars" and other spin-offs. Brian Blessed as Boss Nas, Anthony Daniels as C3-PO, and even Billy Dee Williams as Lando are all great to hear.

Mechanically, The Skywalker Saga is anything goes, mixing multiple genres between nine condensed film campaigns and a wealth of side content. The Skywalker Saga is mostly a 3D brawler, with very simple encounters hiding a surprisingly deep melee combat system. Using either a lightsaber or your fists, you can launch opponents into the air for combos, dive kicks and counters like Dante in "Devil May Cry." Most enemies go down quickly, so you can't do anything crazy, but the boss fights in "The Skywalker Saga" offer many opportunities for flashy stunts.

Unfortunately, the same boss fights are a bit watered down for my taste. I don't mind the fact that General Grievous has several strength bars, but the fact that he has to run off in a cutscene each time, followed by a mandatory battle droid sweep, light scaffolding and puzzle, with a break in between. Otherwise, that fight is where the battle actually starts to come alive for me.

Jedi characters can also use their Force-throwing abilities to pick up and throw objects and enemies, while characters without Force powers have a rudimentary third-person shooter mechanic using a blaster. All of these options make for an oddly deep toolbox for an easy challenge. The game offers a stress-free sandbox and room to experiment freely, but ultimately I found the combat unappealing and the drawn-out battles of the "Skywalker Saga" tedious.

Outside of the usual brawls, the Skywalker Saga also features large-scale space and aerial battles. The dogfights are a bit more engaging than the fights on the ground. The challenge is still fairly simple, but the ability to fly around and explore the universe more than makes up for it. In the Skywalker Saga, I particularly like the ability to fly around planetary orbits between missions, shooting down meteors and looking for side missions. As with the planetary side environments, TT Games makes full use of high-fidelity space backdrops, and the dogfights take place on the astounding skyboxes of Star Wars' colorful planetary systems.

Countless planetary side areas can be revisited at will after completing a story mission and offer a variety of puzzles, side quests, and mini-games. While limited to the regular cast during story missions, players can choose from dozens of unlockable major and minor Star Wars characters during free play. This ties in with the game's main collectible, the Kyber Brick, which is key to the long-term time sink. There are over 1,100 of these items hidden throughout the game, but I found only a little over a tenth of them in my playthrough. This item, a first in the series, is also connected to a light progression system. You can invest in upgrades for all playable characters and small bonuses to individual archetypes such as Jedi, Hero, and Bounty Hunter. Many of the hidden kyber bricks reminded me of the ingenious moon placement in Mario Odyssey.

The "LEGO Star Wars" series has been defined by its commitment to drop-in couch co-op play, and "The Skywalker Saga" is no different in this regard: with a second input method and a simple button press, two players can control one of the second characters, and the first can control the second. This can be done in a dorm room on a laptop or in a game room on a computer. This is great for laptop play in the dorm or for New Millennium dad types with media center PCs, but not for desktop play, and "The Skywalker Saga" is in dire need of online co-op. They don't, but they do have Steam Remote Play to fill the gap. I had never used this feature, but it didn't take much effort to pit my Obi Wan, controlling Han Solo in "A New Hope," against my friend on the other side of the country, even though he didn't have a copy of the game. Unfortunately, this proved to be a bit too demanding a request for either or both of us with unstable Internet connections. Comcast Corporation proved to be the greatest enemy of fun in a galaxy far, far away. I lost friends and had to re-invite them three times during an hour of play. As it stands, you need fairly reliable internet on one or both sides to enjoy online co-op in this game, and you need to own the game on Steam, not Epic.

The Skywalker Saga is not a particularly demanding game, and I was able to maintain a nearly locked 144 fps at 1440p on my RTX 3070, but the graphics menu is relatively sparse. The refresh rate reset to 60hz each time the game is exited and returned is annoying, but not a deal-breaker. The lack of graphics options is made up for by an impressively detailed accessibility menu. It is nice to be able to have multiple subtitle sizes, to set physical recovery and static HP pickup, and to simplify or even eliminate QTEs altogether.

The Skywalker Saga is an impressive package, a brilliant adaptation of some of the most iconic science fiction films of all time, with playful mockery and loving fidelity to the source material. The only regret is that its lively sense of fun is so at odds with the story of the game's development and the mismanagement that allegedly caused undue stress and pain to those who made this whimsical journey possible. One can only hope that this developer's next project will be delivered under better circumstances.