After what feels like years of delays, TT Games ‘LEGO® Star Wars™: The Skywalker Saga’ has finally been given a release date:April 5 2022.

The final gameplay trailer was released overnight,and it looks like, while the delays have been frustrating with large gaps between updates, as well as rumors of the game being cancelled, its might all have been worth it. Having been around LEGO Star Wars since the beginning, LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy was probably one of the first games that I played with my kids. Now, almost 20 years later they are grown up, and seeking out gaming experiences of their own.

Over the years, TT Games has branched out to cover just about every significant licence that the LEGO Group have been involved with, and somewhere along the line. – probably Lord of the Rings – the characters moved from speaking with a combination of nonsensical tones and charades to using actual dialog from the movies. I’ll have to admit, for me, this is where I found myself no longer getting the same level of joy from these games. As such, I am grateful that the video game has also introduced a ‘Mumble Mode’ which returns us to those halcyon days.

The game allows gameplay to commence with the trilogy of your choice, as well as opening up the worlds to explore with hundreds of characters.

Why the delay? Perhaps they had been waiting for this to appear, in order to solve the issues of Death Star Design? Or will this be used as the prototype for Deathstar MOCs around the world, going forward?

The game will be available for major consoles: Switch, PS 4; PS 5 ; XBox One; XBox X as well as the Nintendo Switch.

The Deluxe edition will also come with a season pass for the character packs, that would otherwise become available as downloadable content. Preorder bonuses include a Luke Skywalker (Blue Milk version) for physical products, while digital preorders include a bonus ‘Classic Obi Wan Kenobi’ as well as early access to the first of the Downloadable Character Packs. This will be the Trooper Pack.

Planned Character Packs include: Mandalorian Season 1; Mandalorian Season 2; The Bad Batch; Rogue One: A Star Wars Stary; Classic Characters; Trooper Pack; Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Comparing the Australian retail prices (EB Games for consoles – RRP $AUD89.95 (standard)$109.95 (Deluxe); Steam for PC Downloads – $69.95(Standard)/89.95(Deluxe) – it looks like that defines the starting price for the Preorder minifigures. There is a trade-off here with the digital download gaining an Classic Obi Wan Kenobi. Hmmm I wonder which will be preferred by fans of physical LEGO…?

Its been a frustrating wait, but I feel optimistic for the final game… enough to preorder now? Probably!

What about you? Is this the game you have been waiting for? Leave your comments below, and until next time,

Play Well.

Addendum: The Dark Side

Seconds after I posted this article, my aforementioned son sent me a link to this article from Polygon, discussing in particular the crunch culture at the company – forcing employees to put in excessive hours to ensure that the release was ready on time. It’s worth the read, and reminds us of the issues in any industry where self imposed deadlines exist. There have been subsequent changes in the management, and apparently work is afoot to improve the workplace culture at TT games. Of course, if would be naive to suggest that this is the only games developer to have ever been guilty of such behaviour.

However, it does taint this morning’s news somewhat.