Traveller’s Tales’ licensed LEGO games have evolved a lot over the last few years, but there’s no doubt that LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga takes the cake. Its vast overworld, intricate combat mechanics, and new progression systems are all major new innovations that leap ahead of what the greater LEGO franchise has achieved in the last few years. The sheer scale of LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is staggering. Not only will players have about two dozen planets that they can explore, but there’s supposedly well over 300 playable characters to collect. From the sounds of things, all nine core Star Wars films will be well-represented.
Naturally, The Skywalker Saga features famous Star Wars characters like Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi, but for many months, Traveller’s Tales has also signaled its willingness to include some weirder characters. The studio confirmed that Star Wars Episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker’s Babu Frik would be playable in The Skywalker Saga a long time ago. What’s more, recent trailers and teasers have showcased playable characters who traditionally haven’t been playable in LEGO Star Wars due to unorthodox designs or general obscurity. By defying that convention, The Skywalker Saga promises to be a much better representation of Star Wars on the whole.
The Skywalker Saga’s Stranger Characters
Babu Frik alone was a very surprising inclusion in The Skywalker Saga. The tiny, charismatic engineer won over tons of Rise of Skywalker viewers but didn’t necessarily seem like a feasible playable character. Nevertheless, he’s in the game. Thanks to footage of the game, fans know that The Skywalker Saga has a litany of other recognizable but surprising playable characters. Not only will Gonk droids return as playable characters, but it seems players can take control of Star Wars icon Jabba the Hutt, in spite of the unusual size and shape of Hutts compared to LEGO Star Wars’ generally humanoid player characters.
Jabba fans will be pleased to hear that his Kowakian monkey-lizard companion Salacious B. Crumb appears to be playable too, following behind Jabba in The Skywalker Saga’s gameplay overview trailer. What’s more, a recent Skywalker Saga behind-the-scenes video includes a clip of Sy Snootles and Max Rebo, two of the famed musicians who briefly appear in Jabba’s Palace in Return of the Jedi. Even the Yoda-like Jedi Master Yaddle will make an appearance. Characters like these may have found greater places in the Star Wars world in recent years, but they’re still pretty obscure compared to many of Star Wars’ lead characters. Nevertheless, The Skywalker Saga includes them, which means it’s bound to have many other surprising playable characters in its ranks.
The Spectrum of Star Wars Characters
The weirder Skywalker Saga’s character roster gets, the better. While Babu Frik, Sy Snootles, and others are unexpected inclusions, they go a long way in making The Skywalker Saga a clearer picture of Star Wars itself. For fans, the Star Wars universe is just as strongly defined by its tertiary characters and strange aliens as it is by the Skywalker family and the Jedi Order. Star Wars wouldn’t be complete without a diverse range of characters; they’re all crucial in making it feel like a truly rich and complicated universe.
Until The Skywalker Saga releases, it’ll be impossible to say if its mechanical innovations truly pay off. However, The Skywalker Saga definitely deserves recognition in advance for its attempt to capture the broad scope of Star Wars. Even the least well-known Star Wars characters have their fans, so every obscure character the game includes is bound to make the community a little happier. What’s more, including unorthodox alien designs like Jabba and Babu Frik in the game will make collecting every character feel far more worthwhile, thanks to their varied playstyles. The Skywalker Saga clearly wants to be a cornerstone Star Wars game, and its playable characters are pulling a lot of weight in terms of reaching that goal.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga releases April 5, 2022 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
