LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy

Close your eyes and guess what the top 10 video game brands in the UK are, as measured from 1996 to 2012.

Warner Bros. and LEGO have struck a deal enabling TT Games to turn out LEGO game after LEGO game until 2016.

Traveller's Tales has begun work on more LEGO games for parent company Warner Bros. and also plans to create a children's TV show.

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is shelling out piles of money to acquire developer Traveller's Tales and its parent company TT Games, GamesIndustry.biz reports.

A playable demo of Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy was the latest highlight of Microsoft's "Bringing it Home" promotion when it went live yesterday.

Sales of Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy may have dropped by 49 per cent, but the cute sci-fi makeover continues to hold the number one spot in the Chart Track All Formats Chart for the second week.

TT Games and LucasArts have fought their way to the premier position in the UK all-formats charts, as Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy becomes the highest-selling title this week.

Capcom's bloody adventure title Dead Rising has bludgeoned its way to the top of the Chart Track all-formats charts this week, becoming the fastest-selling Xbox 360 title to date.

The trouble with unexpected success is that nobody's surprised when the next thing you do also turns out to be utterly brilliant. Nobody in their right minds expected a Lego Star Wars game to be one of the best kids game ever made. Everyone fully expected dumbed-down fetch quests, patronisingly simplistic dialogue, day-glo visuals, and a one-button control scheme so that little Kevin - aged four-and-a-half - didn't get confused. The sight of this simple, kleptomaniacal, combat-laced platformer belied the fact that here was a game that was nothing short of revelatory in its mass appeal. Full of infectious, warm humour, subtle visual touches and some masterful puzzle design, it was the sort of game that made you want to hug Traveller's Tales for getting it. After so much sorrow had been perpetrated in the name of Star Wars (most of all by Lucas himself) here was an object lesson in how to use a behemoth licence without making gamers feel physically ill. The fact that they managed to make it all hang together isn't so much despite the Lego connection, but because of it, and it was the biggest surprise of 2005.

The fact that the sequel is utterly brilliant, however, is the least surprising fact of 2006.

Removing the earnest cod-seriousness that hangs heavy over any Star Wars interpretation, TT uses the whimsy to its advantage, using Lego as means to make light of the subject matter in the best way possible. It takes full advantage of the inherent nostalgia for Lego to allow us to "walk down two memory lanes at the same time," as self-professed youngling Bramwell pointed out last year. Needless to say, tackling the 'original trilogy' of Episodes IV, V and VI and Lego at the same time is about as potent a mixture as nostalgia gets for a thirty-something. In this case, it's more like striding happily down a memory motorway in an AT-ST, blasting the traffic asunder.

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Activision has denied that the GameCube version of Lego Star Wars II has been cancelled despite Amazon UK informing customers who'd pre-ordered it that they won't be able to sort them out.

LucasArts and Traveller's Tales' LEGO Star Wars sequel, which takes players on a tour of the original Star Wars Trilogy, is available to try out in PC demo form.

LucasArts has thrown some more info our way on the forthcoming Lego Star Wars II, detailing special content exclusive to the two handheld versions.

Following on from the cute and comical brilliance of the original, Travellers Tales has gone back to the drawing board to make it a bigger, better and more engaging experience.

The PC and console versions (Xbox 360 was included as a late addition) were covered earlier and include new features such as character specific attacks (like Chewbacca tearing arms from sockets), the ability to ride vehicles and mount creatures, and the endless possibilities of the new pick 'n' mix character creation system.

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Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy is heading to Xbox 360 as well all the previously announced formats, says publisher Activision.

Traveller's Tales has revealed more details of the sequel to Lego Star Wars - including news that you'll now be able to create your very own character.

Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy will focus on the plot of the first three films, which are approximately as good as the prequels no word of a lie. Speaking to IGN, director Tom Stone said: "We've worked hard to bring out the distinctive individual personalities of all those great Original Trilogy characters - and that's given us lots of cool new moves.

"So, as you'd hope, the Emperor now has a Force lightning attack, Vader has his Force choke, Han's got some athletic blaster combat moves, and Chewie's got a signature melee attack - he pulls arms out of sockets!"

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Eidos might not have anything to do with it this time, but LucasArts has confirmed that Traveller's Tales is working on another Lego Star Wars game and yes, it is about the original Star Wars trilogy.

It's due out on PS2, Xbox, Cube, PC, PSP, DS and GBA this autumn, and sounds a lot like the first LSW game - a side-scrolling melee platform game thingum with amusing Lego-brick-assemblage - but with less restrictions. Which, given that you could use the shoulder buttons to switch from R2-D2 to Darth Sideous in the last game, is saying something.

All the characters (some 50-plus) from the original trilogy will be able to rearrange Lego blocks in some way, as the Jedi and Sith did in the first LSW, and they'll often have their own distinctive weapons, signature animations and attacks, too, with some new Force powers for the hokey-religion-lovers. And, if you liked the first game, you'll be able to import your save data and use those unlocked characters too; actually, I suppose "liking it" isn't a prerequisite, although it should be a prerequisite for you being allowed air. I hate you.

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