A thing that I like about my Xbox 360 is the backwards compatibility. A thing that I do not like is how very, very slowly said compatibility creeps along. Honestly, if there’s one thing that might be able to save the PS3, it will be if there’s a fanbase of the PS2 games so huge that they want to maintain the thing that way. This assumes that Sony is going to be as slavishly devoted to backwards compatibility as they (rightly) were for PS1 games on the PS2, of course. I’m not sure that would be a wise move, as the differences in visual playability will be much greater this time, and even if it were a good idea, Sony has been making enough bad choices lately that I’m inclined to assume that whatever way is correct, they’ll go in the opposite.

The upshot of all this is that a week or two ago, it came to my attention that Lego Star Wars was now available for 360 play. As one thing I was not going to do was have both consoles hooked up at once, I have not been able to play this game despite having gotten it nearly half a year ago. So, at long last, sweet lego victory was to be mine. I hooked it up, downloaded the patch, and… started playing. What, you thought it would break or fail in some way? Nah, this system has continued to treat me well from the start. So, yay them.

It’s not in HD, or even widescreen. (I’m sure this tends to hold true of previous backward products as well, though I haven’t had the chance to use this feature often enough yet.) It doesn’t use nearly as much of the controller as you might think, since they are so ergonomically similar. And it’s thoroughly a kid game. But? Really fun and worthwhile, for all of that. As long as you still like Star Wars a little and as long as you ever played with legos since they started having people legos, this thing should really do the trick. The story mode is frequently funny, the freeplay mode provides hours of replay value (without it being so many that you go into a coma and don’t start playing again; see Oblivion, to my ongoing shame), and there’s even a teaser for the sequel that I understand from my game magazines is forthcoming. But, all of that is rote description of benefits. It fails to capture the sheer awesomeness of putting together and taking apart legos using only the power of the Force or chopping up legos using only the power of a lightsaber. If you can envision that in your head and know you’d like it? This is a good game. If not? Well, it’s alright if you have someone who is very bad at video games and needs a confidence booster, but otherwise it would probably be kind of a waste.

For my money, though: definitely of the good. Even if all else fails, there’s enjoyment to be had in flying R2-D2 around on his little rocket boosters. I maintain that if that doesn’t sound a little fun, it is only because you have no soul.