Now that LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga has been delayed, Star Wars fans will have to find a new game to play. While the upcoming port of Star Wars: Republic Commando should suffice for some, it won’t be every LEGO fan's cup of tea. Luckily, there are some overlooked LEGO Star Wars games to play until Skywalker Saga releases. LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a good choice and one of the best modern LEGO games. However, it's nowhere near as overlooked as 2011's LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars.
This game, like most Star Wars games of its time, was a tie-in for the Cartoon Network show Star Wars: The Clone Wars. As such, it wasn’t directly linked to the core Saga episodes like the LEGO Star Wars titles before or after it. However, LEGO Star Wars III was tied to the equally overlooked theatrical Clone Wars movie. Due to these connections, LEGO Star Wars III is largely a product of its time, and when The Clone Wars faded away, so did the game.
LEGO Star Wars III's fading reputation was not helped by LEGO fatigue, either. Its LEGO Star Wars predecessors pioneered LEGO's gaming ubiquity, and LEGO Star Wars III released into the thick of the brand's monotony. While it has a solid and favorable Metacritic score of 75, the game was dinged for the same flaws as the LEGO titles before it. Gameplay was repetitive and shallow, held up by plenty of fan service and simple, tactile fun. The reviews of any one LEGO game largely be applied to any other, unfortunately. LEGO Star Wars III suffered from this homogeneity.
However, these criticisms may not have been entirely fair. LEGO Star Wars III is ambitious and unique in ways that make it worth revisiting. Many of its innovations are LEGO staples nowadays. But, in 2011, they were novel. LEGO Star Wars III made combat flashier and a bit more involved. The hub overworld was bigger and denser. Overall, the game was a grander experience that was more than just another LEGO Star Wars game.
This sense of scope extends to the massive ground assault missions, which still are worth playing. These are unlike anything else in LEGO Star Wars. In essence, these missions are a LEGO take on real-time-strategy gameplay. Being a LEGO game, the RTS elements are simplified and action-oriented, similar to how Pikmin riffs on the genre. The player controls a cast of LEGO Star Wars characters fighting across sprawling battlefields. To win, different installations from canons to troop barracks can be built and used to overwhelm and destroy the opposing side. These missions were a fresh departure from the repetitive, linear gameplay formula. Even today, they're a remarkably unique facet of LEGO Star Wars.
For those large-scale battles alone, LEGO Star Wars III is worth revisiting. For fans of The Clone Wars, though, this game has even more merit. Like every LEGO title, the depth of fan service here is charming and elevates otherwise standard action-platforming. Plus, in a sea of underwhelming Clone Wars titles like Republic Heroes, LEGO Star Wars III might be the best video game adaptation of the show. As the game released across every conceivable seventh-generation piece of hardware, LEGO Star Wars III is an easily accessible way to reconnect with one of Star Wars' best TV series.
Considering that Star Wars: The Bad Batch is debuting on Disney+ next month, now is the perfect time to reconnect with Clone Wars-era content. The delay of LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is disappointing, but it does create this nice moment of synergy. With the new show's premiere and a bit more time before Skywalker Saga, this is the perfect opportunity to revisit LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars.