PS2 (also on Xbox 360, Xbox, GameCube, PSP, PC, DS and GBA), LucasArts, £29.99, www.lucasarts.com

By Richard Bell

Star Wars fans have never had it so good — and the same goes for LEGO fans too.

Whether you’re jumping to lightspeed from inside the Millennium Falcon, or braving the blizzards of Hoth on the back of a Tauntaun, this game gives you the chance to ride just about anything you saw in Episodes IV, V and VI as you build and battle your way through a very tongue-in-cheek Star Wars experience.

From Darth Vader’s pursuit of Princess Leia aboard her Blockade Runner, to Luke’s final confrontation with Emperor Palpatine, now there’s even more of the farcical fun-for-all-the-family LEGO action, puzzles and slapstick than before.

Playing the game with a friend is an absolute hoot as you assemble vehicles, romp about in Scout Walkers, blast anything that moves, perform Jedi mind tricks, use The Force, commandeer creatures, pull lots of levers to access new areas and grapple hook to distant places.

In Story Mode, the action is true to the original trilogy as far as the playable characters go. However, in Free Play mode, you can toggle through a range of familiar faces at the press of a shoulder button and switch between vehicles at will in space levels.

The game’s sense of humour is second to none and will have you grinning at the screen like an idiot and howling like a Wookie.

One example is when Princess Leia repeatedly tries to feed R2D2 a disc with Death Star blueprints on it. Leia eventually loses patience with the unco-operative droid and flips open his head like she would a bin and then lobs in the disc, which sends R2 on a stunned, meandering, scoot-about.

C-3PO losing a leg and having to hop about, Jawas getting run over by your Landpeeder, Chewbacca pulling the arms off Stormtroopers with a satisfying “pop-pop”, Chewy wearing a Stormtrooper’s helmet at a jaunty angle and Stormtroopers grooving on down at an impromptu disco are glistening nuggets of video gaming gold.

Graphically, the game looks stellar and, because it is built with virtual LEGO bricks, would-be Jedis can mix and match the body parts of over 50 playable characters to produce any number of new heroes.

And Jedi Masters watch out — the game also features Adaptive Difficulty, so the better you do, the tougher it gets.

VERDICT: As Yoda might say, “The Wookie’s wobblies, it is”.

Casio, £299.99, www.casio.co.uk

By Derek Uchman

Pixels, eh? Don’t you just love ’em? As a vague guide (and it is only vague), the more a camera has, the better the snaps. Casio’s latest model in the Exilim range, the EX-Z1000, has 10.1 million of the wee smashers, making it one of the highest specced compact digital cameras in the world.

But the question needs to be asked: do you need such a powerful machine? Well, no, if all you’re going to do is print off 6x4 holiday pics. However, should you prefer a luxurious A4 print, then this may be the fellow for you.

The EX-Z1000 also ticks the right boxes in other areas too. Images are warm and realistic, the flash exposure is accurate without swamping an image, and there is a healthy 3x optical zoom.

The response time between pressing the button and the picture being taken is also kept to a minimum, so you won’t miss those action shots.

As for the build-quality, well, it’s constructed from stainless steel with a fingerprint-resistant finish. And it’s so small, we couldn’t find it when we first opened the box. This is at complete odds with the display, which is massive in comparison, and takes up practically the whole of the back.

VERDICT: It’s hard to fault the EX-Z1000. A great camera that gets full marks for picture quality, build, performance and ease-of-use. And it’s at an amazing price.

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