TL;DR Decent remake but lacks the charm the originals had. Generic 3rd person action game compared to the originals that focused on LEGO focused puzzles & platforming. Overambitious combat & overworld sidequests get boring fast.

Played the original Lego Star Wars games a lot growing up with my siblings, put countless hours into co-op. Honestly thought this was just another rerelease of The Complete Saga, but when I found out it was a full on remake had to give it a shot.

While not a bad game by any means, comparing it to the originals really shows just how different gaming as a whole is now vs. back then. This is a much more ambitious game than the originals and this is for better and worse (mostly worse). While this remake on the surface is an upgrade when it comes to mechanics & aesthetics, it ends up being a very busy experience compared to the OG's. A lot of the charm from the original games came from the level design & cutscenes, and the remakes arguably do a worse job in this regard.

The camera angles & transitions between areas in the originals take a lot of inspiration from the cinematography of the actual films, and in the remakes it's just a generic 3rd person action/shooter which really takes away from the Star Wars vibe. The cutscenes themselves also have a lot more charm in the originals than the remakes. Instead of just remaking the story beats with voice acting and throwing in a few shallow jokes, they really got creative with the fact that you're playing with Lego toys. The Lego characters are silent yet show a wide range of emotion through body language & facial expressions, which works great for the slapstick Lego humor and also works for the serious Star Wars moments as well. Level design in the originals also focused a lot on fun Lego puzzles in both story mode & free play, and while the combat was very simple it wasn't invasive or obnoxious which is a good thing. The remakes level design can get very boring at times due to how busy the combat & exploration is. While the combat is more fleshed out on paper with deeper mechanics & upgrade trees, it really isn't that much more engaging than the originals and ends up just becoming a tedious timesink to pad out the levels. Puzzles also aren't nearly as present as the originals nor as creative, and simply serve as means to get to the next encounter which really takes away from the "Lego" aspect of these games. And finally while there is technically "more" content in the remakes, they don't hold a candle to what the original offered. Rather than having an ambitious open-world with repetitive side quests, they really fleshed out the levels in free play mode by giving you opportunities to play around with all the different characters for getting those Lego collectibles & bonuses. Also the hub worlds like the Diner & Mos Eisley Cantina have so much more charm than a fast travel map that you pull up in the menu, allowing you to see the characters you unlock interact with one another in fun ways and display the complete minikits you hunted for. Lego City, Custom Characters, the list goes on; the content in the originals is great for both Star Wars fans and Lego fans. What it lacks in quantity it more than makes up for in quality. Hell the first thing that appeared when I booted up the remakes was an advertisement to buy DLC, talk about a red flag of things to come LMAO.

In a vacuum The Skywalker Saga isn't particularly bad, but it's really misses the mark for what makes a Lego Star Wars game good, with regard to both the Lego and Star Wars aspects.