LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars

LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars is a 2011 action-adventure that retells the stories and characters of the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars as a LEGO adventure. Jedi and clone soldiers fight against the Separatists. The humor comes from over-the-top cutscenes, while exploration, puzzles and combat drive the gameplay.

Unlike the LEGO Star Wars games based on the films, the focus here is the conflict between the Republic and the Separatists. The console and PC versions combine classic character switching with larger ground and space battles.

LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars was released on March 22, 2011 for PC and several consoles in North America. In Europe, the Wii, Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS versions followed on March 25, 2011, among others.

The Nintendo 3DS version was part of the handheld console's early game lineup. It is a separate version with adapted content, not just a technical variant of the Wii or PC version.

LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars was released natively for PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Portable. A Mac version published by Feral Interactive followed in October 2011. These releases should be distinguished from later backward compatibility on newer hardware.

The handheld versions use their own adaptations. The Nintendo 3DS version in particular focuses on a single-player mode and special StreetPass and Stud features. The local two-player co-op of the Wii and PC versions cannot be generally transferred to Nintendo DS, 3DS and PSP.

Players control well-known Star Wars characters through mission sections, smash LEGO objects, rebuild them and use different abilities to open paths. Jedi can move enemies and objects with the Force and throw their lightsabers. Other characters use grappling hooks or special weapons.

Switching between characters is also important for puzzles. Some tasks require Force abilities, others the use of technical devices or specific weapons. Boss battles with characters such as the Zillo Beast interrupt exploration.

In the larger ground missions, the player leads clone troops against droid forces. Instead of fighting individual enemies alone, they build bases, deploy units, use vehicles and request reinforcements. This way, tasks alternate between direct combat and control over the battlefield.

The system complements the smaller levels, in which individual characters and their special abilities are decisive.

With SceneSwap, the game switches between two groups that complete objectives in different locations. Progress on one side can open a path for the other group. The mechanic works in the relevant missions both solo and in co-op.

Space battles also take up more room: spaceships fight on multiple levels, while the campaign shows additional locations and vehicles from the Clone Wars.

The PC version supports local split-screen co-op. A second player can join and leave ongoing missions. Steam also offers Remote Play Together, which streams the local session over the network.

On Wii, two people can play together. The Nintendo 3DS version, by contrast, is designed for one player.

The Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS versions condense the adventure into more than ten story missions plus additional challenges. Its scope therefore differs from the PC and Wii description of more than twenty story missions and forty bonus levels.

The Nintendo 3DS adds features not found on other platforms: StreetPass and Game Coins unlock additional characters and content. Mini-games such as Droid Volleyball are also part of this version.

The original minimum requirements call for a Pentium 4 at 2.24 GHz or AMD Athlon 64, 512 MB RAM, a graphics card with 256 MB video memory and Shader Model 3.0, and 8 GB of free storage. The listed operating systems were Windows XP SP3, Vista SP2 and Windows 7.

An Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon 64 X2 and a Radeon HD 2900 or GeForce 9800 are recommended. The current Steam client now only supports Windows 10 and newer Windows versions. The historical game requirements therefore should not be equated with the client's current minimum requirements.

According to Steam, the PC version offers user interfaces in German, English, French, Italian, Spanish and Danish. The language options listed there do not include fully voiced dialogue in every language.

For the handheld versions, the language packs may differ: for example, English is listed for the European Nintendo 3DS version.