It was a very good year, for games to play on my TV...Part 2

Man, 2006 may have sucked for a lot of things, but gaming certainly was not one of them. Hell, I probably left more games off the main list than I even played last year…and 07 is only gonna be better. So, here you go, my top 10 games of 06. And then some.

9. LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (Traveller's Tales/LucasArts for Multiple Platforms)

"As far back as I can remember,
I always wanted to be a [Jedi]."

Seriously. The first movie my parents ever took me to see was Star Wars. Every year, for every birthday, I had a Star Wars party. For Halloween I dressed up as Chewbacca, a Stormtrooper, R2-D2, and Darth Vader. Every Xmas, I'd beg for big ticket toys like the Death Star, an AT-AT, or the Millenium Falcon. I never went anywhere without carrying around a little C-3P0 or Boba Fett. I had New Hope wallpaper, Empire sheets, and Jedi curtains in my room. Yes, for most of my childhood, I was a Star Wars junkie.

As I got older, interest began to wane. I flirted with other franchises. A Die Hard here, a Terminator there but in the end, it still always came back to the Holy Trilogy. If you'd asked me in 1997, after the severly compromised Special Editions had been released, I'd still have defended them to the death. Then, one day in 1999, the unspeakable happened. The horrific abortion of George Lucas's original vision of a Galaxy Far, Far Away was vomited forth on screens, store shelves, and novelty drinking glasses as far as the eye could see. I speak, of course, of Episode I. Almost overnight, my love affair with Star Wars vanished.

Clock wipe to 2006 and the release of LEGO Star Wars II...the magic is back! Every classic scene of the first three movies is here for you to play through again and again (with over 50 different characters.) Saving the Princess from the Death Star? Check. Riding your speeder bikes through the forests of Endor? Check! Luke's showdown with Darth Vader and the Emperor? Double check! Shit, even taking out AT-ATs with a snowspeeder's tow cables (a set-piece that has been in like EVERY SW game for the past 25 years) still seems fresh.

In fact, playing through this game is probably the closest I'll get to even being remotely interested in watching a Star Wars movie again for quite some time (which is probably for the best since it's going to be a while until they have a clean DVD/HD anamorphic print of the "Han shoots first" originals with a 5.1 soundtrack, fuck-you-very-much-o-flanneled-one.) Add in tons of hilarious cut scenes, bonus extras, and the ability for a second player to jump in and out at any time and you've got a game that'll warm even the most jaded former Star Wars fan's heart. Huzzah, Traveller's Tales...now bring on LEGO Batman!