LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens Turns 10 Today

LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens released 10 years ago today, on June 28, 2016.

Yes, somehow that is now a decade old. Please take a moment to let your bones turn into dust.

Released by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and developed by TT Games, LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens adapted the 2015 film into the familiar LEGO game formula: slapstick cutscenes, smashing everything for studs, playable characters, vehicle sections, and the kind of co-op chaos that has ended many peaceful living-room afternoons.

But this one had a slightly strange job.

It was not adapting a full trilogy. It was adapting one movie.

One Movie, One LEGO Game, A Lot of Filling the Gaps

Because The Force Awakens was the only sequel-era film available at the time, the game had to stretch a single movie into a full LEGO adventure. That meant extra missions, new dialogue, and bonus story material set between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens.

The official announcement promised additional story content exploring the period between those two films, along with new gameplay mechanics including Multi-Builds, Blaster Battles, and space dogfights.

That made LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens feel different from the older LEGO Star Wars games. It was less of a massive saga package and more of a single-film celebration with bonus connective tissue.

BB-8 Was Basically Built for LEGO Chaos

The game also arrived at peak BB-8 fever.

The little rolling droid was already one of the breakout stars of The Force Awakens, and in LEGO form he made even more sense. Tiny. chaotic. adorable. suspiciously good at causing property damage.

Rey, Finn, Poe, Kylo Ren, Han Solo, Leia, and the rest of the sequel-era cast all got the LEGO treatment, but BB-8 felt like the perfect mascot for this particular game. LEGO Star Wars has always worked best when it remembers that Star Wars can be dramatic and deeply silly at the same time.

A Strange Little Time Capsule

Ten years later, LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens feels like a time capsule from a very specific Star Wars moment.

The sequel trilogy had just begun. Everyone was still guessing where Rey, Finn, Snoke, Kylo Ren, and the First Order were headed. LEGO Star Wars was still following the older TT Games formula. And The Skywalker Saga was still years away from rebuilding the whole thing as one giant modern LEGO package.

That makes LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens an odd but charming entry in the complete history of Star Wars games.

It may not be the biggest LEGO Star Wars game.

It may not be the most complete.

But 10 years later, it remains a fun snapshot of the moment when the sequel era first got turned into plastic bricks, exploding props, and BB-8 doing crimes for studs.