I read the reviews. It's too short, they said. It's too easy, they said. I'm sure they're right, but at the moment those are not even my concerns. Two-player co-op, check. Lots to unlock, check. Faithful reproduction of beloved franchise filtered through LEGO worldview, check.

This is a game you should budget. Any competent gaming pair could blow through it in a night, endangering your purchase value. It's like playing mini-golf. Adults take their time and enjoy the foibles and whims of each green, while kids whack the ball as fast as they can so they can get to the next putt. LEGO Star Wars requires a tempered pace.

The game covers Episodes I, II and III... spoilers! We got up to the Mos Espa podrace. That covers a couple levels playing as Jedis Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan and a couple more as Amidala and Captain Panaka. The pod race itself lets one player race as Baby Anakin Blue and the other as Baby Anakin Green. I suppose they could have saddled P2 with Ben Quadinaros or some other slapstick Ep. I alien-as-comic-relief throwaway, but, no, you get the Anatwins. In the world of LEGO Star Wars, however, that doesn't matter much.

It actually handles two-player, single-screen simultaneous pod racing rather well. Since you're not racing each other - the point of each lap segment is to beat Sebulba - the game can keep both players more or less together, almost as if it's only one vehicle. Rhonda and I crashed and burned multiple times, but it never became a chore to re-play a lap. Largely because the whole damn thing is so endearingly silly. The only flaw in the entire pod racing level is that one or two sections have a cutscene embedded in them, so if you die during that segment, you have to watch the brief movie again.

Throughout the game, you collect money... or in the LEGO parlance of our times, studs. Studs are used to buy additional characters and goofy options. I bought a Gonk Droid playable character before we played the first level, I was that enamored of it. After winning the pod race, Rhonda walked into Dexter's store (Dexter Jettster's Diner is the hub world, and you can't imagine how annoyed I am at having to type "Dexter Jettster") and she immediately spent almost all of our collected studs on a moustache cheat. It went something like:

Me: "Oh god, don't buy that mousta..."
Her: Click.

So now all the characters have moustaches.

Continuing the discussion search string of "cute AND video games," these are great great great. They're magnets done in a classic 8-bit Mario pixel style, available only in Japan. I ordered mine through J-List/J-Box and love them. You can get little dioramas showing various SMB scenes for the magnetized characters to cavort upon, or just order the magnets themselves. I picked up the entire series 1 a couple months back (7 dioramas and 9 extra magnets) and series 2 just appeared. I haven't picked up the series 2 dioramas, but I did order the series 2 magnets as well as another set of the series 1 magnets. They are powerful little guys, almost to the point of feeling glued to our fridge. Keep them away from sensitive media.

In Japan, these are blind-boxed collectibles, so you'd never know what you're getting until you buy it. Happily, J-List offers complete sets... including the rare chase pieces. And when you order from J-List, they use genuine Japanese newspapers as packing material, which is crazy awesome. One time I got some kind of bizarre old calendar page with the birthdays of American metal rockers listed. This time I got a big flyer for a local pachinko parlor (I assume). J-List also has a regular New Products email that always kicks off with interesting tidbits of life in Japan from an American's perspective, which I always enjoy reading.

The guy who writes it - and runs the company - has been living in Japan for years and is quite well immersed. He covers both the good and bad, from fascinating customs to bureaucratic quagmires. I quite look forward to reading them three times a week, which is pretty high praise for something that is effectively junk mail advertising his website.