When a new game comes out that has lots of great stuff going for it, but nevertheless contains a handful of flaws, I think most people are willing to give it a slide.
But when the sequel comes out and refuses to address those issues, that's when people get really mean. Like when the time limit stayed in Pikmin 2. Or the innumerable little ought-to-have-been-fixed quirks of Animal Crossing: Wild World.
Or LEGO Star Wars 2.
The restrictive 2-player camera was a huge problem in the first game, and it is just as awful in the sequel. In fact, it's probably worse due to the increased complexity of the level designs. If you don't keep within a close radius to your partner, you'll be caught behind something, you'll get dragged along (perhaps to your death) or you'll be randomly warped into another character, causing extreme confusion. It was soooo obvious in the first one that I can't believe that they just overlooked it.
Jesus, just have the camera zoom out as far as possible. Don't stop it at some arbitrary limit just to keep the scene legible; we'll walk back when we realize we've gone too far on our own. And, for flying zeppelin shitcock, don't allow one player to push the camera so that the second player gets dragged. If one player is standing still, that should fucking lock the camera down.
Rhonda and I are at the point where we can recognize a potentially problematic cam situation, so one of us will simply drop out and the other will manuever through the obstacle. What kind of multiplayer gameplay is that, where you're encouraged to bail out on each other?
Internet rumors suggest that the DS version was shipped too early, because the ball sacks at Lucas HAD to have the game drop in holy synergy with the latest DVD rip-off, er, release of the Star Wars films. I wonder if that applied to the other versions as well. I'd like to think that somebody down in playtesting was screaming "No, we didn't fix the damn camera!"
Also: what the hell does "extra toggle" mean? We unlocked it the other night, expecting a screen might pop up and explain what it was, but no such information appeared. And major boos for talking up the cool feature to play as the Episode 1/2/3 characters (provided you still have a memory card save), but then limiting their appearance to Free Play only. Not in the build-a-character mode (which is also gimpy), and not as additional wandering characters in the Mos Eisley bar hub.
And those cheat codes you get for beating the PS2 demo are completely bogus. They just unlock the ability to pay for those characters, which is like getting a voucher for a ticket for a can of soda. And anyway, you naturally get the ability to buy those characters after beating level three. Which is, if you'll follow me here, merely the third level of the game. A self-respecting cheat code would give you the character for free.
Another thing! That third cheat code is for a Tusken Raider, not even Greedo! WTF!
It's hard to believe we're enjoying this game as much as we are. The Han/Luke dynamic is so much more fun than all the forced pairings of the first LSW.
And big ups to the Beach Trooper. You know who you are.
