Lego Star Wars III 3DS brings the fun of the lego series to the 3DS handheld platform. It's generally a good job, but the small screen is tough for this game.

First, let me say that I generally adore the Lego series, especially the Star Wars ones. We own most of them for the consoles and love playing them through to 100%. So we definitely appreciate the overall concept.

I was intrigued to see how well it would port down to the tiny 3DS screen. Yes, the little characters are cute. Yes, the game in general is fun. But I just don't think the 3DS is the best way to play these. There's a lot of fine movement involved, and exploring giant maps is part of the fun. Things are necessarily truncated on the tiny screen.

Certainly if someone *only* has access to a 3DS then this is a sacrifice they're willing to make. Their choice is between playing on the 3DS and not playing at all. Having a tiny game is better than having no game.

But I would definitely say if you DO have access to a console that the game is much better on the larger console system. Especially since multiplayer is such an enormous joy in these games. Most of the fun for me on the console is the multiplayer. You lose that playing the 3DS version.

Also it's worth noting that the autosave can get incredibly annoying / frustrating. You end up replaying the same boring section over and over again because of one hiccup you hit later on.

On the up side, for people who haven't played any of the Lego games before, they are pretty much violence free. When you take out an enemy, you get coins. There's no blood or gore. And for fans of the movies, there's a lot of cute cut scenes and references in here to enjoy. They do a good job with the humor.

So, to summarize, fun to have if your 3DS is your only gaming platform. But if you have other consoles, I'd get the Lego games for those other consoles instead.

I purchased this game with my own funds in order to do this review.

Buy Lego Star Wars III 3DS from Amazon.com