In contrast to some of the challenge that can be found in the console version of Lego Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars, its 3DS cousin is anything but. Collectibles are easy to find, the level designs (while different from the console version) borrow a lot from the early Lego games in their simplicity, and the puzzles are not challenging. Of course you’re never really given a chance to actually figure out how to solve some of the very rudimentary puzzles, because the game literally tells you which character you need to switch to (flashing character icons upon the lower screen) — leaving the rest up to you to simply go through the motions of building the appropriate Lego pieces to complete the levels throughout the game.
Comparatively, it does look much better than the last time Lego Star Wars appeared on a Nintendo handheld, but it also isn’t much of a graphical powerhouse to showcase what the 3DS is capable of. The 3D effects work well enough because there isn’t a lot of fast movement occurring on the screen, although when I was picking up a lot of Lego Studs it made my eyes tickle a little bit. In other cases, items were appropriately placed to take advantage of the 3D, like walking into a room and having a collectible Minikit floating in front of me. It’s clear that some care was put into the level design and item placement is not just tacked on. Although I did find that in some levels the framerate did drop a little bit when I turned on the 3D effect; nothing drastic enough to make the game unplayable, only slightly annoying.
