Two beloved IPs meet in the latest Apple Arcade game — Lego Star Wars: Castaways, a multiplayer adventure game that unfolds on a planet in the Star Wars universe. A high level of customisation, fast gameplay and lots of Lightsaber action have kept me glued for hours since its launch a couple of weeks ago and at the same time, it pointed out the power of the new iPad Mini, which was my device of choice.
Bit of a background. Players are taken to a planet in the Star Wars universe that’s surrounded by a dangerous maelstrom. Here you find the Observatory, which was built by an ancient society of scholars, the Sacred Order of Ramulus, and houses all the collected knowledge and wisdom in the galaxy. A mysterious virus called Corruption threatens to destroy all the data and it is up to you to stop Corruption from spreading too far and destroying the Observatory.
Once you slip into a Lego-like avatar, complete with a high level of customisation, you will be asked to get into the thick of adventure, blasting you way through with things like the E-11 Blaster Rifle and Scatterblaster. During the course of the journey you will need to interact with members of the planet for equipment and training to see you through the mission.
Some of the missions unfold in areas familiar to Star Wars fans, such as Tatooine and Endor. The figurines that will challenge you along the way are Lego mini-figure enemies We went with the touch controls of the iPad Mini, which is a very comfortable-size device to navigate (8.3 inches) but there is zero compromises in terms of sheer power as the Mini runs on the very powerful A15 Bionic chip with 64-bit architecture, complete with six?core CPU, five-core graphics and 16-core neural engine. Dragging the finger on the screen and tapping to fire or toss grenades was easy as saying “ABC”.
There is a high degree of customisation available when choosing your avatar
With each mission, the game obviously gets tough and after 30 minutes you would like another half an hour to play the game, and another 30 minutes. Yet, the Mini didn’t heat up and the battery offered a sustained performance. Even after playing for two hours straight early morning, the battery had enough juices to last the entire day.
During the mission you can also team up with other people to complete missions cooperatively. Since players are identified by random names, no personal information gets shared and the game can also be played offline. The best part about Apple Arcade is that there are no advertisements or in-app purchases, so rest assured that every title on the store will be packed with fun.
Next up, Disney Melee Mania, which is coming to Apple Arcade this month as well as the recent arrival, Oddmar+ in which the title character is shunned by fellow Vikings and must redeem himself of his squandered potential.
