Next Tuesday I, and many of you, will be trotting out to our local Gamestop/Wal-Mart/whatever to pick up what at first seems like a completely ludicrous game: LEGO Star Wars II.

Star Wars LEGOs turned into a video game? What? Does anyone else see the craziness here? I remember when the original game came out and I scoffed and gagged at the very idea. "Oh, great, that sounds like a blast: playing with your LEGO sets on the computer/console. Whoopee." But a PS2 demo in a gaming store completely turned that thought around. Playing it only to see just how lame it was, I imeadiately fell in love with the cute little LEGO characters and the quirky take on the movies. Even my mom, a self-proclaimed curmudgeonly 60-something, thought it was great. I even went to the extra expense of upgrading my graphics card just to be able to play it.

But what IS it about this admittedly simple and easy-to-beat game that is so addictive? Is it purely the cuteness factor, or the loving parody of the films we admire part of it, too?

For a game that on the surface appears to be nothing more than a flashy advertisement for LEGO products, LEGO Star Wars has certainly captured our attention. Even my hard-core gamer roomie loves it.

I suppose the only flaw is there really is no justifiable excuse to make a LEGO Star Wars III....