Yes, I consider myself a serious gamer. As a woman, this is an odd thing to admit or revel in. And it's not an easy label to wear, either. People most times think that I'm not serious or am making it up. But, really, truly, I am the geekiest gamer-girl you may ever meet.

My history w/video games goes all the way back to 1979 when my father bought Atari Pong - the wood veneer control "board" you hooked into your t.v., it had 2 knobs that controlled your little lines in either a "soccer" "tennis" or "hockey" game. They all basically looked the same except that in soccer & hockey there were a couple extra lines for you to worry about. Granted, all the lines moved together in parallel motion whenever you turned the knob, so really your strategy for winning was wearing down your opponent's grey matter hoping they blanked out for a second and missed your volley. If you were truly in control of separate sides of your brain, you could play by yourself. Hours of unbridled fun, let me tell you.

My brother & I moved through the usual line of video game systems: Texas Instruments (where you sometimes had to program in your own games), Commodore 64, Atari, NES & SuperNES. My husband & bought an N64 in 1996 which we still have & play most of the games on today. I had such fond memories of playing The Legend of Zelda on NES that a few years ago I went on eBay & bought not only a Zelda game cartridge, but also an actual working NES (all for $29). Of course, just like the old days, you have to blow into the cartridge & bang around the system a bit to get things working, but eventually things happen & in about an hour, you can finish the entire Legend of Zelda. I remember this feat taking days on end when my bro & I were in middle school. Now? Why an hour? Because games have improved so much that I am just too much brain for that old game.

I bought my first walk-through guide with the N64 Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. How many of you here know what an ocarina is? It's not something made up for the game, it's an actual instrument (a friend of mine even performed a modern composition that included a few short bars on ocarina). Here, check out the sights and sounds of the ocarina for yourself.

Anyway, back to the blog. I was so overwhelmed by Ocarina of Time I had to go buy the walkthrough guide. It sure was a big help (especially in finding the gold skultulas), but after a few times, I was able to make it through the game on my own. Same thing with the "Majora's Mask" Zelda game that came out a few years later. Although that one is more complicated & definitely needs some note keeping.

But now that we have the LEGO SW games for our PS2, I haven't found the need for a walkthrough. Why? I don't know. These games just seem to flow so well, there's no real "hidden" secrets, and if you get stuck, there's always someone around here who knows the answer. At this particular time, it feels like that's me, but whatever. This is fun!

So what about a walk through for LEGO SW 2? This game has more bricks & tricks & trinkets than the 1st game. In fact, LEGO SW 1 is easy to beat in just a couple of hours, even going back to finish all the free play modes & completing mini-kits, this game isn't all that difficult. Just look at the number of "Extras" you can purchase. Not many & they are all ridiculous - tea cups, brooms, mustaches, how do these help you in your quest? They don't, they're just an indication that you can finish this game without any help.

But LEGO SW 2 is a bit more complicated. 4 gold bricks & one red brick for each chapter. Free play, story mode, bonus levels, super story. This game takes a while to finish! Just the super stories themselves take an hour, so if you finish each Episode in Free Play (3 episodes x 1 hour each) and Story Play (3 episodes x 1 hour each), Super Story (3 episodes x 1 hour each), the mini-kit bonuses (3 x 3 minutes), the character bonuses (3 x 3 minutes), the bounty hunter levels (10 x 2 minutes), it should still take you at least 9 hours to finish this game. I don't know about you, but I have a life so I'm not about to spend an entire day melting my brain just to finish this game in one sitting. I laugh whenever someone boasts on the boards that they finished LEGO SW 2 in one hour. It's impossible.

I figured that it would be a lot of fun to write a walk-through, but that will also take time, patience & probably having the game going while I'm writing. Yeah, that's a lot of work I'm not in the mood to do. And who's going to care? The game has been in the stores for 6 months now, if you haven't beaten the game by now, my little guide wouldn't help.

So, all I'm going to do is offer some advice on how to help yourself play this game:

1. Purchase "Use Old Save" from LEGO SW 1 so that you have Darth Maul right from the beginning. It's not too difficult to get the 250,000 studs required for this - just play a bunch of Ep. IV levels.

Also, buy Greedo as soon as you are able.

2. Purchase Fast Force, Fast Build, Super Blasters & Super Lightsabers as soon as you are able, but work on saving your studs for invincible. It costs quite a bit, but it's so worth it. After completing Ep. IV chapter 1 (Secret Plans) in Story Mode, go back in Free Play (engage both players so you can choose Darth Maul AND Greedo, then drop the other guy out) and collect every last possible stud you can. This level has a lot of studs & will help you get your invincible faster, so play it several times to help your total.

3. After you have invincible begin saving up for the 2x multiplier and your mini-kit detector. The multiplier is not entirely necessary, but if you're like me, collecting studs is the most fun part of the game & this just feeds that addiction. The mini-kit detector is really helpful in finding canisters that only darkside guys or bounty hunters can retrieve.

4. AND MOST IMPORTANT CHEAT OF ALL: finish one game first, purchase all the extras. When you start up your game, choose the finished guy first, turn on the extras you want (fast force, fast build, super blasters, super lightsabers, infinite torpedos, maybe a multiplier if you feel like really taking your cheating to the next level). Exit the menu then quit the game. Choose one of your new games from "load" & be amazed at how all the cheats you turned on in the old game now work for the new one!!

These are bits of advice that I have been asked in the recent past regarding this game. If you have any more specific questions about the game, please feel free to ask me in the comments! I'm happy to help when I can! Besides, what good is it to be a total & complete nerd if you can't use this power for evil?