Aspyr Media on Tuesday announced that LEGO Star Wars has gone gold and will ship Aug. 22. The title uses old-fashioned LEGO building blocks to tell the story of the last three Star Wars movies -- also known as "the prequels" -- in a kid-friendly way. Players can control over 50 characters from the films, from Anakin Skywalker and Yoda to Darth Maul and General Grievous, as they make their way through 17 levels of action, including levels that allow them to fly ships. A secret level is available for gamers who achieve certain objectives.

LEGO Star Wars features "Drop In/Drop Out" gameplay that allows a second player to join the action and take control of a character whenever they want. Free Play mode enables players to use unlocked characters in any level and switch between them at will. Jedi knight characters can use the force to move and assemble LEGO bricks into different objects; other characters have their own special skills. While the game doesnit use dialogue from the movies, it does employ authentic sound effects.

The game is rated "E" for "Everyone" and costs US$29.99. System requirements call for Mac OS X v10.3.8 or higher, a G4 or G5 1.2GHz processor, 512MB RAM, 2GB hard drive space, 32MB Video RAM (Radeon 8500 or GeForce FX5200 or better) and a DVD drive. Aspyr notes that the game runs best on an iMac G5 or a Power Mac G5 with 64MB Video RAM.

Use the Force to deconstruct objects