LEGO, Star Wars, free and games. What could be better than combining those four. Not much! The new LEGO Star Wars game has it all. The Quest for R2-D2 is a completely free game that you will love. It isn’t quite as deep as the full games, such as the original trilogy, but the quality is incredible for a browser-based game that is free. Chances are low you’ve seen anything comparable in a browser.
I would suggest that you go out and try the game, but if you want more analysis, Jay is Games has it.
What is interesting for me as a developer is the fact that this is one more game that uses the Unity game development toolkit. Over the last year I’ve seen it popup in several different places. And most developers seem to be pretty happy with their choice.
Unity is basically a toolkit for creating interactive 3D worlds. Obviously games are the primary purpose. It’s based around a graphical editor, but it allows for deep scripting and customization (such as custom shaders). Once created, the game can be deployed to a multitude of platforms. Either as a native Windows or Mac application, in a browser or even on the iPhone.
More stuff to try.