Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

A long time ago, in a city far, far away I wanted to really have a light sabre and fight (nicely) with my mates. We played with brooms or brollies and made our own humming sounds. It was great. This, I thought, would be the same, only with a Wii remote and I could do force pushes and all that, and so you can... but it's still not right.
If you have Lego Star Wars, it's actually pretty much the same game, but lacking the Lego comedy value. Your character can do about half a dozen moves with the sword, and that's it. You can do force pushes on things a-la Lego. Oh, and you get force lightening too.
The problems are that you can never actually work out what's happening. The camera always seems to be looking the wrong way, the controls are slow, the sound really average, and it's just plain disappointing. It feels like it was written for the PS2, and then rather than use the "circle" button, you wobble the remote. Couple that to the fast realisation it is a platform game, just like Rainbow Islands (remember that?) or Chuckie Egg from the eighties, only in 3-D. That is lazy design. In fact, if you have Lego Star Wars just replay it and you have the same experience.
Dear George Lucas, if you are reading this, all we want is a proper light sabre duel game. One where my movement of the sabre is tracked by whatever character I am playing, not where I get to make him do one of four options. Better yet, one where I get to stand on the WiiFit balance board too for the full effect. Even better, allow me to somehow fight with my mates like I used to using a broom handle...

If you're unsure about buying this game - as I was initially - stop thinking about it and just get it. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed has given me the most addictive and enjoyable game experience I've had on any platform in a long time. Heck, it has made me love my Wii more than ever. This is as close as any Star Wars fan can come to actually not just using but feeling the Force. You don't just run around clicking buttons to shoot a phaser or rely solely on swinging wildly with the Wiimote-controlled light saber - especially if you're surrounded by a gang of imperial Storm troopers or exotic alien enemies. No, you have access to a mighty array of dark side Force powers, and the whole environment is there to aid you in your fight. There's nothing like hurling a sizeable piece of machinery at one of your foes or hurling an enemy through a wall. And the storyline isn't just an excuse for all of the fighting action; it makes for a significant and far from simplistic chapter in the epic saga, filling some of the void in between Episodes III and IV. And, perhaps best of all, this game gives all of us lifelong Star Wars fans a chance to finally get our own hands on the Emperor.

You play Darth Vader's secret apprentice, taken as a boy after Vader dispatched his Jedi father. Sensing the strength of the Force in the child, Vader has secretly trained and groomed you for years - and now the time has come for Vader's plans for you to reach fruition. Combining your powers together, the two of you will stand against and defeat the Emperor. First, though, you have to prove that you are indeed ready for the ultimate battle. Despite the ruthless efficiency with which the infamous Order 66 was implemented, a few Jedi knights remain alive and in hiding across the galaxy. Vader's spy network is hard at work locating these stragglers, and he assigns you the job of eliminating them. These missions will take you to such exotic worlds as the extremely floral planet of Felucia and the junk planet Raxus Prime, Kashyyyk (the Wookie homeworld), and an Imperial TIE fighter construction facility, with several jaunts to the ruined Jedi temple on Coruscant thrown in for good measure. Since your existence must remain a secret from the Emperor, you'll be killing anything that gets in your way, including imperial forces. The nature of your overall mission becomes more complex as you go along, which leaves your ultimate fate in your own hands. Additionally, you can expect to see a couple of very familiar faces enter your young life before all is said and done.

As much fun as this game is, it is by no means perfect. The controls can be clunky on occasion, and the shifting camera angle can leave you fighting blind at times. It can also be something of a challenge to master some of the advanced moves in your dark side arsenal, which is not necessarily a bad thing. There are a number of destructive powers and combination moves you can learn as you progress through the game, and the challenge of mastering them all lends itself to replayability. (I should add that there is an excellent tutorial to help you learns the mechanics of each move.) My biggest beef with the game, though, has to do with the Boss fights on each level. You can bring all of your powers to bear in weakening a Boss, but the actual kill sequence is taken almost entirely out of your hands - you're compelled to move either your Wiimote or Nunchuck at specific times in order to successfully execute the killing sequence. As a result of this, the Boss fights are easily my least favorite part of the game - and that just isn't the way things ought to be. I also have to agree with those who describe the game as too easy. When you die, you basically just start right back where you left off. This won't be a problem for a casual gamer such as myself (who doesn't want to have to start over at the beginning of any given level over and over again with each death), but hardcore gamers will probably wish there was more of a disincentive for dying.

Despite the game's weaknesses, though, I still have tons of fun playing it. You don't even have to master all of the coolest moves in order to progress through the game; even children should have little trouble learning the basic mechanics of combat. I also happen to think the storyline is quite good, and the voice actors are amazing (the guy who does Vader sounds exactly like the real deal - I would swear it was James Earl Jones supplying the voice if I didn't know otherwise). I can't comment on the Duel Mode component of the game because I don't really have an interest in dueling other players, but I know I'll be replaying the single-player game many a time in the weeks and years ahead. This is as close as you're likely to come to feeling the power of the dark side for yourself.

This game promised so much but in the end it fails to deliver. The graphics are not great. OK, the wii is best used for cartoon graphics and can't compete with the high end consoles but some of the backgrounds and explosions are pathetic.

The camera is controlled by a drunken wookie and is quite happy to sit 2 inches behind a tree while you are battling someone on the far side of an arena. The first person mode is useless and I don't know why they bothered including it, unless it was for marketing screenshots.

Finally - the controls. Oh dear. I dreamed of the wii remote becoming the handle of my own lightsaber. I imagined swinging it and hearing the hum and crackle as my virtual lightsaber tracked the movement on screen. No - that is not what happens. You use the wii remote to chose one of four moves. Thats it. Up, down, left, right. There is no sense of battling an enemy, just twiddling a hunk of plastic as fast as you can. The programmers would have achieved just as much using the D-Pad for the lightsaber moves and keeping the wii remote for controlling the view.

This is a sad day for Star Wars fans. Very Sad.