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Product summary
Wield--or at least waggle--the power of the Force in this cinematic but repetitive fighter.
Specifications: ESRB: Teen ; Genre: Action ; Elements: Action - beat-em up ; See full specs
Price range: $46.99 - $49.99
Gamespot editors' review
- Reviewed on: 11/12/2008
- Updated on: 11/13/2008
- Released on: 11/11/2008
Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels should have been the perfect Wii game. You're swinging lightsabers, elegant weapons of a more civilized age, against Separatist droids, Sith lords, and, perhaps deadliest of all, your foul-mouthed friends. But just as aspiring sports stars have often been let down by the not-quite-there-yet Wii motion controls, so too will would-be Jedi eager to wield the power of the Force in their hands. No matter how many midi-chlorians flow though your veins, you don't so much wield as you do waggle the Force.
You have much to learn, young Padawan.
The events of Lightsaber Duels are pulled directly from both the Clone Wars CG-animated movie and the animated series. In the Star Wars universe, this places you squarely between Episodes II and III, and Anakin has yet to be tempted by the dark side of the Force. In fact, the Jedi Order has given him his own apprentice, the brash young Padawan Ahsoka Tano, and Obi-Wan Kenobi takes endless joy in watching Anakin struggle to transition from student to teacher. Together, you attempt to foil a plot by the Separatist forces to kidnap Jabba the Hutt's son. Supposedly, this will convince the crime lord Jabba to side with the Jedi in the Clone Wars, and order and happiness will be restored to the galaxy. Of course, arthropod uberdroid General Grievous, Sith lord Count Dooku, and his supersecret apprentice Asajj Ventress stand in your way. Let the dueling begin.
Lightsaber Duels holds true to many of the standard tenets of fighting games, and it even advances a few of them. The best-two-out-of-three format has been beefed up so a short cutscene will play seamlessly between rounds, which is a big improvement over a giant "Round 2!" sign popping up in the middle of the screen. In the heat of battle, you'll often cross lightsabers with your enemy, and the camera will zoom in to show, for example, Obi-Wan taunting Dooku with quips like "If Qui-Gon could see you now..." Indeed, every character has lines of dialogue recorded specifically for every other fighter in the game. Anakin will banter with Obi-Wan as if the fight were a training exercise, whereas Ventress and Grievous will argue over who deserves to be Dooku's number two. The newsreel-style scenes that introduce each episode of the animated series (sadly with the same out-of-place, annoying narrator) also preface each duel in the game. LucasArts worked hand-in-hand with Lucasfilm Animation, and it paid off. Cinematic flair abounds in Lightsaber Duels, and few movie-based games make you feel so close to the actual source material.
If only the actual gameplay felt so authentic. Hacking away with big, broad, Darth Maul-inspired strokes is simply too imprecise to be effective. Instead, you are forced to flick the Wii Remote slightly from side to side to land the desired attack. Instead of feeling like you are brandishing a devastating laser sword, you feel as if you're waggling a plastic game controller. When you get past the limitation of the motion controls, the only thing waiting is an oversimplified fighting system. There are plenty of moves--flick left and right for horizontal attacks, up and down for vertical strikes, push toward the screen to stab--but there is only one path to victory on all but the easiest difficulty setting. Basic strikes are largely ineffective and easily blocked or parried. Instead, you must link together preset combos, the final hit of which is unblockable. This will fill up your Force meter, which unlocks unblockable Force strikes. Force-throwing rocks or crates that litter the battlefield is useless because you take a big hit to your Force meter and your enemy takes minimal damage. After trying every move in your arsenal, this process of elimination will teach you to perform a preset combo, fill up your Force meter, use a Force strike, and repeat.
Duel of fates? Each battle has specific recorded dialogue.
Star Wars fans who have dreamed of creating their own combat combos will be disappointed that this system isn't very dynamic. Only the preset combos (which do at least look strong enough to befit a Jedi) do any significant damage, and you're consequently forced to repeat them throughout each battle. At least there are some quick reflexes involved. Faster characters can Force-jump out of the path of an oncoming combo, and a parry system lets you quickly turn the tables on an enemy. You parry by flicking (your remote? your lightsaber?) in the opposite direction of your enemy, but doing so successfully feels more like a lucky guess than a feat of skill--again, due to the unwieldy control.
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