Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

When the best attempt in recent years was with "Lego", I had surefire doubts that there would be a Star Wars game worth playing ever again...check out our review of Star Wars: The Force unleashed.

I was wrong.

Since the "Jedi Knight" games came and went, the only mentionable shot at making a game in the franchise that people would describe as "Cool" and "Fun to play" was for Episode III on the Xbox and PS2, Until now.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed puts players in the shoes of "Starkiller", Darth Vader's own Sith apprentice, and well kept dirty-little-secret from the Emperor. The game takes place in-between episodes III and IV (mostly closer to Episode IV), and does an amazing job at tying the 20-year gap between the two episodes together.

Throughout the course of the game, Vader will send you on missions to track down Jedi Knights who've escaped the initial slaughter (as seen in Ep. III, known as 'Order 66') and eliminate their light-side asses with a series of lightsaber combos and force powers.

But, those aren't the only plans that the dark lord has for you. The eventual plan, and entire reason Vader has an apprentice at all, is to make you strong enough to help him overthrow the Emperor Palpatine and rule the galaxy himself (insert "Mwahahahaha" while holding fist up anywhere here).

Exactly.

As the storyline progresses, you'll be tossed through a series of many twists and turns, lightsaber duels, and memorable characters that are actually very likeable, which keeps you involved and playing the whole way through.

The gameplay is the absolute core of the experience, on the Wii. Hacking and slashing with your wiimote, and having the lightsaber recreate your actions on-screen, or throwing/electrocuting/pummelling several enemies at once with the nunchuk are both equally satisfying, and makes you feel like a TOTAL badass.

This much of a badass.

While this game was released on the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3, with better physics AND graphics, this game was *meant* to be played on the Wii, and is one of the most fun games I've played on the system since Super Mario Galaxy.

With all of that said, about 80% through the game, the games main selling point on the wii, its gameplay, slowly becomes its main liability. The repetition of hacking and slashing, lightsaber duels, and seeing some of the same kill sequences gets...a little bit boring! Thankfully, the story keeps you involved enough to see it all through to the sweet, climactic end, with some of the coolest lightsaber battles I've seen this side of the Dagobah system.

The Wii version also includes a duel-mode (absent on other systems), offering 2 players the closest thing we can get to full-out Lightsaber/Force Power battles. As cool as it is, I'm sure that once you've played through the single-player mode, it won't hold your attention for very long.

All in all:
- The gameplay is involving and fun, until it gets a little old.
- The story is the absolute shining feature in the game and contributes to the overall story of the entire saga.
- Is a definite MUST-PLAY for anyone who's a fan of the Star Wars saga.