An enjoyable, if short-lived, Star Wars experience
Positive:
+ gameplay is fun despite repetition
+ great graphics and sound effects
+ epic duel locations
+ wide range of difficulty settings
+ multiplayer is fun
Negative:
- bad story
- voice acting is a bit cheesy
- super short campaign and not much to do otherwise
- gameplay is pretty shallow
As a Star Wars fan, it's hard to look at a Wii remote and not see it as a lightsaber. It seems the controller was simply made for a Star Wars action game. So two years after Wii launches, we have two lightsaber swinging games, and the one based off the Clone Wars movie is totally centered around dueling. Star Wars fans will undoubtedly have a good time, but the only question is just how much time that will be.
Movie based games are supposed to make people want to see the movie if they haven't already, right? Well, Lightsaber Duels did a great job of making me NOT want to see the Clone Wars movie. I was informed of the entire story by a cheesy narrator who began by telling me Jabba's son was kidnapped, so the good guys go save him. He then told me about a bunch of other encounters with villainous lightsaber-wielding opponents, all of which I played through. Somehow Anakin has an apprentice (even though he's not a Jedi master), and that apprentice actually beats General Grevious and Asajj Ventress. Not to mention Anakin beats Count Dooku ALONE. Funny how that all works out, isn't it? It's so far-fetched and unrealistic (even in the world of Star Wars) that I simply can't get into it. Not to mention Ventress appears to get eaten alive by a giant monster in the first level, only to fight Obi-Wan in the next scenario.
The game's campaign has somewhere between 5 and 10 levels; beating it on youngling difficulty shouldn't take you more than a half hour (maybe even less). Thankfully there are three more difficulty settings, each getting increasingly harder. Finding the difficulty that will challenge you without frustrating you out of your mind shouldn't be too hard a task for anyone playing the game.
Outside of the game's disappointing campaign, there isn't really much else to do. You can do a random match (Quick Play) or a free-selecting battle; these are probably the two modes you'll spend the most time with. There's also a challenge mode, but they involve such objectives as 'knocking your opponent off the arena 3 times' or 'performing 3 parries.' This mode isn't really worth your time; it's more fun to just focus on free battling. If you have someone else handy to play with, the game is actually quite fun with another person to duel.
Lightsaber Duels contains just one gameplay element (predictably): lightsaber dueling. There is no in-between gameplay to get to the next battle; the story just unfolds for you in a cutscene between each fight. Thankfully this single element is fun, if a little repetitive. You swing the remote to swing your weapon (obviously) and you can swing left, right, up, down, or do a thrusting motion to do different attacks. There are many combos you can do with these, but memorizing them is a pain. Thankfully the loading screen shows you two of them for your character before you play so you can at least remember one for each battle. You can also use the Force with the nunchuk, there is a Force blast move as well as throwing objects and also force lightning for Count Dooku. Characters that can't use the force (Grevious and the Jedi killer droid) just have immensely powerful attacks instead. While the gameplay is pretty fun for a while, it's a little on the repetitive side with all the constant remote swinging.
While it may get a little dull swinging the remote around all the time, the gameplay is pretty fun for a while. Like I said before, though, it really won't last long. Fighting with a lighsaber is a pretty cool concept that doesn't work to 100% in execution, but it's still fun to do. Not to mention the duel locations are very cinematic, epic, and just plain cool. One stage has you fighting on a bridge where the short wall gets battered as you hit it and most stages have plenty of objects to throw at your opponent. Every stage also seems to have some action going on in the background too, which adds a lot to the overall effect.
The game is modeled very closely to the movie it is based on not only in its story but also in its visual style. The animation is nearly identical to the film, although the slight decrease in quality is obvious. The animation in the movie isn't very good to begin with (by film standards) but for a video game (especially one on the Wii) it isn't half bad. The fact that hair and clothes aren't free-moving parts of the characters is really quite strange, though. Overall the visual style is pretty sharp and looks quite nice in comparison to the film.
The Clone Wars movie, unfortunately, did not have John Williams as the composer for the music score, as is immediately recognizable by the painfully unexpected remix of the main theme that plays during the game's opening. The music is fine but nothing so spectacular as John Williams, it is a bit disappointing. The sound effects, though, are quite good as is the standard for Star Wars games. Lightsaber clashing and force effects are quite nice and are just like they are in the movies. There is a lot of voice acting done and the lines vary for every matchup between characters, but it's pretty cheesy and you hear the same lines over and over throughout the battles.
I feel sorry for the people who bought this game at full price (I rented it). It's not a horrible game or anything; it just has terrible value. There's so little to do I would almost feel ripped off if it cost even $30. Add somewhat repetitive gameplay to that and you have a game that's definitely not worth a purchase, but as a rental it's perfect for big Star Wars fans who have been waiting to use that remote as a lightsaber and people who actually liked the Clone Wars movie.
Gameplay: 7.5
Graphics: 8.0
Sound: 7.5
Value: 3.5
FINAL SCORE: 6.4/10
+ gameplay is fun despite repetition
+ great graphics and sound effects
+ epic duel locations
+ wide range of difficulty settings
+ multiplayer is fun
Negative:
- bad story
- voice acting is a bit cheesy
- super short campaign and not much to do otherwise
- gameplay is pretty shallow
As a Star Wars fan, it's hard to look at a Wii remote and not see it as a lightsaber. It seems the controller was simply made for a Star Wars action game. So two years after Wii launches, we have two lightsaber swinging games, and the one based off the Clone Wars movie is totally centered around dueling. Star Wars fans will undoubtedly have a good time, but the only question is just how much time that will be.
Movie based games are supposed to make people want to see the movie if they haven't already, right? Well, Lightsaber Duels did a great job of making me NOT want to see the Clone Wars movie. I was informed of the entire story by a cheesy narrator who began by telling me Jabba's son was kidnapped, so the good guys go save him. He then told me about a bunch of other encounters with villainous lightsaber-wielding opponents, all of which I played through. Somehow Anakin has an apprentice (even though he's not a Jedi master), and that apprentice actually beats General Grevious and Asajj Ventress. Not to mention Anakin beats Count Dooku ALONE. Funny how that all works out, isn't it? It's so far-fetched and unrealistic (even in the world of Star Wars) that I simply can't get into it. Not to mention Ventress appears to get eaten alive by a giant monster in the first level, only to fight Obi-Wan in the next scenario.
The game's campaign has somewhere between 5 and 10 levels; beating it on youngling difficulty shouldn't take you more than a half hour (maybe even less). Thankfully there are three more difficulty settings, each getting increasingly harder. Finding the difficulty that will challenge you without frustrating you out of your mind shouldn't be too hard a task for anyone playing the game.
Outside of the game's disappointing campaign, there isn't really much else to do. You can do a random match (Quick Play) or a free-selecting battle; these are probably the two modes you'll spend the most time with. There's also a challenge mode, but they involve such objectives as 'knocking your opponent off the arena 3 times' or 'performing 3 parries.' This mode isn't really worth your time; it's more fun to just focus on free battling. If you have someone else handy to play with, the game is actually quite fun with another person to duel.
Lightsaber Duels contains just one gameplay element (predictably): lightsaber dueling. There is no in-between gameplay to get to the next battle; the story just unfolds for you in a cutscene between each fight. Thankfully this single element is fun, if a little repetitive. You swing the remote to swing your weapon (obviously) and you can swing left, right, up, down, or do a thrusting motion to do different attacks. There are many combos you can do with these, but memorizing them is a pain. Thankfully the loading screen shows you two of them for your character before you play so you can at least remember one for each battle. You can also use the Force with the nunchuk, there is a Force blast move as well as throwing objects and also force lightning for Count Dooku. Characters that can't use the force (Grevious and the Jedi killer droid) just have immensely powerful attacks instead. While the gameplay is pretty fun for a while, it's a little on the repetitive side with all the constant remote swinging.
While it may get a little dull swinging the remote around all the time, the gameplay is pretty fun for a while. Like I said before, though, it really won't last long. Fighting with a lighsaber is a pretty cool concept that doesn't work to 100% in execution, but it's still fun to do. Not to mention the duel locations are very cinematic, epic, and just plain cool. One stage has you fighting on a bridge where the short wall gets battered as you hit it and most stages have plenty of objects to throw at your opponent. Every stage also seems to have some action going on in the background too, which adds a lot to the overall effect.
The game is modeled very closely to the movie it is based on not only in its story but also in its visual style. The animation is nearly identical to the film, although the slight decrease in quality is obvious. The animation in the movie isn't very good to begin with (by film standards) but for a video game (especially one on the Wii) it isn't half bad. The fact that hair and clothes aren't free-moving parts of the characters is really quite strange, though. Overall the visual style is pretty sharp and looks quite nice in comparison to the film.
The Clone Wars movie, unfortunately, did not have John Williams as the composer for the music score, as is immediately recognizable by the painfully unexpected remix of the main theme that plays during the game's opening. The music is fine but nothing so spectacular as John Williams, it is a bit disappointing. The sound effects, though, are quite good as is the standard for Star Wars games. Lightsaber clashing and force effects are quite nice and are just like they are in the movies. There is a lot of voice acting done and the lines vary for every matchup between characters, but it's pretty cheesy and you hear the same lines over and over throughout the battles.
I feel sorry for the people who bought this game at full price (I rented it). It's not a horrible game or anything; it just has terrible value. There's so little to do I would almost feel ripped off if it cost even $30. Add somewhat repetitive gameplay to that and you have a game that's definitely not worth a purchase, but as a rental it's perfect for big Star Wars fans who have been waiting to use that remote as a lightsaber and people who actually liked the Clone Wars movie.
Gameplay: 7.5
Graphics: 8.0
Sound: 7.5
Value: 3.5
FINAL SCORE: 6.4/10