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Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Preview

Writer: Anthony J Scarcella » Blog
Posted: 17th May, 2008

Publisher: LucasArts
Developer: Krome Studios
Release: TBA

 

When The Force Unleashed was originally announced, and word spread that it would be coming to the Wii, everyone was essentially thinking the same thing: Wiisaber. What could possibly be more fun than swinging around the Wiimote and having an onscreen lightsaber move as well? Heck, I'm sure that if it was just a black screen with a lightsaber on it, people would get a total kick out of it (I know I would). Australia's Krome Studios haven't held back, though: Wii owners will be getting a version of the game that not only has five additional missions to those in the HD versions, but gesture-based lightsaber movement too. And as if that wasn't enough, we're also getting Duel Mode - an exclusive addition to the Wii, PSP and DS version of the game.

Well gadzooks man, that must surely be awesome. And here's the scoop: it is. I was able to get a bit of playtime on the Wii version of The Force Unleashed at Activision's Big Day and I must say, it's throughly entertaining.

For starters, there are a wide variety of characters to select, including Anakin Skywalker (and Darth Vader), his son Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. There's something for everyone here - check out the full character list in the media alongside this article.

I, being a fan of Ewan McGregor, instantly chose Obi-Wan Kenobi. My opponent (let's call him Matt, because that's his name), from JB Hi-Fi chose Luke Skywalker. We settled on the Hoth level and instantly leapt into battle. Well, just before we did, we were given a quick run-down on the control scheme. Essentially, you wave your remote around to attack with your lightsaber. The nunchuk handles your Force controls: pressing C and thrusting forward will unleash your lightning attack. Holding down Z and performing other gestures with the Nunchuck will let you use Force push, grab, choke and so on. You're able to link up some nifty combos once you become attuned to the controls. Not like we were concerned about that anyway.

Given where we were playing it, and the very brief introduction we were given, it was quite common to see something quite cool happen onscreen and not have a clue whatsoever how we did it... like most fighting games, I guess. However, with a bit of time, linking together combos can be quite intuitive and, dare I say, totally fun. Hacking and slashing with the Wiimote is undoubtedly entertaining: Krome Studios has succeeded in creating yet another game that makes Wii owners look like complete tools when playing.

A common element within all versions is the inclusion of in-game minigames. These generally take the form of button-mashing marathons, where you link together combinations in order to pull off some utterly insane combos. These are usually used as finishing moves, where you punch in a combination to do one part of the finisher, before progressing onto the next. If you fail (continued next page)