Our good friend Zee Zee sent us an e-mail letting us know that “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed” for the Nintendo Wii has a six page review in the latest edition of the UK (# 34– October ’08) Official Nintendo Magazine. They gave it an overall rating of 82%, stating the good qualities as the controls are fantastic; great variety of moves; fantastic presentation and the duel mode’s a nice addition. The bad was that it was far, far too short. Overall they thought it was great fun, even worth of a Golden Award, but it was just too short. Quotes from the review can be read below.
The good:
On the Wii’s controls:
“The game punishes you by making sure that simply flicking the remote down all the
time never leads to any smooth lightsaber combat, as a result it forces you to mix
your swings to make combat flow better. This may seem like bad game design but in
fact it’s a clever way of forcing the player to feel more like they’re actually
fighting with a lightsaber.”
On Force Unleashed powers:
“There’s a great sense of power felt when you can avoid fighting someone on Cloud
City if you simply use the force to pick them up and fling them off the edge of a
platform.”
“The main highlight for us is lifting the enemy up with the Force then throwing our
lightsaber at them, impaling them as they float in the air.”
“Simply put, this game gives you lots of power.”
The Bad:
On Force powers:
“There’s not a huge difference between the Apprentice’s abilities at first and those
he has by the time the story reaches its final chapter.”
On gameplay:
“Dying has effectively no impact on your progress. If you die, you simply respawn at
the last checkpoint and all the enemies you killed remain dead.”
“Instead of tactically planning how you’re going to enter a room, the temptation’s
too strong to simply jump in there, get stuck in, kill a few of them, die, then jump
back in and kill the rest.”
“What disappointed us more was what happened about six hours into the game: it ended.”
“…ultimately it’s heartbreakingly short.”
On the exclusive two-player duel mode:
“The game’s lifespan is increased slightly with the Wii-only Duel mode and if you
find a similarly skilled mate it’s ace.”
“The Duel mode is a nice little addition to the game and gives is some much-needed
longevity, though it’s a shame there’s no option to fight against CPU-controlled
opponents.”
Seems like Wii players will have some mighty fun when “The Force Unleashed” hits in sixteen days.
