Star Wars trivia buffs -- here's a question for you.
How many Star Wars video games have there been?
Right, now that they're off researching that (and arguing, say, whether or not unofficial fan knockoffs and mod packs "count") I'll answer that for the rest of us, and say "lots and lots".
While there have been memorable games (PC X-Wing/Tie Fighter series, SNES Star Wars, Xbox Knights Of The Old Republic) and truly execrable games (Force Commander, Obi-Wan, Pod Racer 2) the vast majority of Star Wars titles have been merely average; they've either failed to capture the excitement of the series itself, or veered too far away from some basic precepts, or just been bogged down by poor play mechanics. Very few games have been bold enough to try to capture more than one of the films (or events peripheral to them) at any one time, so when I realised that Ubisoft and LucasArts were trying to do exactly that with Apprentice Of The Force, I was initially wary. That's a huge chunk of plot to fill, and with that comes an expectation of a huge chunk of gameplay.
Apprentice Of The Force tries quite hard, but sadly it doesn't quite make it. It's certainly got lots of enemies to blast (and later on, to chop into Ewok-sized chunks with your lightsaber), but aside from some relatively simple vehicle based levels -- in an X-Wing in A New Hope and on a speeder bike in Return Of The Jedi -- you'll spend the rest of your time on foot, as Luke, armed initially only with a blaster pistol.
Each of Luke's platform levels plays out essentially identically -- you'll move forward to a specified point, at which point you'll be swamped with enemies as befits your locale (Sand people on Tatooine, Stormtroopers pretty much always thereafter) who'll wait patiently to be shot at a lot. Initially this is quite engaging, but the charm wears off quickly. It's also rather tiresome within A New Hope, as Luke has yet to develop any Jedi powers, and doesn't yet have his lightsaber.
As soon as you make it to Hoth the action picks up, but the addition of powers that let you slow down time or fling your enemies around like rag dolls only improves the basic run and gun platforming action a small amount. Matters aren't helped by overly generous helpings of health (and later, on, force power). When I went through the game the first time, the vast majority of my deaths were from falling into pits, some of which I couldn't in fact see before I fell into them. Intermittently, you've got to escort another character -- mostly R2-D2 -- through a few key sections without them being shot. While that's a nice idea in theory, in execution it falls flat, because in most instances Luke can simply take shot after shot from enemies, confident that enough of them will drop health to keep him going.
Once you've completed all three films, you'll open up the ability to play any level at will, as well as the option to link up two Gameboy Advance units to play A New Hope's X-Wing combat section competitively. In a nice move for the cash-strapped gamer, you only need one cartridge to do this, but I can't see too many gamers spending too much time playing that rather simple section (even with a capture the flag variant) all that much in any case.
It's really hard to fault Apprentice Of The Force's visuals, beyond the aforementioned problem with leaps of faith leading into pits of death. All of the characters are well animated (for a Gameboy Advance title), and the locations, while well-worn into the gamer psyche by now, are well rendered. Likewise, few Star Wars games could be accused of having bad audio, and while there's only so much that can be made of the Gameboy Advance's limited audio hardware, you'll still be humming along to John William's distinctive score before you know it.
Apprentice Of The Force does bite off more than it can chew, and the resulting meal is sadly rather lacklustre and bland. It'll certainly do well off the back of the recently released DVD box set, and the Star Wars fans (who should be returning to this review with a number somewhere in the region of 42 -- oh, no, wait, that's the wrong series) will undoubtedly add this to their already stupendous collection of Lucas-inspired merchandise. For the average gamer, however, there's not enough substance to Apprentice of the Force to make it anything more than a title of passing interest.
Like this article? Click below to send it to your mobile for free!
kathy
05/11/2008, 04:12 PM
rating
1/10
Made for air heads
Pros: I just don't understand people that are grown up still playing with toys!
Cons: None!
Report offensive comment
kathy
05/11/2008, 04:04 PM
rating
1/10
Made for air heads
Pros: I just don't understand people that are grown up still playing with toys!
Cons: None!
Report offensive comment