Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

I tried the Xbox 360 demo of Force Unleashed not long ago, and while it looked like Star Wars, and sounded like Star Wars, it didn't really feel like Star Wars. It felt like a generic beat-em-up, plus telekinesis. So now that I've started playing the Wii version of the game, I'm grateful that it feels ... well, more like Star Wars. It's a shame that the game looks terrible, but, what can you do.

Confession: I actually bought this game months ago, off Amazon for a song (still lower than the current MSRP). But I didn't even boot up the disc until tonight. The first thing I did was go through all the built-in tutorial sessions, and it's a good thing I did, because some of the gesture-based controls definitely need to be tried rather than explained. And some of them just don't work well at all (luckily the particular motion of lightsaber swinging isn't terribly important). This was really the first moment I've started to appreciate the idea of Wii MotionPlus.

As I said, the game looks atrocious. I might be a bit biased because most of the recent games I've played were on the 360 - but I'm pretty sure even Wii games can look better than this. Nevertheless, I have to give my hats off to Krome for getting the important stuff right: within the limitations of the Wii's accelerometer setup, the controls don't just work, they're also fun. Hold the triggers and lunge both controllers down to send out a force shockwave. Thrust the Nunchuk to do a forward Force push. Or flick it; the nice thing about most of the motion controls is how forgiving they are.

I am still upset that I can't slice dudes' arms off with my lightsaber. And some parts of the game, like the graphics and the quick-time events (which simply require moving the controllers - in any direction), do feel fairly unpolished. But beside all that, it's pretty fun. Swinging my remote around like an idiot, I actually feel like I'm playing a Star Wars game. Cool.

Progress: Trial of Skill