Say what you will about the recent Clone Wars movie, but I thought it was great. Sure, it was aimed squarely at kids, but on the flipside, it felt like a return to that fun, swashbuckling style of the original Star Wars trilogy. The battle scenes were epic, the acting was better (well, mostly) than in the prequel trilogy, and the main characters went on an adventure. The Clone Wars TV series is even better, because taking the franchise out of George Lucas’ hands has resulted in a Star Wars TV show that not only has far better acting and directing than the prequel trilogy, but manages to recapture that sense of fun and adventure from the originals. In short, Clone Wars is the best thing that’s happened to the Star Wars saga in a very long time (in my opinion of course). With that said, I was looking forward to playing Clone Wars: Jedi Alliance on the DS, hoping that it would provide some fun Star Wars action to complement the TV show. The game certainly does provide some action, but is it fun? Let’s find out…

The Star Wars equivalent of Hawthorn vs Melbourne.

Jedi Alliance is based on the TV show in terms of setting, visual style and characters, but it follows an original story arc (I suppose the Clone Wars were so big that you could make up any story arc and it would fit in somewhere). In this game, a shipment of lightsaber crystals has been stolen by a rogue group of force-enabled people known as the Nightsisters. Naturally, the Jedi decide to investigate the matter before it gets out of hand.

The visual style of the show translates well to the DS. The game is made up of 3D graphics that, while being a bit rough around the edges, are almost equal in quality with the Transformers movie game (which was a very visually impressive game by DS standards). The sound, on the other hand, is not so impressive. While the classic sound effects are all there and do their job, the game contains full voice acting which is such poor quality that everyone sounds muffled and distorted. It has also resulted in everyone having a massive lisp, making the characters (particularly the women- that’s right, they found a way to make Ahsoka even more annoying) extremely painful to listen to. If this was Family Guy, the dialogue would consist of ‘Thomething thomething thomething Dark thide’. This is a real shame, because the voice actors (who are either the real voice actors from the movie/TV show or really good sound-alikes) actually sound like they’re trying, and the dialogue would probably be really enjoyable if the sound quality was better. Funnily enough, the only character who sounds perfectly clear is Yoda, and he is not a playable character so you only hear him between stages.

The Jedi preparing for a fun game of Death Limbo.

At first, the game appears to be some sort of action adventure, but it soon becomes clear that it’s more like a mini-game compilation. A mini-game compilation on the DS? That’s right, Lucasarts have tried something never before done on a Nintendo console, and even though there’s no way a mini-game compilation could be anything other than awesome, the results are fairly disappointing (okay, no more sarcasm for the rest of the review). The entire game is touch screen controlled (aside from the shoulder buttons which allow you to use the Force), and you move your character by touching the screen like in Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword. However, moving seems to be nothing more than a way of getting from one mini-game to the next, aside from the occasional flicking of switches. There are some switch flicking puzzles influenced by LEGO Star Wars (ie. they require teamwork), but they’re not challenging because the game will switch characters automatically and you’re not required to do anything beyond moving your character along a narrow path and tapping the glowing light. Also, the camera is pretty bad in places, and sometimes makes it hard just to walk to where you want, or need, to go (at time it feels like it’s pushing you in a certain direction).

Some of the mini-games are good, and involve things like cutting open a door with your lightsaber, hacking computers, and activating things with R2-D2. There are also some quick time events (or in layman’s terms, interactive cutscenes) where, instead of pressing buttons, you use the stylus to trace a specified path. These sequences are actually quite fun and visually impressive- the action is well-choreographed, and the paths are drawn in 3D and appear at different angles, making it look unlike any path-tracing mini-game you’ve seen before. The other main mini-game is combat, and unfortunately, this is one of the less interesting ones.

'I must defend my awesome dreadlocks, at all costs!'

Combat involves tapping an enemy to initiate a battle, and then battling. Tapping an enemy to start a fight is occasionally unresponsive, but it works most of the time. The battle system, which involves tapping the enemy high, mid, or low for varied combos, plus tapping your own character to counter melee attacks, is a good one in theory, but it means absolutely nothing when you’re fighting droids. After all, droids have no way of defending against lightsabers, so you can basically hack them up without fear of reprisal. You’d think the lightsaber vs. lightsaber fights would require more strategy, but fighting a lightsaber-wielding character is essentially the same as fighting a droid. Sure, if you attack one area too often you may get into a saber lock, where you have to repeatedly tap the screen (anywhere) to push your opponent back, but if you vary your attack between high, mid and low, this shouldn’t ever happen. A lightsaber fight boils down to hammering the enemy until they’re stunned, at which point you can do a more powerful combo. Rinse and repeat until they’re dead. There are some bosses where you have to use the Force to throw stuff at them to stun them, but this doesn’t make a significant difference.

I really wanted to like Clone Wars. I really did. The game is full of good ideas which, with more time and effort, could have seamlessly come together to make a really solid game. Unfortunately, the end result is a disjointed collection of mini-games which all get boring quite quickly. On top of this, the game has ear-bleedingly bad vocals and a bunch of other annoyances that make it less fun. Something potentially great that ends up being a disappointment? In that regard, this game more closely resembles the prequel trilogy than its own source material.

By Mr_M

Graphics: B+

Solid 3D graphics and a smooth frame rate.

Sound: D-

Why does everyone in the Old Republic talk with a lisp? The effects and music are decent though.

Gameplay: D+

A fun diversion at first, but it doesn’t take long for it to become monotonous and boring.

Overall: D+

Kids may enjoy it, but serious gamers will get bored of it very quickly.