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Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith
The force has traditionally been somewhat weak in Star Wars themed games and the fact that this one is based on Epiosde III is not helping its cause much. To make things worse this is yet another Gameboy Advance title that was hastily ported over to the DS with some basic touch screen support shoved in to justify the effort. Miraculously Ubisoft has managed not to turn this into a total disaster as underneath all of this still lurks a very playable game.
The majority of the game take the form of a 2D side scrolling beat 'em up which will bring back fond memories of Arcade classics like Double Dragon. You get to choose between Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, each with their own move sets. They both share mostly the same levels but do branch off from each other at key points. The backgrounds are a bit on the drab side and consist of very minimal variety which is probably thanks to the memory limitations of the GBA. There is some minimal interaction with the background as you are able to destroy certain elements to reveal hidden power-ups. Character and enemy sprites fare a whole lot better with some nice smooth animations. The visuals have a very cartoonish look but this does not detract from the overall Star Wars feel. The game also features some boss battles against other Jedi and these enjoyable sections reminded me a lot of the original Prince Of Persia games. You have to successfully parry your opponent's blows before retaliating with a flurry of your own. It requires a bit more skill and timing than the side scrolling sections where you can get quite far with simply button mashing. Your main form of attack is your light sabre but as you progress through the 13 levels, you will be able to upgrade your force powers as well. You can block or deflect enemy attacks and trigger special moves via the bottom touch screen. While convenient, this is quite a lazy implementation of the technology. Before you think the only advantage that this cart has over its GBA counterpart is the slightly better resolution and you will be glad to heart that it has another trick up its sleeve. Making for a welcome break from the 2D sections are some cool 3D space areas. Here you are given full freedom to fly around while blasting enemies and it works so well that one has to wonder why a larger section of the game was not dedicated to it. While the screenshots do not really do these sections any justice they actually look quite good for a portable title and more importantly, control responsively. The skirmish mode, which allows you to play these 3D sections seperately, will probably add the most replay value to the game. This is very important as the game is quite easy which coupled with the linear levels means you will be able to finish it in a day if you wish. I would not recommend this however as the game can become quite repetitive. One area that I cannot fault is the music and sound effects. The DS version is a huge step up from the MIDI sounds of the GBA. The tunes and effects now all sound like they were taken straight from the movie, which is as it, should be. There are no speech snippets but that is not too big a loss. As far as movie tie-ins go, Revenge Of The Sith actually does quite well for itself. It could have been even better had it been built from the ground up to be a DS game instead of a GBA port. Still the 3D sections are a nice touch and bodes well for the future of this handheld. |
TAGS: Star Wars Episode III, Revenge Of The Sith, Anakin, Obi-Wan, Droids
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