Wii Review: Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels

In Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels, you become immersed in a plot by the Separatist forces to kidnap Jabba the Hutt’s son. Attempting to avoid any image of the events leading to Jabba actually having a son, you play as Obi-Wan, Anakin and Anakin’s young Padawn Ahsoka Tano while battling against the likes of General Greivous, Count Dooku and — yes, another secret apprentice — Asajj Ventress.

I’m thinking someone at LucasArts decided everyone in the known universe needed an apprentice. Next they’ll all get magic rings.

Lightsaber Duels is a lighthearted and well-produced game that provides some fun to casual gamers, but it falls far short of delivering on the potential of a Star Wars-based fight game.

Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels – Pros and Cons

Pros

* The campaign mode takes you through the story with some nice cut scenes.
* Occasional lightsaber clashes with the enemy provide the opportunity to exchange witty quips
* The best two-out-of-three matches provide their own mini-cut scenes and you sometimes move from one battlefield to another
* A very kid-friendly and family-oriented fight game

Cons

* The controls can be quite unwieldy and unresponsive at times
* Lacks the strategy and challenge found in other fight games

Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels – Gameplay

The gameplay of Lightsaber Duels is relatively simple to master. You have five basic lightsaber attacks executed by moving the Wii remote left, right, up, down or straight ahead. You can block by hitting the B button, jump or roll by hitting the A button, and move with the thumbstick on the nunchuk. You can also execute force powers with the nunchuk similar to Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, though much more simplified.

In addition to multiplayer matchups and single player fights, you can also play through a campaign mode that takes you through the story of Lightsaber Duels or play in a challenge mode where you are asked to achieve certain goals like defeating Obi-Won without using the force.

Lightsaber Duels Review – Falling Short of Expectations

The ideal audience for Lightsaber Duels is not the person who has played through every version of Virtua Fighter and who couldn’t wait to get their hands on Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe.

If you are really into fight games, you will be sorely disappointed with the game.

It’s also not for the person waiting to see a sword fighting game that really makes great use of the Wii’s controls, or a game with high challenge level.

True fight game fans will quickly become frustrated with unresponsive controls and tactics that pretty much just boil down to spamming combo after combo while largely ignoring all force powers other than force strike.

Lightsaber Duels Review – A Teen-sized Fight Game

But Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels is not without merit. Aimed squarely at the teen market, the game can be a great choice for the pre-teen and the early-teen.

The mini-games in the lightsaber clashes, for example, might frustrate the hardcore fight game enthusiast, with the sometimes-unresponsive controls being a major annoyance, but a younger audience might well be too entranced with the witty banter to acknowledge the mini-game’s sore points.

And somewhere between the cut scenes, light-hearted dialogue and lightsaber clashes, there’s something a little magical going on for the Star Wars fan — it’s just unfortunate that the magic cannot overcome the game’s deficits for the rest of us.

Verdict:

Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels Review

More of a family game than a true fighting game, Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels can be split between its intended audience, which it does a fair job of pleasing, and those who anticipated it delivering some cool lightsaber-fightng action, who will be sorely disappointed in the game. As such, I’ve split the difference between the 80 I would give it for the early and pre-teen and the 64 I would give it for anyone else.