We’d heard Star Wars: Clone Wars for Wii and DS would be hitting this Fall, but it looks like that meant fiscal Fall? A recent announcement’s dated both titles for “Holiday 2008″. Nothing says Christmas like lightsaber battles – or, as my colleague Luke called it, “yet another third-party action game based on a Star Wars story, only this time with waggle”.
The Wii version is officially titled Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels.Was Luke being a little harsh, or is a true “lightsaber simulator” (which Ken Fox of developer Krome Studios says this game is not) the only avenue to the hearts of Star Wars fans?
Waggle-fatigued? There’s also a DS version, Clone Wars: Jedi Alliance, being developed by LucasArts Singapore and promising “innovative stylus-based input”, and, we’re told, partner-based gameplay.
Trailers for both titles will premiere on Spike TV’s GameTrailers TV With Geoff Keighley on Friday, so we can see for ourselves. Full announcement follows the jump.
While the Wii’s Clone Wars game fails to even light my excitement furnace’s pilot light, the DS game is sounding much more promising. Mostly because of this:
Jedi Alliance is designed, from the ground up, as a stylus driven game. Player movement, combat, Force powers and puzzle solving all driven by the stylus. The unique form factor of the DS has given us a great opportunity for the first time ever to give players direct control of the Lightsaber.
So Ninja Gaiden/Phantom Hourglass, but with Jedi? That’d be lovely, thanks. Another neat addition to the game is drop-in, drop-out co-op play: you’ll always be fighting with an AI opponent, and at any time a friend can jump in and assume the role of the “partner”. Oh, and you can play as Kit Fisto. Which should really be the game’s #1 selling-point, but then, who am I to tell Lucasart’s PR how to do their jobs.
Read this: “The promise of a Wii Lightsabre game has hung in the air since the Wii hit the shelves. We think this is the game that delivers on that promise”. That’s Ken Fox, from Krome Studios, developers of the upcoming Clone Wars game for the Wii. Excited? Cool those jets. He also says this: “We’ve tried to make the lightsabre control as intuitive and fun as possible. It’s not a Lightsabre simulator, but when you swing your Wii remote left to right; your character does the same. You use the thumbstick on the nunchuck to move your character and swing the Wii remote to swing your Lightsabre”. Wait, that doesn’t deliver on the promise at all! Unless the promise was for yet another third-party action game based on a Star Wars story, only this time with waggle. Which it wasn’t! More info on the game below, which is a must-read if you want to see a man use the word “lightsabre” 20 times in a single interview.
Anyone picking up a copy of Lego Indiana Jones when it ships will find this ad on the back of the game’s instruction booklet. Yes, a Lucasarts game based on an upcoming Star Wars property. SHOCKING. Perhaps surprising, though, is the fact that the game hasn’t been shown yet. And is due in spring. And is due for Nintendo consoles (at least this version is, there’s probably a shinier 360/PS3 one). Guess we’ll see more on this at E3. Where I’m sure Lucasarts will surprise is with a game of true quality, not just some bare-bones 3D action-adventure that’s cashing in on a Star Wars movie. Because they wouldn’t do that. Would they?
