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You know what? I been procrastinating on this review for a long time. Now, since I'm bored, I feel like finally getting around to it. So, please enjoy my review on one of the (if not "THE") hardest games I've ever played in my entire ******** life:



Developers: Mike "Kayin" O'Reilly

Publishers: Independent

Platform: PC (particularly Windows)

Release Date: October 2007

Genre: Action/Adventure

Modes: Single player

Rating: There is none, but if I had to guess by ESRB standards, it would be rated "T for Teen."

POINT OF GAME: Try as many times as you possibly can to get through hilariously hard platforming elements and ridiculously large bosses to BECOME THE GUY!

GRAPHICS (10/10): The whole point of this game is to parody 8-bit games, so I'm not going to put down the graphics. Depending on the computer you have, game performance may vary, but I didn't have any problems with framerate or anything like that.


This little Easter Egg was my favorite...

SOUND (7/10): The music is okay, but after a while, it gets kind of annoying. I would recommend turning the volume down on your computer or on the game if it does start to get annoying. The sound effects are okay, and there are some that are from 8-bit NES games, so prepare for a nostalgia-gasm if you are prone to those kinds of things. No voice-acting. That's all there is to the sound.

CONTROLLING AND PLAYABILITY (9/10): Simple keyboard controls here people, nothing too special, but it works. Arrow keys for moving left and right, "shift" for jumping, "Z" to fire your gun (rarely will you have to do this, it's mostly for shooting at save points and checkpoint, but you DO encounter enemies eventually), and finally "R" to restart your game when you die (you will be using this button A LOT!). There are only a couple of flaws with the playability. Sometimes the double-jumping is unresponsive. It happens not that often, but enough to be worth mentioning. I'm not going to bash the difficulty of this game, as it is INTENDED to be ******** hard. There's also a decent number of save points.


I'm gonna beat this screen this time! I'm gonna beat it, I'm gonna beat it, I'm gonna...GOD ******** DAMMIT!!!

ENTERTAINMENT (8/10): Take my advice on this one: get anger management counseling along with this game. Seriously, this game, even on the easiest difficulty level, is ******** hard. One hit, and your dead and because of the games' difficult platforming elements, that'll happen all too often. But that's what makes the game fun, because when you play it, you KNOW you're going to die a lot, and you'll feel so good about yourself when you finally get passed a screen (usually with the help of trail and error). You'll see the "Game Over" text so much, you'll start to see it in your sleep. It is difficult to the point where it is actually fun. However, if you get frustrated enough, there is a chance you may give up on this game for an indefinite period of time, but then you get back to it. There are also funny parodies to past NES games within this game, including Legend of Zelda and MegaMan. The boss battles include oversized NES characters, including Mike Tyson from Punch-Out and Bowser from the Mario series. All in all, if you manage to beat this game, you've earned yourself some bragging rights. One last thing, you can go in three or four different paths (although they all lead to the same place in the end), so you can go back and beat the paths you didn't take, which also helps replay out a bit.

REPLAY (4 out of 5):
You may feel the need to replay it to go beat the different paths you didn't take your first time through.

THE GOOD:
- Very difficult to the point were it is hilarious.
- Pretty good graphics.
- Controlling is simple, but it works well.
- An okay number of save points.
- An astounding sense of achievement if you beat it.
- Boss battles are satisfying.
- It's free!

THE BAD:
- Double-jump MAY be unresponsive
- Though the difficuly is all good fun, it CAN potentially get frustrating.
- Music gets annoying after a while.

THE BOTTOM-LINE: Want a good challenge? Then play this game. Just TRY to control your frustration if it builds up after a while.

FINAL SCORE: 8.5/10

And because I'm so generous, I'll even direct you to a site where you can download this game:

Good Luck!

It is extremely hard, especially at the part where I'm stuck at. It parodies some old game...Ghosts and Goblins (I believe that's what it was called...). Regardless, spikes everywhere. After several times, I just started cussing at the game. It's just so ******** difficult. xd

Wow, all I gotta say is...this game was quite possibly one of the biggest disappointments in a video game I've had in a while. I'm pretty sure there have been even bigger disappointments in other video games released this year, but as far as I've played, it's this one. And believe me, this is a huge blow to me, because I love Star Wars. Well, I FINALLY managed to borrow this game from a friend of mine. It's not a terrrible game, but it is obivous that this game could've been so much more. When I first heard about this game, I thought it was going to kick major a**, but as it turns out, this game is only about average. It's not bad, but it could've been a lot better. Anyway, time for my review of the Xbox 360 version of:



Developer: LucasArts

Publisher: LucasArts

Release Dates: 09-16-2008 (North America), 09-17-2008 (Australia), 09-19-2008 (Europe)

ESRB Rating: "T" for Teen

Genre: Action, fighting

GRAPHICS (8/10): They obviously put a lot of time and effort to make the game look good on loads of levels, but came a little short of perfect. The environments look terrific. They're very colorful and very realistic looking and really captivate the player into the Star Wars universe. The character models look really well, however, the facial looks of some of the characters later on in the game will look kind of embarrassing. The character animations look well in cutscenes and they are pretty good in-game. Spectacular effects are pretty good and particle effects of weapons and Force powers look fantastic. However, the game can sometimes suffer framerate issues. Also, later on in the game, some of the cutscenes and even environments will start to look less and less spectacular, mostly bland textures.


Meet Starkiller, Vader's secret apprentice, and one certified badass. Sorry ladies, but he's got a thing for his pilot, Juno Eclipse.

SOUND (10/10): The game's soundtrack is superb. They are mainly familiar tunes heard throughout the Star Wars prequels (I really liked the prequels by the way! Except for Episode 2...that one wasn't as great as the others) and the original trilogy. In fact, some of the tracks are even remixed. The voice acting is top-quality. They chose some good voice-actors for the familiar characters. Matt Sloan, even though he is certainly not as good as James Earl Jones, did a pretty good job voicing Darth Vader. Samuel Witwer was an excellent choice on voicing Vader's secret apprentice, Starkiller. The sound effects are very familiar to those used in any other Star Wars movie/game. They are pleasing to listen to, at least to me. I never get tired of hearing the sharp humming of a lightsaber.


Although your battle with Shaak Ti is action-packed, it is also frustrating thanks to the camera and targeting problems.

CONTROLLING AND GAMEPLAY (4/10): This is where the game starts to look grim. The controls are pretty much okay, although they chose a bad button for lock-on targeting. "X" is to swing your lightsaber, "Y" is for Force Lightning, "B" is for Force Push, and "A" is for jumping. Target an object or enemy, then press the right trigger button to use Force Grip to lift them off into the air. The controls are okay and the Euphoria physics engine really shines in this game. Both the controls and physics engine are pretty good. The playability, however, is not so hot. The targeting system is very imprecise, which really impacts using Force Grip or Force Lightning. Since you can target lots of objects, your targeting system may make you target the wrong thing, which can mean the difference between life and death in tough situations. When using Force Grip, you cannot accurately target what you want the object to hit. It is very annoying and tedious when I want to hit enemy "A", but instead I hit enemy "B." The camera is normally okay, but the fixed view during boss battles is a pain in the a**, as it can potentially lead to some annoying deaths. Speaking of boss battles, they are an even more pain in the a**, although the boss battle with Darth Vader is extremely satisfying, as you get to see Starkiller completely beat the s**t out of him (let's face it...Luke Skywalker was a wuss). Many of the bosses are immune most of your moves half the time and their AI is downright mean, especially on harder difficulties. The button-timed finishers for the bosses and mini-bosses are easy to figure out and are fun to watch, provided you don't get distracted enough to miss a button. The movement of Starkiller is okay, but it controls a little haphazardly, especially when you're faced with the platforming elements of the game. There are many combos to unlock and there is a nice-level up system that you can use to develop the Apprentices' skills. However, it seems as if you are never really that much of a step ahead above the enemies. I know that provides a challenge in some way, but even way-weaker enemies can screw you over if you are not careful. To top it all off...there are glitches in this game! I already mentioned occasional framerate issues. However, there are even more glitches. Boss battle music sometimes doesn't play, enemies might not notice you when you're standing right in front of them, and to top it all off, I have even run into INVISIBLE WALLS! Another problem is the sequence where Starkiller rips a Star Destroyer out of the sky. It's NOT as much of a pain in the a** as many reviewers claim it is, but it still could've been fixed up a bit. Also, why the ******** are there long loading screens...BETWEEN MENUS?! That's the last thing I want to go over...the load screens are too ******** long (not "Sonic '06" long, but still way too long). In conclusion of this segment, LucasArts really needed to patch-up the gameplay some more BEFORE they released this game. I go by the long-held belief that gameplay is the most important factor in a video game.


TK-421, why aren't you at your post?

ENTERTAINMENT (5/10): One of the saving graces this game has is the story. The story is so awesome that I actually agree with what some reviewers, including X-Play have said: They really should've made a movie on THIS instead of Clone Wars. It would've been awesome. The story is compelling enough for you to deal with the tedious gameplay just to see how it turns out. Also, when the game does work for you, which the majority of the time it does, it can actually be quite fun. Using your different Force powers to kill anything that gets in your way can be entertaining. You can also customize not only the apprentices abilities, but also his lightsaber and clothing as well. However, it can be a real pain when the game doesn't decide to work for you. Most of the problems with the entertainment can be summed up with the gameplay problems that I pointed out in the "Controlling and Gameplay" segment of this review. Plus, the game is too ******** short; you're looking at around 8 hours of game time, and that's when you're dying a lot. There's no multiplayer to save the entertainment either, and the huge amounts of time you'll die gets really frustrating. Still, the entertainment is enough for you to get this game as a rent.

REPLAY (3 out of 5):
Once you get as many Gamerscore points as you can possibly get out of this game by playing it over and over again, there's not much reason to keep this game afterwards.

THE GOOD:
- The story is awesome.
- While the game is okay working with you, it can actually be quite fun.
- Excellent soundtrack
- Voice-acting is top-notch.
- Pleasing graphics most of the time.
- Controls are mostly okay.
- The physics engine will make you swoon.
- You can get a huge kick out of beating the crap out of Darth Vader ( cool )
- Jar Jar Binks is frozen in carbonite on one of the levels. (No joke!)

THE BAD:
- The facial looks of some of the characters are just embarrassing.
- Boss battles are frustratingly difficult.
- Targeting system is imprecise.
- Force Grip can also be imprecise.
- Later on in the game, cutscenes and environments will look less spectacular than they were earlier on in the game.
- Enemy AI is ******** evil (especially the bosses). They can also break sometimes.
- Glitches, like invisible walls and missing music, are noticable.
- Starkiller moves a little recklessly, even when you are being careful.
- Framerate issues may occur.
- What the hell is with all the loading screens???
- Camera can get annoying at times, especially in boss battles.
- Playtime is too short.

THE BOTTOM-LINE:
I can recommend buying this game to fellow die-hard Star Wars fans, but to anyone else, it might be worth just a rent at the most, as the game is short enough to be so. While the game can be fun at many times, there are also a good amount of times when it can get frustrating. Still, the story is compelling and the sound in this game is awesome, and there are other bright spots. However, the entertainment is average and the gameplay has a lot of issues. In conclusion, this game is mediocre. It's not unplayable...I just kind of expected more. It's disappointing, but it is not a bad game. Keep in mind...this is coming from someone who is a huge fan of Star Wars.

FINAL SCORE: 6.5/10