"Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" PSP

When I was a kid (an actual child that is, not a 12 year old trapped in a 30-something year-old's body), I wanted to be a lot of things: a firefighter, a priest, even a nuclear reactor technician (I was a...unique child.) After my 1st theatre screening of "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi," I knew *exactly* what I wanted to be when I grew up.

A Jedi Knight!

As I got older, wiser and a little darker, I realized that I *really* still want to be a Jedi Knight, but with access to the Dark Side of the Force; a kind of anti-hero who isn't the bad guy, but isn't always the good guy either.

That's why, after more than 20 years of waiting, I am delighted to have "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" in my PSP. And yes, that is the thirty-something year old in me speaking.

LucasArt's "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" can be found on pretty much any modern game console you can find in a store today, but I'll be talking about the PlayStation Portable (PSP) version in this review (look for my PlayStation 3 review later this month!) and wow, is it fun!

The story revolves around a secret apprentice of Darth Vader years after the events of the movie "Star Wars: Episode 3- Revenge of the Sith." Here, Darth Vader is continuing the extermination of the Jedi Knights (the good guys) in order to keep the Sith (the bad guys) from having any opposition to the newly founded Sith controlled galactic empire. After years of training and keeping his apprentice a secret from the Emperor, who controls the empire, Darth Vader sends his pupil on his final set of tests to become a full fledged Sith by hunting down the remaining Jedi Knights.

The story gets pretty interesting and flows well within the realm of the Star Wars universe. I never once believed, as a Star Wars fan, that anything seemed out of place or odd about the events happening. The story was pretty much crafted to fit perfectly in the already established Star Wars universe and it shows.

After playing the PlayStation 3 version 1st, then playing the PSP version, it took sometime to adjust, but after a while, it actually felt natural. I'll admit, having some of the face buttons serve double duty, (tap the Triangle button to Force push objects away from you violently; hold the Triangle button to Force levitate, move and throw objects) took quite some time to get used to; but after about an hour of experimenting with my newfound Dark Side powers, I began to get comfortable hurling lightning from my fingertips to roast one enemy, spinning around to levitate another and throw my light saber into him and retrieve it (of course,) and finally Force push a couple of unsuspecting chaps off of a walkway, presumably hundreds of feet to an untimely headache.

In short, I *really* enjoy this game especially on annoyingly delayed train rides to and from home.

The progression of better and more destructive powers accumulate as you progress through the game with a kind of experience system, which I thought was very cool. It gives you that sense of "I'm this awesome now? MAN, I can't wait to see how I power up!" Yet, the game seems to keep the challenge up by swarming you with more enemies that have traits which make them neutral to some of your Force powers. So as you get more "Force awesome," the game amps up the challenge so you're not plowing through the opposition like paper dolls, which kept the game fun for me.

The visuals are pretty well done for a PSP game, but it's the audio which takes center stage. Playing with a set of good headphones, transports you directly into the Star Wars universe with every light saber crash, blaster shot and alien conversation that you would expect in a movie presentation of Star Wars. To hear the the light saber ignite every time our apprentice walked into a combat area gives me a smile each and every time without fail. If you are *any* sort of Star Wars fan the audio alone is worth the price of admission.

Yet there were a few issues that took some getting used to. While there is a manual camera control system, the game mainly has a camera system that automatically keeps itself behind your character and keeps the frantic action in view, sometimes you find yourself staring at the camera waiting for it to reset behind you. This combined with the game's attempt to keep certain fights packed with opponents, can make from some pretty chaotic battles where you'll want to just button mash to get through the area. To the game's credit though, simple button mashing won't always work.

LucasArt's "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" is a great title for any PSP owner who is a Star Wars fan, enjoys lots of action combat and, enjoys using new ways to dispatch their foes during a game. It isn't a perfect PSP game, but I will highly recommend it to any PSP user looking for a good challenge in a galaxy far, far away.

Alejandro's GameCore Review Equation: (Intermediate) LOTS of Star Wars Force powers + Challenging + Fun * Enjoyable Dark Side destructive powers = Solid Buy

By Alejandro K. Brown