Review: Star Wars Kinect – Great for kids but, for you . . . probably not so much

Lucas likes kids better than he likes you

It should say something about a video game when you hear that the game took 2 years to make and the ending credits are 22 minutes long. It should say, “Holy crap, this game is going to be awesome and I will most likely end up losing my job, my significant other and all sense of personal hygiene (um, the hygiene and significant other losses might go the other way around actually) but it’s totally gonna be worth it because IT’S STAR WARS AND YOU GET TO ACTUALLY LIGHTSABER FIGHT.”

That last point cannot be stressed enough. Almost everyone, and I really mean everyone, I know has pretended to duel with lightsabers at some point in their childhood – or yesterday in my case. And, in every instance, the experience has always come up short. Maybe it is because physicists tell us that making a sword out of a terminating laser that has no container is just mind-bogglingly impossible or maybe it’s because you just end up whacking each other in the knuckles with plastic tubes. Either way, you  never end up achieving that swipe, kick, somersault, force push move that you practiced so very hard.

Until now. Well, that’s what we were hoping after 2 years and body-scanning motion technology  later. What we got instead is a fairly decent, albeit short, Star Wars game that offers users a story game, a couple of dance games and one game where you get to be a Rancor rampaging through Mos Eisley and other locations.

By far the most entertaining part of the package is the story game in which you get to be a Jedi padawan fighting separatist Trandoshans, Zabrak Sith (why are all Siths Zabraks now by the way? Oh Darth Maul, how we miss you!) and an array of Separatist robots. In addition you also get to fly fighters in combat against Separatist droid fighters and capital ships.

But how good is the Kinect you ask? This is the #1 question I had going in and I think this is where you have to consider the audience. While the Kinect still has a long way to go to really match the user, seeing as how it is dealing with players of different shapes and size in rooms of different shape and size, the game actually does a decent job. No, it will not replicate the awesome moves you have been practicing since Obiwan took down Darth maul, but it will also not impede your game play like other Kinect games (looking at you Kung Fu Panda). Basically, you can rudimentarily fight and use the force guaranteed your room is a decent size and the cut scenes offer a little help in making your finishing moves a lot more dramatic in a “oh yeah, that’s what I was totally meaning to do” kind of way.

For younger players 8-12, ironically under the ‘T’ rating for this game, the combination of cut scenes and the forgiving Kinect sensor make this game a lot of fun and the story will likely take them about 5 hours to finish. For the serious Old Republic crowd or those expecting the darkness of The Force Unleashed series this will be another disappointment.

Bottom line, this would be a great 2-day rental game for those of us with pre-teen star wars nuts in our lives or a great gift for them as well, but if you’re looking to finally make your lightsaber fantasies a reality, you should save the $45 bucks.

James Wynne