I can understand what Microsoft was trying to go for when it first announced it was doing a Star Wars game exclusively for the Kinect. It wanted to reach out to its casual audience, showing them that its motion accessory wasn’t just a one-note gimmick (like the Wii), while also introducing an interactive experience that fans of the films – either old or new, take your pick – would come to appreciate. Over the past few game events, we’ve seen bits and pieces of the game, some bad and some good, but decided to hold our recommendation until spending quality time with the final package. And now that it’s here, well, it’s very good, but it’s hardly something I’d call a blockbuster. When you’re first introduced to Kinect Star Wars, you’re greeted by R2-D2 and C-3PO, who show you around the archives that you can interact with.
From there, you’ll see all the activities that are available to you – Dark Side You’ll find the interface is easy to use, and the Kinect has no problem identifying your choices, though page-flipping does take practice going from right to left (unlike the other way around). Rising, Galactic Dancing, Podracing, Rancor Rampage and, once you unlock it, Duels of Fate. The main story mode is Dark Side Rising, where you guide a young Padawan learner through the trials of the Jedi ways, with Jedi master Mavra Zane walking you through the ropes. Yoda makes an appearance, but that’s about the extent of familiarity with this mode. As you go through it, you’ll face a number of characters across the galaxy, from Chewbacca’s home planet of Kashyyyk to the jungles of Felucia, where all sorts of dangerous enemies await. Throughout this mode, you’ll be controlling your Jedi’s actions, rather than their physical movement through the world, because that probably would’ve been too demanding. Still, not all the motions are read correctly with attacks. We’ve had times where our lightsaber positioning wasn’t read accurately, causing us to get struck or, worse yet, lose a “clash” where we were trying to keep an enemy at bay.
Some repositioning did the trick, but we can’t help but think some folks might be frustrated over their Kinect not getting everything right the first time. But I suppose that’s what tutorials are for. Dark Side Riding doesn’t have anything memorable about it, but does hand down a few Achievements for the trouble. And it’s nice to see Terminal Reality, the game’s developer, throw in some effort at bringing some of the worlds to life. Still, we would’ve appreciated a better Jedi master than Zane to guide us. She just rubs us the wrong way. Duels of Fate is a bit more interesting, as you’re introduced to several encounters, starting off with more lowly enemies before getting up to encounters with Darth Vader and Count Dooku. These guys aren’t pushovers, so you’ll need to master your lightsaber skills and force powers if you want to even stand half a chance. This mode is way more fun, as it cuts out the wonky story in favor of what players want the most – fighting. You can bring along a friend as well, though the split-screen can be distracting for some players who just can’t watch their portion of the screen.
