Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was recently released. I’ve been looking forward to this game more than any game since… well, ever.
While I am a huge computer geek, I’m not a huge gamer, and haven’t been since the demise of the Atari 7800 (which I still own and love).
Lego My Wii!
We picked up a copy of Lego Star Wars for the Wii several months ago.
At first I was annoyed at how hard it is. And it is. I’ve yelled at the TV plenty of times. There are things I don’t think you can figure out without the excellent free .
Save that page, bookmark it, learn it, love it.
Having said that, once you get used to how Lego Star Wars works, you can figure out the game, and it remains challenging and fun. I think it’s the most fun game that I’ve played on the Wii, and I’m strongly considering getting the Lego Indiana Jones and Batman games as well.
The Force Unleashed
The Force Unleashed has been on pre-order since the day it was announced. I watched, and re-watched, the trailer for the game several times. I was, as the kids say, “stoked”.
Last night I finished the game.
And it was… good.
But if you’ve got $50 to spend on just one Star Wars game for the Wii, get the Lego one.
Why?
Two Players:
- The Force Unleashed has a “Duel Mode” but not “Dual Mode”. Which is to say that you can fight against one another, but not with one another. This seems a huge oversight for such a group-oriented platform as the Wii, especially when so many of these games have a multi-player mode.
- Lego Star Wars lets two players fight together, and allows one player to drop out at any time. This means that Ethan and I can play together for awhile, and if I get a phone call or he gets bored, we can either pause it, or the other person can keep playing.
Saving Games
- The Force Unleashed makes it far to easy to accidentally overwrite a saved game. I know, because it happened to me.
- Lego Star Wars offers much better control.
Length of Game Play
- Lego Star Wars takes a long time to complete, but once you’re done with it, you really feel like you’ve gotten a lot out of the game. And we’re still playing despite having completed it.
- The Force Unleashed took me a few days to finish, and during that time I had two frustrations: things that were too easy, and things that were too hard. The mindless drones (e.g. storm troopers) are easy to pick off, but there are a lot of them. The bigger enemies are really difficult to kill off, but once you figure out The Secrets, it actually gets to be fairly boring. I found myself thinking “OK, I know what I have to do to defeat this guy, but man it’s taking a long time.”
- Overall Challenge
- Lego Star Wars is hard. Sometimes maddeningly so. Without the guide mentioned above, I never would have finished it. But
- The Force Unleashed is hard, but a lot less enjoyable so. It’s not so much a matter of figuring things out as it is “Keep doing these things over and over again until you win.”
Force Unleashed Secrets Unleashed
When fighting major enemy, you will see either a nunchuck or Wii remote on the screen with 4 arrows (up/down/left/right). When you see that shake the holy hell out of the one shown and only the one shown. If you get it wrong, you will not cause as much damage.
Do not die. Major enemies will regain a bunch of strength if you do. This is probably the most frustrating part of the game, as they seem to get a disproportionate amount of their strength back.
In order not to die, use the “Force Dash”. A lot. Get behind stuff and then hit it. This is “the only way” to win. Also, when you are thrown or knocked off your feet, press “B” repeatedly and turn it into a jump.
When you are low on strength, be sure to run around and check the corners of whatever space you are in (room, field, whatever) for little red/orange canisters which will renew your strength.
Build up your “Force Lightning” strength by buying it in the “Force Powers”. Let’s you do damage from afar.