Star Wars Trilogy: Apprentice of the Force review:5 stars (vonce agayn it 'tis soopa guyd) - ya aya fjdsklajfksfj it is very good go star varws ya man who let the dogs out?4 stars (don't get it) - now don't get me wrong, i love this game, it's just that i can't seem to get past the 2nd level. when i'm in the desert, fighting the sand people, and when the music swells, and the screen smalls up, I once sat through that for 20 minutes trying to get past the enormous horde of sand people, but no luck, eventually my health ran out and i went back to the last door. ditto. someone please tell me how long you have to go through that particularly long one.1 stars (Are we there yet?!) - This game should serve as an example of how not to make a platforming adventure game. It manages to get almost everything wrong.

The story is the Star Wars trilogy, and it's told from Luke Skywalker's point of view. Your character throughout the game is Luke, and he has to blast and swordfight his way from the beginning of Episode IV to the end of Episode VI.

Let's start off with the only bit of good news here. Visually, this game is appealing. The backgrounds and characters all look great. Character animations are exceptionally good. Luke runs and jumps around fluently. His moves with the light saber are well animated. Storm troopers, jawas, and other characters all look great. No complaints in the visual department.

Unfortunately, this is where the good news ends. The sound here leaves a bit to be desired. At the beginning of each episode, we see a text scroll accompanied by the Star Wars music, just like in the movies. The music here could've been better. "Star Wars: Flight Of The Falcon" did a much better job with this music. During the game, we hear a variety of themes from the movies. They're all decent reproductions at best. The sound effects here are better. Laser blasts all sound pretty much like they're supposed to, as does the light saber. R2D2 accompanies Luke through some of the levels, and the little droid makes faithfully reproduced beeping noises when he accesses a terminal or wall socket (which he does frequently). He also makes that whining sound when he gets hit by a laser blast. So our sound department is a mixed bag. Effects are good. Music could've been better.

All of this would be acceptable if not for the game-play, which does a great job of bringing this game down. The problems here are so numerous, I'm not sure where to begin. For starters, this game does way too much talking. As mentioned, the story is told from Luke's point of view, and we are subjected to him telling the entire story... in detail. Along with static scenes from the movies, he'll tell us what's currently going on at any given point during the game. This is all pretty redundant and annoying to have to skip through at a couple lines of text at a time.

This game is mostly a side-scrolling platformer. Throughout Episode IV, Luke runs and jumps around with his blaster, shooting tusken raiders and storm troopers. At the beginning of Episode V, he gets his light saber. I know it sounds promising and engaging, but this is some very mediocre gaming (if not worse). The level designs are very pedestrian, and there are many levels here to traverse.

To make matters worse, there are frequent freeze-frame encounters, during which hordes of storm troopers must be eliminated before you can progress. When you reach a certain point, the screen is surrounded by black borders, and storm troopers will come on-screen from the left and right. You have to kill them all before you can advance. This happens so often, it becomes extremely monotonous. I lost interest before Luke arrived on the Death Star. First he had to go through several levels of tusken raiders, then several more levels of Mos Eisely. By the time he arrived at the Death Star, it was already becoming tiresome. I kept entering a doorway and finding myself in yet another level full of storm troopers, and I was thinking "Aren't we there yet?" It doesn't get better. It just keeps getting worse. Level after level of probe droids and snow troopers. Level after level of storm troopers at Bespin. And so on.

The controls are also part of the problem. To aim up or down with the blaster, you have to hold the R button while standing or crouching, respectively. This aims the blaster diagonally, and there's no way to aim straight up or down. This is incredibly awkward, and there are numerous times where Luke has to shoot storm troopers who are above or below him. The light saber doesn't get much better. There are a variety of light saber moves that Luke can do, but none of them are much of a match for a good blaster at your side. With the light saber, you're walking up to opponents who are shooting you. Add to that the need to jump over prevalent chasms in order to reach the opponents, and you're better off just bringing out the gun.

For the assault on the Death Star, Luke pilots his X-Wing fighter in an overhead view reminiscent of Sinistar. It's pretty silly. The X-Wing and tie fighters bounce off of each other, just like the ships in Sinistar. The trench run is also presented in a silly overhead view. The only thing I liked about this sequence was that Darth Vader and his two escorts show up at the end, and Luke has to dodge their fire until the Millennium Falcon comes on the scene. But the space combat that precedes this little treat is about as awful as the rest of the game.

A built-in save feature automatically saves your progress, and Luke has unlimited lives. If you get killed, you'll restart at the beginning of the current level. This game is begging to be played all the way through, but is it worth the effort? I quit after the first confrontation with Vader. Even if the final third of the game is awesome, it wasn't worth playing through the other two thirds to see it. I have a feeling that the final third is just as dismal as the rest of the game. The designers tend to use the same motifs over and over throughout the game.

To sum up, this game is incredibly awful. Great visuals, good effects, decent music (I've heard better), some awkward controls, and terrible game-play. I don't care how good everything looks. This game isn't fun. A good-looking game that isn't fun is going to look good on the shelf, collecting dust.
Star Wars Trilogy: Apprentice of the Force Features:
Video Games
Nintendo Game Boy Advance (Gameboy)
GBA
Star Wars (Starwars)
Experience the most exciting and memorable scenes from Star Wars, Empire, and Jedi
Control Luke as he becomes a Jedi, fight Darth Vader and Boba Fett, escape from the fearsome rancor beast, and destroy the Death Star
Achieve victory with moves including the Jedi Power Slash, the Force Push, and the Jedi Jump
Pilot an X-Wing across space, and drive lightning-fast Speeder Bikes through Endor Forest
Battle in fast-action single-player and multiplayer adventures

Star Wars Trilogy- Apprentice of the Force is the Video Game version. The full version can be purchased by clicking on the "CLICK HERE TO ORDER" button below for around 19.88USD.