Revenge of the Sith Plug n Play

[Gabriel]

I got the little Revenge of the Sith plug & play. I'm probably being too charitable toward it, but, for $20, it's OK. I wasn't expecting it to be breathtaking or anything.

 

The control itself feels a bit awkward in my hands. The buttons don't really feel like they're in the right place. The control stick is analog, despite none of the games really taking any real advantage of analog control. The stick feels mushy, like all the modern analog controllers since the N64.

 

I'll list the games as I remember them:

 

The first is called Droid Attack or something. You control Obi Wan at the bottom of the screen as droids march slowly down from the top of the screen. The droids shoot, and you must use your lightsaber to deflect their shots back at them and kill them. If the droids get to the bottom of the screen, it's the end for our intrepid jedi. It's an interesting cross of breakout and space invaders.

 

The problem is that you must press a button to position your lightsaber to deflect a blaster bolt. When your saber is at the ready, you move very slowly, making proper positioning impossible. If you get hit with your saber down, you die. If it weren't for this flaw, this game would have the potential to rock pretty hard.

 

The next game is Coruscant Battle (or something similar). It is actually the reason I bought the plug n' play, because a nice old school 2D space fighter game with a Star Wars flavor sounded kinda cool. The game is a scroller similar to Bosconian. You can scroll up, down, left, or right, but your ship always stays in the center of the screen. There are the various typical shooter powerups. The game seems to work like so: odd numbered levels are dogfight levels where you must kill a certain number of enemy fighters, even numbered levels are boss levels where you must attack a starship and shoot off gun emplacements.

 

Once again, it's a semi-solid game with a couple of horrible flaws. The first flaw is that your ship is a one hit wonder. This makes the game very frustrating. The next is that you have no radar. You just have to wander around sometimes and hope you encounter an enemy.

 

Moving along, we next come to a game focusing on the Clones and their nifty troop transports. This game is a lot like Choplifter. But, instead of rescuing hostages, you pick up troops and deposit them to attack enemy emplacements. On this game, you are given a health bar for your ship, but it seems to deplete awfully quick. Controls seem somewhat awkward, and it's difficult to help your troops on the ground without getting killed.

 

Since Revenge of the Sith is about Anakin, we need a game focusing on him, and Grievous Assault handles this issue. In this game, you control Anakin as he searches General Grievous's starship for Chancellor Palpatine. Anakin enters a room, and battle droids come out to fight him. Kill all the battle droids and a arrow appears indicating which door you need to walk through to get to the next level. There are also levels where droids continously spill out until you meet certain requirements. Altogether, it feels like a vastly toned down and melee version of Smash TV.

 

This game has a lot of promise, but it is flawed by the same element most of the other games have. It is lethal. Anakin is a one hit wonder. One tiny mistake and you lose a life. If Anakin had a life bar instead, then the game would be fairly entertaining.

 

Finally, there's a game focusing on Obi Wan's chasing General Grievous with a lizard. In this game, your lizard is constantly progressing up the screen. Various obstacles are in your way, and enemies on speeders try to kill you by slamming you into walls or other terrain. At your disposal, you have blasters and your mighty tail swipe to fight these opponents. At the end of each level, you fight Grievous and his assault bike.

 

This last game plays similarly to Spy Hunter. Like all the other games, it's flawed, but it's flaw is different from the rest. It's too easy! Powerups are ridiculously plentiful. You have to be trying really hard to die off after you get the hang of the game.

 

Graphics and sound quality of all the games are similar to late NES/early SNES era. Be warned, the blaster fire in these games is constant and the sound effect gets really old, really quick.

 

It won't happen, but it would be nice to see the Droid Attack and Grievous Assault games polished up a little bit and put on the GBA or something, maybe in a compilation of simple Star Wars games.

[sega saturn x]

If i do buy it i think it would just be to add to my collection of star wars stuff. The darth vader controller may not feel great but it looks awsome.

[Rhindle The Red]

If i do buy it i think it would just be to add to my collection of star wars stuff.  The darth vader controller may not feel great but it looks awsome.

862906[/snapback]

Gaaah! This stuff is awful! Not one game that is truly playable (meaning I can sit down and play it for any length of time).

 

I got it of course.

 

*hangs head*

 

But I'm glad I got to play it on display at Toys 'R Us. Now I never have to open mine, content in the knowledge that I ain't missing anything.

[shep]

Hmmm I was thinking about getting it. Anyone who has this, please post about it so I can get more opinions!

[sega saturn x]

Once they go on sale im sure i will buy one Rhindle i wont open it but im sure i will buy it.

[Flojomojo]

Neat, thanks for the in-depth review! I don't understand how I've resisted this for so long. Somehow, it doesn't reach into my mind and drag out the impulsive 7-year-old with $20 to waste. Maybe because the games and movie are too new?

 

How is the sound on this machine?

[King_Salamon]

Just a note for everyone... there's a port on the top of the controller where you will be able to insert an expansion cartridge later on with 2 more games (I believe it was 2)... maybe those 2 extra games will see some more polish before release!

[Flojomojo]

Neat. Got a link with more info, or was it in the manual or something?

[King_Salamon]

Neat.  Got a link with more info, or was it in the manual or something?

867397[/snapback]

 

Yup.. here ya go... looks like Turret Defense and another one in the first (of perhaps many?) 'Game Keys'!

 

http://www.starwars.com/gaming/videogames/...ws20050304.html

[Jacob]

Am I the only one whose unit has no port on it whatsoever??

I bought mine at Target a few weeks ago (when they were on sale $16.99)

& didn't notice if any of the other ones on the shelf had an expansion port.

[Flojomojo]

How is the sound on this thing? It's in mono, so I expect nothing more than Genesis quality. Fair expectations?