Since the first announcement of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, there were many concerns raised as not only the quality of the title itself, and how it fit into the Star Wars universe, but also the quality of the Wii port. Considering that gamers around the world have been yearning to wield a lightsaber via their wiimotes for so long, many have wondered – is this the game that’ll do it? We’re not sure, yet, but one of our writers was lucky enough to sit down and have a play with one of the Wii exclusive modes – Duel Mode. More inside..

Hands-on Impressions

But, before we get into the preview, a bit of background on The Force Unleashed and what the project aims to do. Force Unleashed is a title that will take place between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, and detail the story of Darth Vader’s secret apprentice, Galen Marek. So far, the game is looking quite promising; with Lucas promising that the project will bring the trilogies together. Recent trailers have shown Emperor Palpatine and a grown up Princess Leia too, so a few familiar faces will be making a return. Currently, it is expected that every version of The Force Unleashed will have a unique feature tied to it, in an effort to provide a “distinct” experience. There are two major features to the Nintendo Wii version of The Force Unleashed, and they are the duel mode, designed to facilitate that Wii’s “better social emphasis” and six extra levels. We managed to sit down with the Duel Mode, and we liked what we tried. The first thing you’ll notice when you boot up Duel Mode in The Force Unleashed is that there are MANY characters to choose from, from both the main storyline and the expanded universe. Rest assured that many of the characters have been designed and modelled exclusively for the Wii version, so it’s not just a lame tacky add-on that we would normally expect. The variety in characters is definitely something that fans will appreciate, especially with inclusion of characters from the expanded universe. There are heaps of possibilities with the combat system in Force Unleashed. Players can use their lightsaber to slice up their foes or even the force to throw, crush, electrify and many more painful verbs. What’s even better about the abilities that players can use if that they can be combined for interesting results. Raise an enemy into the air and then shock them with force lightning, or perhaps add a force push to a lightsaber strike and send enemies flying. The possibilities are endless and the versatility for the different combinations of moves is definitely promising. And with those moves, you’ll be dealing heaps of damage to enemy (or is it friendly? I guess it’s a relative term) forces. The Force Unleashed rewards players for dealing damage by building up what’s known in-game as an “Unleased Meter”, which is exclusive to the Duel Mode. Once the Unleashed Meter is filled, the player will be able to deal more damage, take no damage and do massive amounts of damage to their opponent. Sure, it may be a bit unbalanced, but it will reward players who are aggressive rather than just sitting there and blocking. In talking with manoeuvres and combinations, the Wii version of The Force Unleashed also features quick time events, similar to No More Heroes. These occur both during boss battles and multiplayer duels, and involve twisting of the wiimote and nunchuck and pushing in order to get the upper hand. It’s definitely a nice touch, but without proper force feedback systems in place it does feel a little pointless. None the less, these quick time events aren’t 100% compulsory to be successful but do make battles a lot easier. One of the things that strike me as very interesting with The Force Unleashed is the large emphasis that the developers are placing on interactive environments. When plodding throughout Kashyyk, a Star Destroyer, Hoth, Felucia and many more, players will be able to interact with almost anything they see. Most things in the level can be manipulated via the force, from simple crates and rocks to TIE fighters. Most of it can be manipulated and used in battle – and we anticipate that players will be doing it very often. Although Force Unleashed is shaping up very nicely, there was one jarring factor that we noticed. When playing any duel battles, players won’t be able to continually increase the distances between themselves and other. Instead, the camera will zoom out to a certain pre-specified distance and then prevent any further movement from the characters. Although it’s not supposed to be Smash Brothers, we do like the camera system much better. Some players will definitely find it annoying, while others may just dismiss it as being virtually pointless to worry about it, as it didn’t impede gameplay too much. All in all, the Wii version of The Force Unleashed is looking very promising, and we are thrilled to hear that a Wii third party game is getting the polish and shine that I deserves to differentiate itself from the pack. The Force Unleashed is due for release on both the Nintendo DS and the Nintendo Wii on Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 for a RRP of $69.95 and $99.95 respectively.

Five minutes with Trevor Powell

Lead Programmer for Wii Version of Force Unleashed at Krome Studios Melbourne Vooks: Was the game based any of the 360/PS3 version of the game? Or did you start from the ground up? Powell: For the Wii Version, which was developed in our Melbourne Office, we used our in-house technology. We’ve been doing games for the PS2, PSP, GCN and 360 for years now, so we had the experience, we had the technology behind us to do this game on these platforms, which is why Lucasarts choose us to develop the title. Vooks: How does the Wii Version compare to the other version of the game that are being released Powell: Obviously there’s the. Duel mode which is unique to the Wii using motion control which is the only console version of the game with a multiplayer mode. There are 5 missions over 3 stages that you won’t see any of in the next gen versions, one of which is the Jedi Temple on Coruscant where you go through the Jedi Trials. Also although the Wii version does share the same levels as the next gen versions, they are played out differently, so you’ll get a different experience when playing the Wii version. Vooks: What were some of the main challenges trying duplicate the effects of the euphoria engine over to the Wii version? Powell: We at Krome already had a lot of our own technology and we had developed our own in-house physics solution so that we could bring the force unleashed to the Wii. We tried to get as much power out of the physics engine as we could by combining our own Collision system with. Combination of scripted events plus real-time simulations and animations we’ve done it in a way where hope that the line between. Most of the time when you knock a character down, if it’s right there in front of your that’s gonna be fully ragdoll simulated using our physics system but say if you knock down a big group of characters some will be animated using pre-set animations and some will use ragdoll, but we do it such a way where you don’t know where that line is, we try to keep that line blurred. We tried to use “Smoke & Mirrors” and a good combination of scripted events and real-time physics to try and provide that whole experience throughout the game. Vooks: There’s no online modes in the game; did you look into having online multiplayer? Powell:It didn’t really suit, we think, what we wanted to do with the game. In the Wii version you’ve got two people playing in front of the same machine, and that’s what we really think made sense with this game because one of the big advantages to the Force Unleashed on the Wii is, using the Wii Remote, you have that really direct feel with the motion controls, so it connects you with the game. Being able to actually have two people sitting there at the same machine, playing on the same screen playing against each other is what we thought really made sense. Vooks: Are there any graphical differences between the Wii and PS2 version of the game? Powell: There is an increase in detail in the Wii version. In the Wii version we have a more advanced lighting system, which uses bump-mapping and per-pixel lighting to give us more detail in the characters. So you’ll see a lot more detail in areas like say a Stormtrooper’s backpack and on a characters face then you would in the PS2 and PSP version. Thanks to Activision Blizzard for setting up the day and interview, and Trevor at Krome whose interview we sadly lost half of, due to audio difficulties.