N-Philes

I'm a Star Wars fan. I have a predilection to the license.

I have multiple copies of the original trilogy. I have a surprising amount of Star Wars Pez. I have an inordinate amount of Star Wars toys. I have all kinds of Star Wars models. I have a poster that I paid $45 for, and another I paid over $200 for. I waited in line for hours on end for all three releases from the new trilogy. And yet, as much as I am in love with the flannelled one – a god among men named George Lucas – I must admit that I have a special place in Hell reserved for games based off films. Even his films.

This all changed with the release of Ubisoft Montreal's Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith for the Nintendo DS.

I implore you, don't worry about whether or not you like Star Wars, because I'm not here to tell you that you have a terrible taste in movies. What I am here to tell you is that many of you have passed up on one of the finest side-scrolling beat ‘em ups ever released on a Nintendo console. Yes, I said it. Forget Turtles in Time, forget Double Dragon, forget Final Fight, forget Ninja Gaiden... ok, maybe don't forget Ninja Gaiden, but if you only play two games from this genre, you owe it to yourself to play Ninja Gaiden AND Revenge of the Sith.

Battling through a possible nineteen action packed levels, you control either Anakin Skywalker or Obi-Wan Kenobi, taking different paths depending on the character chosen. Running through these levels and battling hordes of droids, you are graded based on your Jedi Style and your overall speed at completing the level. So even though rushing through the level might award you with full speed mission points, without deflecting blaster shots, using Force powers, and ripping enemies to shreds with your lightsaber, you will never receive full marks for Jedi Style. Along with the amount of bonus spheres collected, you receive a certain amount of mission points that can then be used to upgrade your Force levels, at which point you can choose to learn a new power, or upgrade the ones you have. You also upgrade other stats as well after each completed level, such as health, Force power, or attack power.



While eliminating enemies, you slowly charge your "fury" bar, which lets you unleash amazing Jedi skills onto enemies from small, localized attacks, to screen clearing lightsaber destruction. Attacking is varied and combos come in all different shapes and sizes. Punches, kicks, and running lunges combined with a multitude of different Force powers and jumping attacks really gives you an incredibly dynamic array of attack combos. But the real love affair with Revenge of the Sith comes in it's multiplayer.

No, it's not what your thinking, the same game, but with two people on screen instead of one. It's not that. What the developers succeeded in doing was creating an amazing wireless 3D space-shooter for the Nintendo DS as a bonus to an already amazing game. Choose one of the many legendary Star Wars ships including the Millennium Falcon, Darth Vader's Custom TIE Fighter, Jedi Starfighters, and even Jango Fett's Slave 1. A few levels in the game put you into this 3D world, destroying computer controlled ships or racing through streets, but it's not until it's unleashed in the skirmish multiplayer mode that this game really shines. With four different players the game turns into the the best (well, also the only) 3D space-shooter on the DS, with the added ability to add in additional bots (computer controlled opponents) if four different users are unavailable. Altogether it makes this game multiplayer gold.



Video games, in general, have a history of being terrible mediums of retelling movies. With the small exceptions of perhaps this past year's release of King Kong and the classic Goldeneye for the Nintendo 64, video games based on movie licenses are awful. Going deeper into the topic, video games based on the plots of Star Wars movies have an especially strong tendency to be terrible. They're bad at retelling the amazing fantasy stories, bad at giving players the feeling of "the Force", and all around bad at everything video games should be. This was true for the likes of Empire Strikes Back for the Atari 2600, true for Star Wars for the NES, true for Super Return of the Jedi for the SNES, true for The Phantom Menace for the Playstation, and yes, also true for Revenge of the Sith for the PS2 and Xbox. Luckily for Nintendo DS owners, however, is that somehow this gem breaks a startlingly long legacy of underachievement. Not only do we get an amazing retelling of the story of Revenge of the Sith, we are also given a Force power system that feels like it actually fits in a video game, a deep and long side-scrolling beat ‘em up, and an amazing multiplayer 3D space-shooter.

Don't be frightened by the license. Don't be frightened by the fact that this game is based on a movie. Don't be frightened by the fact that I'm comparing this game to the likes of Ninja Gaiden, which very likely makes me look like a crazy man. With all the talk about Mario's gang karting around, and Animals being on a web of wild worlds, most people forgot that other games were actually released this summer. Don't let this mistake continue any longer and go check out Star Wars: Episode 3 - Revenge of the Sith. The Force is strong with this one.