Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
Game Boy Advance
This game has been on my radar for a few years now. It has a big cult following online, and is often considered one of the better games based on the Star Wars prequels. I never had a Game Boy Advance growing up. And even if I did, I probably would have avoided this game under the assumption that it was just another soulless movie tie-in. But hearing all the praise was enough to get me interested in the game. Let's se if it is worthy of all the accolades.
Time to jump in.
Story:
There are essentially two different story modes in this game: the one where you follow Obi-Wan's story and the one where you follow Anakin's. They start and end the same. It's in the middle where they go their separate ways.
The game begins the same way the movie does: during the big space battle where Chancellor Palpatine is taken by Count Dooku. Playing as your character of choice, you fight through a bunch of enemies in order to save the Chancellor. Then you fight Dooku and put an end to his reign of terror. After a few levels where you fight attackers away from Coruscant, each main character is sent their own separate way. Obi-Wan goes of to fight General Grievous, while Anakin is sent to spy on the Chancellor. If you've seen the movie, you should know where things go. Obi-Wan fights Grievous and a bunch of droid soldiers, while Anakin becomes corrupted and starts killing Jedi and younglings at the Academy. This divergence makes the game essential to play through a second time around, so you can see each side of the story.
The game ends on Mustafar. If you play as Anakin, you fight Obi-Wan. If you play as Obi-Wan, you fight Anakin. Regardless who you play as, the game ends the same way: with Obi-Wan gaining the high ground and winning. Each ending features its own cutscene. Obi-Wan's ending features the birth of the twins and the beginning of his isolation on Tatooine. Anakin's ending features his transformation to Darth Vader.
If you liked the movie, you should like the way its story was adapted to the game. Sure, there are a lot of differences (such as battles and enemies that weren't in the movie), but I have to say that this is one of the more faithful game adaptations of a movie that I've seen.
Gameplay:
On the surface, this is a fairly standard side scrolling beat 'em up, similar to games you'd see in the 90s like Final Fight or the TMNT games. When I first started playing this, I actually found the game to be quite easy. Most enemies die within a hit or two. They aren't attack sponges. But this game is deceptively difficult. There are often swarms of enemies coming at you from all sides. They can rack up tons of damage on you in an instant if you aren't careful. So, while you can defeat them easily, there are a ton of them to ward off, and they can mess you up very quickly.
You start the game with two lives. I'd say there are about 15 or so stages to complete in the game? If you come to this blog expecting facts and hard research, you've come to the wrong place. But anyway, once you complete a stage, you are given skill points to assign to your character. You can use them to increase your health, your strength, or your Force meter. I ignored my Force powers until about halfway through the game when I was forced to use them - and that was a mistake. They make your life so much easier in this game.
Obi-Wan has a healing move. Anakin can Force choke enemies. They both have Force pushes to shove enemies away when you are getting overwhelmed. There are other Force moves, too, but I didn't use all of them. I'd say you can probably make it through the whole game without using any Force powers, but there are a few bosses that require you to use your Force moves by picking things up and throwing them.
The game does get difficult very quickly, despite the easy start. The standard enemies begin to do more damage. The game adds environmental hazards, like falling debris. There are turrets and laser traps set up all over the place to make your life miserable. Plus, some bosses unload heavy artillery on you, which drains your health super quickly. It's very frustrating to get to a boss and then get wiped out before you even have a chance to learn its pattern or develop a strategy.
Each stage, you start with the amount of lives you carried over from the previous stage. So if you survived with three lives - you're in good shape. If you survived with one, you're almost better off dying on purpose when you reach the new stage so you can start it over again with two lives. You're going to need them.
The hardest part of the game has to be its duels. These are one on one lightsaber battles between two skilled opponents. Anakin vs Dooku. Obi-Wan vs Grievous. Anakin vs Mace Windu. Anakin vs Obi-Wan. Instead of following the beat 'em up formula, the game shifts to what can almost be described as a fighting game. Except instead of relentlessly attacking your opponent, you want to play defensively and block their attacks. This leaves them vulnerable to follow-up damage. To beat these stages, you have to be quick at parrying and blocking attacks from different angles. A lot of memory work is involved. You have to know if you should be standing or ducking when you block, or which direction on the D-pad you should be pressing. There's also a Force defense button to defend yourself against Force attacks.
The enemy attacks are fast and furious, and your reflexes have to be top notch if you want to win these duels. I almost liken them to quick time events, except the game isn't showing you what you need to press on the screen. It can be brutal.
Graphics:
This is a great looking game. I just love the pixel art. It's sharp, it's clean, and it captures the feel of the film perfectly. It's like a colorful, comic book-style translation of the movie come to life. Just look at these screenshots. It is beautiful.
What I wouldn't do for a side-scrolling platformer or Contra-like shooter with this art style (no, Super Star Wars doesn't count). It would be soooooo fucking bad ass.
Sound:
This is a great 16-bit style rendition of the Star Wars music we've come to know and love. Except it sounds better than other 16-bit games, like (again) the Super Star Wars Trilogy. The sound effects, like the hum of the lightsaber and the shot of a blaster are all top-notch. Nothing to complain about here.
Overall:
This game was a lot different from what I thought it would be. Sure, it is a side-scrolling beat 'em up. We've all seen those before. But it does so many things differently, like the branching paths, the lightsaber duels, the added Force powers, and the ability to level up your character. It's challenging without being too overly frustrating. Running out of lives doesn't mean you have to do the whole game over from the beginning. You just start the stage again with two lives.
It looks good, it sounds good. It follows the plot of the movie well. It gives you some replay value with the added paths and abilities. If it sounds like I'm building this game up, it is because it deserves to be built up. It is legitimately a good game, and one of the better Star Wars titles I've played in recent memory.
With all that being said, there is a lot that the game could have done better. Both the boss battles and the lightsaber duels are brutally difficult. At least you can memorize/trial and error your way through the duels. But many boss fights don't give you enough time to figure out what to do before the game kills you. I remember there being some frustrating tank levels that took me a while to complete. And there's a stage where a fighter pilot zips back and forth on the screen, and you have to take him and his aircraft down. Nothing I was doing was damaging him, and he was draining my health FAST, so I had to look online to see what to do to beat him. Seriously. I had to look on the internet to find out how to kill an enemy in a beat 'em up.
All in all, I am very glad I decided to take the plunge and finally check this game out. I've only been dragging my feet on it for how many years now? I have no doubt that if I had grown up with a Game Boy Advance, I would have played the absolute hell out of this. I had a good time with it. Not only did I enjoy the game, I can easily see myself coming back and making my way through it again someday. That's how you know I really like a game. When I'm willing to consider coming back and playing it again someday.
While this isn't the greatest Star Wars game ever made, there is no denying that it is very fun and very easy to pick up and play. I'd recommend checking it out.
THE GRADE:
B
I keep going back and forth on if this should be a B or a B+. I feel like a B+ is too high, but a B is underselling the game. I guess I'd rather undersell it. A B+ feels more wrong than a B. So a B it is.
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