Our friend Zee Zee of SWBooks.co.uk sent over the following:


"Thought you might be interested in that the Official Nintendo Magazine (UK) have a six-page review of The Force Unleashed in their latest edition (#34, October 2008). I enclose their verdict, summary, score and some choice words they have given to The Force Unleashed on the Wii."


Verdict : 82%
Good points: controls are fantastic; great variety of moves; fantastic presentation; duel mode's a nice addition
Bad points: far, far too short
Summary: With a bit more to it we'd have no issues giving this a Gold Award. As it is, it's great fun but far too short.



Some quotes:

The good:
On the Wii's controls:
"The game punishes you by making sure that simply flicking the remote down all the time never leads to any smooth lightsaber combat, as a result it forces you to mix your swings to make combat flow better. This may seem like bad game design but in fact it's a clever way of forcing the player to feel more like they're actually fighting with a lightsaber."

On Force Unleashed powers:
"There's a great sense of power felt when you can avoid fighting someone on Cloud City if you simply use the force to pick them up and fling them off the edge of a platform."

"The main highlight for us is lifting the enemy up with the Force then throwing our lightsaber at them, impaling them as they float in the air."

"Simply put, this game gives you lots of power."



The bad:
On Force powers:
"There's not a huge difference between the Apprentice's abilities at first and those he has by the time the story reaches its final chapter."

On gameplay:
"Dying has effectively no impact on your progress. If you die, you simply respawn at the last checkpoint and all the enemies you killed remain dead."

"Instead of tactically planning how you're going to enter a room, the temptation's too strong to simply jump in there, get stuck in, kill a few of them, die, then jump back in and kill the rest."

"What disappointed us more was what happened about six hours into the game: it ended."

"...ultimately it's heartbreakingly short."



On the exclusive two-player duel mode:

"The game's lifespan is increased slightly with the Wii-only Duel mode and if you find a similarly skilled mate it's ace."

"The Duel mode is a nice little addition to the game and gives is some much-needed longevity, though it's a shame there's no option to fight against CPU-controlled opponents."




Thanks Zee Zee!