Review: <i>Kinect Star Wars</i> squanders promise with "Simon says" gameplay

<i>Kinect Star Wars</i> promises to turn you into a true Jedi, but a design focused on endless, repetitive battles and Simon Says-style call-and-response actions prevents the game from living up to that promise.

<a href='http://meincmagazine.com/gaming/news/2012/04/jedi-on-rails-kinect-star-wars-squanders-promise-with-restrictive-narrow-design.ars'>Read the whole story</a>

 

[tycheung]

hook up a kinect to SWTOR instead?

 

[lunarworks]

Can LucasArts finally swallow their pride and do a lightsaber game for Wii Motion Plus or PS Move now? You know, the controllers that actually feel and respond like lightsabers?

 

[ronelson]

Holy fuck. How did that dance thing make the final cut???

 

[gdinero]

Surprise, it's a gimmick game.

 

[Zeebee]

The Kinect really needs PlayStation Move-like controllers (and the PlayStation Move really needs Kinect 3D motion sensing).

If the functionality of two were combined, it'd make for a lot more compelling gaming experiences, I think.

 

[longhairedboy]

this is a sad, sad thing to behold.

 

[swarmster]

Hey, cool. I guessing that's a sneak preview of footage from Lucas' latest masterpiece special edition of Episode V?

The new soundtrack will be great!

 

[ilovedawkins]

I wish south park hadn't already made that joke about George Lucas raping Harrison Ford/Indy because I want to make a joke about George Lucas raping Harrison Ford/Han.

I used to love star wars as a youth, but I look at all the new content since Episode 1 was released and I feel either nothing for it or spikes of anger at specific bits.

Star wars used to be this dark gritty, sometimes funny fantasy story and now it's a bunch of gimps with dual light sabres, Maori clones and horrible beige buildings.

W.....T......F.....???

 

[Brimstar]

I almost feel like I need brain bleach to wipe the dance segment out of my head after watching it. It's like a car wreck. Once you start watching you can't seem to turn it off because it's so bad.

 

[Crackhead Johny]

So they took away Han shooting first and then made him do that... Lucas must really hate Han.

 

[wjousts]

Suspiciously long load times

Suspiciously? What do you think it's secretly laughing at your flailing around while pretending to load the next section?

 

[killing_time]

i like hearing about this game, its been a train wreck since its first announcement.

being that as it may i have little idea how well it will do in sales.

 

[OrangeCrush]

I've been waiting for an excuse to buy a Kinect. Still waiting...

 

[jollyllama2]

Wow, what a profound disappointment.

 

[ilovedawkins]

Also I remember a time when Star Wars games were setting the standard for PC gaming. Dark Forces and Tie fighter being some of the best games of the 90s. How the mighty have fallen.

I swear its because the new 'official' expanded universe is so poorly designed.

 

[steven75]

Why is anyone surprised? The Kinect is pretty terrible if you aren't into dancing games.

 

[Kevin McKenna]

Star wars used to be this dark gritty, sometimes funny fantasy story and now it's a bunch of gimps with dual light sabres, Maori clones and horrible beige buildings.

Neither A New Hope nor Return of the Jedi was dark or gritty. And Bespin was just one huge beige building with a scary basement. And I'm sorry the Maori bothers you; did you prefer Star Wars with a single black guy in the entire universe?

 

[igalan]

No one remembers when Kinect was presented and this game was showcased? There was an actor playing and the character on the screen would follow the movements. But actually it wasn't a working demo, it was a pre-recorded video; at some point the actor lagged behind the image on screen showing what it actually was a pantomime...

Kinect seems to me a solution looking for a problem that no one has. The PS2 already had something along this lines, obviously simpler, but the end result was the same: a catalog full of mini-games, sport trainers and the like. Microsoft wasn't paying attention and they have made much the same mistakes several years later.

 

[jnemesh]

Surprise, it's a gimmick game.

Just like EVERY SINGLE Kinect game released to date! There is not a SINGLE game that is Kinect enabled that is more than just fodder for the bargain bins in six months (or less)!

 

[H2O Rip]

Why is anyone surprised? The Kinect is pretty terrible if you aren't into dancing games.

For netflix it is amazing.
Cooking in kitchen
Xbox next episode.

I <3 my kinect even though i rarely use it in any games.

 

[DeChicago]

Star wars used to be this dark gritty, sometimes funny fantasy story

...and its now obvious that that was never Lucas' vision for the franchise. Those original three are a bad memory that he's been working overtime to undo/overdo/retract/redact.

 

[veilrap]

Yeah it's a shame Kinect hasn't made it to good use in games yet.

Although it is quite nice for non gaming fun

 

[dmarcoot]

Also I remember a time when Star Wars games were setting the standard for PC gaming. Dark Forces and Tie fighter being some of the best games of the 90s. How the mighty have fallen.

Your right. How I wish they would look back at Tie Fighter and update it for todays hardware.

 

[Shnitz]

Why is anyone surprised? The Kinect is pretty terrible if you aren't into dancing games.

But good god are those the best dancing games ever. I have easily gotten my moneys worth from them.

 

[kleinma]

Why is anyone surprised? The Kinect is pretty terrible if you aren't into dancing games.

Actually the kinect is a pretty advanced piece of hardware that is priced at a pretty low price point for all the tech inside.

The problem is the titles are terrible. No one has figured out exactly how to let people play good games comfortably with kinect. Other than dance games and a few elements of the sports games, they haven't gotten it quite right yet. I don't blame the hardware though. MS should really dump some money into a title that really shows off what can be done.

 

[Workaround]

The problem is the titles are terrible. No one has figured out exactly how to let people play good games comfortably with kinect. Other than dance games and a few elements of the sports games, they haven't gotten it quite right yet. I don't blame the hardware though. MS should really dump some money into a title that really shows off what can be done.

Hey now, my kids love Kinectimals.

 

[IntergalacticWalrus]

Can LucasArts finally swallow their pride and do a lightsaber game for Wii Motion Plus or PS Move now? You know, the controllers that actually feel and respond like lightsabers?

Knowing LucasArts I am pretty sure they would somehow find a way to make it terrible.

Having said that I would buy it anyway. Especially if it has a PS Move version where the color of your lightsaber matches the color of the glow orb. That would be so boss.

 

[tesseractive]

The problem is the titles are terrible. No one has figured out exactly how to let people play good games comfortably with kinect. Other than dance games and a few elements of the sports games, they haven't gotten it quite right yet. I don't blame the hardware though. MS should really dump some money into a title that really shows off what can be done.

Hey now, my kids love Kinectimals.

Mine don't. I don't think they've played it after the first 2-3 days of getting the XBox + Kinect.

 

[Pryopizm]

When was Star Wars ever dark and gritty? I think some may be confusing it with Blade Runner. That's a diffferent Harrison Ford movie.

Just because cannon fodder dies doesn't make a movie dark and/or gritty.

Of course, that doesn't excuse the lousy prequels; but lets not look back on the past with dark and gritty colored glasses.

 

[K1LLTACULAR]

I agree with the idea that it's not the Kinect that is at fault, it's the software. Kinect works great in a lot of titles and it even sounds like it worked great in Star Wars when they let him loose to actually battle as a Jedi or rampage as a Rancor. Their decision to treat him like a 5 year old is not because Kinect is only compatible with 5 year olds but because their marketing department told them that only 5 year olds like games based on movies made in the 70's and 80's.

 

[one8kevin]

The sad thing about Kinect is that Microsoft essentially hijacked Nintendo's marketing and did a full on repeat of the introduction of the Wii and the public still bought into it including the press. Beginning with the introduction of avatars Microsoft just began cloning the elements that made the Wii successful and alienated people like me who were early adopters of the 360.

The unfortunate thing is that Kinect doesn't really work. It works for dancing games and some fitness stuff. Maybe that was enough for Microsoft but I've been unimpressed. All the cool hacks have amounted to nothing useful and the games themselves rely on severe error correction which dumbs down the games to auto-win crap.

Just look at Kinect Star Wars. They had to re-skin Dance Central just so that they could ship a game that had at least one component that played well. Truly embarrassing.

 

[Crolis]

Surprise, motion controls can't make a good sword fighting game. Would be just as lame on the other consoles. You can't fight with swords without force feedback.

 

[lunarworks]

Can LucasArts finally swallow their pride and do a lightsaber game for Wii Motion Plus or PS Move now? You know, the controllers that actually feel and respond like lightsabers?

Knowing LucasArts I am pretty sure they would somehow find a way to make it terrible.

Having said that I would buy it anyway. Especially if it has a PS Move version where the color of your lightsaber matches the color of the glow orb. That would be so boss.

Honestly, if they had any brains they'd call up Sony and say "So... would you like to work with us and make an officially licensed Move controller that looks like a lightsaber?"

They would double the Move install base overnight if they made one.

 

[Septimus Prime]

Can LucasArts finally swallow their pride and do a lightsaber game for Wii Motion Plus or PS Move now? You know, the controllers that actually feel and respond like lightsabers?

I was also thinking this while reading the article. You could move your guy with the Nunchuk or navigation controller and then use the Wii Remote or PS Move as your lightsaber, since, you know, lightsabers have handles, being swords and all. It could like like Skyward Sword...but with a friggin' lightsaber.

Alas, no.

 

[nturchin]

I've been waiting for an excuse to buy a Kinect. Still waiting...

I regret purchasing my kinect... I regret it so very much.

 

[lunarworks]

Can LucasArts finally swallow their pride and do a lightsaber game for Wii Motion Plus or PS Move now? You know, the controllers that actually feel and respond like lightsabers?

I was also thinking this while reading the article. You could move your guy with the Nunchuk or navigation controller and then use the Wii Remote or PS Move as your lightsaber, since, you know, lightsabers have handles, being swords and all. It could like like Skyward Sword...but with a friggin' lightsaber.

Alas, no.

The way I know the games industry, MS probably paid them a hefty sum to keep that from happening.

 

[JazzTrains]

Sure is a bit of prequel hate in here. Personally, I enjoy the hell outta the prequels (and the original trilogy, as well, of course). I saw the original trilogy before watching episode I, then I saw episode II and was thrilled with the twist of events, and episode 3 really topped it off. Full nerd, I went to the Episode III convention in Indianapolis. So much fun. Now, video game wise, whelp.. screw that. Last games I enjoyed were Battlefront and Bounty Hunter.

Also, just watched Episode I yesterday, I love the costume designs and Liam Neeson. Seriously, Liam Neeson as a jedi knight? What the hell are people complaining about. Jar Jar? I love his Ebonics. Come at me.

 

[Ars of Ares]

Meh. The whole reason to play a Star Wars game in the first place is to get into the fantasy. Pretty sure I'd do okay against Luke Sywalker in the original movies, but the 'new' ones upped the physicality of the characters by a few orders of magnitude. If my body is the limiting factor to the game being played, then - trust me - the game is not going to be very good. Maybe it's the tech, but I imagine the devs are catering to the lowest common denominator players..

As to Kinect Rampage, on the other hand, HELL YES!

 

[tesseractive]

Surprise, motion controls can't make a good sword fighting game. Would be just as lame on the other consoles. You can't fight with swords without force feedback.

Personally, I disagree. Playing the swordfighting game in Wii Sports Resort with my kids is probably my single favorite thing about that whole platform.