Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Jedi Alliance

System: DS
Developer: LucasArts
Publisher: LucasArts
Genre: Action
Players: 1

Last year, the latest film instalment of the Star Wars saga – Star Wars: The Clone Wars – was released to the public, using 3D animation and featuring new art styles (said to be inspired by/based on anime and the Thunderbirds), as well as new stories to be told in the Star Wars universe. Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Jedi Alliance isn't based on the film or the related TV show at all though, featuring its own storyline created exclusively for the DS title.

Jedi Alliance begins with a cargo theft – a shipment of lightsaber crystals on their way to Coruscant, the capital world of the Republic is taken by the Separatists. The Jedi Council convenes to discuss the issue, decides to investigate the disappearance of the shipment, and the fun begins. Without spoiling who they are, fans of the Star Wars Expanded Universe may recognise the main antagonists, who have reached an agreement with Count Dooku and Asajj Ventress to cause problems for the Jedi and the Republic in general.

There are six playable Jedi (Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mace Windu, Kit Fisto, Anakin Skywalker, Plo Koon and Ahsoka Tano), all of whom are available from the beginning of the game, and can be paired up in any way you choose – for instance Ahsoka can be paired with her master Anakin, or Kit Fisto with Mace Windu. Each Jedi has a special Force Power, however there's a significant lack of variety in this department, with only two categories: Combat and Environmental. Only the first Jedi chosen is controlled by the player; the second Jedi acts as a support character and is unusable, so if your first Jedi falls in battle you'll need to play at least some of the level over again.

Once your team is chosen, the levels begin with a cutscene (featuring the voices from the movie/TV show) which explains the premise of the upcoming level. Later in the game, you'll be stuck with the choices you made earlier for certain levels, with some Jedi unavailable due to being assigned other missions, and some optional areas rendered inaccessible without the right Jedi team.


The first level acts as a tutorial, with Holocrons dotted throughout the levels demonstrating how the stylus is used to control your chosen Jedi in exploration and combat. All control is stylus-based in some way: characters move by holding the stylus on the point where you intend to go, and they jump by tapping on 'jump points' that appear when you're nearby (although a lot of the time the game didn't recognise when these had been tapped on). Some areas and objects, such as door controls, glow when you approach; tapping them with the stylus interacts with them. When enemies appear, you can engage them by tapping on them (if you're halfway across the screen, this results in a spectacular acrobatic leap so you don't have to dodge incoming blaster fire).

Once combat begins, various attacks are performed by rapidly tapping on enemies, and depending on where you tap on your enemy you can hit them with either high, middle or low attacks. Enough of these rapid attacks can stun enemies, allowing you to hit them with combos for more damage, and with the right timing you can even counter-attack your opponent. Blaster fire is deflected by tapping your Jedi as it approaches, or you can Force Push your attacker by holding L/R and tapping on them, as well as initiate a tag-team Force attack with your partner by holding your stylus on an enemy (as long as you have a full Force meter).

Some enemies have lightsabers (or lightsaber resistant weapons, such as General Grievous' MagnaGuards), and attacking them can result in a saber lock. To break the lock, again players must rapidly tap on the screen. There's usually one or two saber locks in each battle, along with the usual tapping for rapid/combo attacks, so this can get tiring fairly quickly, and it seems that the game would have been suited more for a combination of button and stylus attacks than purely stylus-based action. This is not a game for those who like to treat their touch screen delicately, so keep that in mind if you're looking to try it out. The AI for the assisting Jedi isn't particularly complex either – they're able to take out enemies on their own, but do nothing to assist if you're facing a difficult opponent.


Checkpoints are found at certain stages throughout each level – dying results in starting again at the last point reached, although quitting the game means you'll have to play the entire level again. Throughout each level you'll be required to complete certain tasks, such as unlocking or cutting open doors, or bypassing security with R2-D2. These tasks are performed in their own mini-game style controls – control panels require you to match the colours and symbols shown while avoiding incorrect ones, door cutting is done by tracing the design shown on the top screen with the stylus, and R2's security bypassing is a simple task of tapping the screen at the right time. There's also a feature titled the 'Jedi action sequence', which appears during the action of certain levels, and is completed by tracing the path shown on the touch screen with the stylus. I found this the most irritating of the 'mini-games' as it failed to recognise the stylus action approximately half the time, and one failure means starting the entire sequence again. It does add a sense of interactivity to scripted actions though, such as dodging falling rocks and leaping between collapsing platforms, but it ends up essentially being an interactive cutscene.

Completing certain objectives in each level unlocks bonuses for your trouble – usually concept or character art, as well as character models and extra costumes for your Jedi. These objectives usually consist of collecting Force Orbs strewn about the level (of which there's at least 100, collected by destroying various objects), defeating a certain amount of enemies, collecting 5 health-regaining Ilum crystals or not dying at all. There's even an objective to complete the level without collecting anything, and one just for completing the level. Sometimes completing an objective will unlock a game tweak (such as more powerful enemies or a stronger lightsaber), which can be turned on or off in the Extras in the main menu.


There's not much replay value in Jedi Alliance – the models and character art rewarded for completing tasks (one requires you to use 3 different Jedi teams for each level) don't seem worth the extra attempts. This is mainly due to the control scheme and the difficulty, which seems to vary from reasonable to frustrating in each level (particularly the later bosses, as you'd expect), which might have been made easier were it possible to swap between your chosen Jedi during the levels or control your second character if your Jedi is defeated. The graphics are reasonable quality for the DS (what you see in the screenshots is fairly close), although there are some minor camera issues, and most of the level environments are well designed.

The background music plays well for the atmosphere of the various planets, and all of the familiar Star Wars sounds are present – blaster fire, lightsabers humming and so on as well as the updated Clone Wars theme from the TV show. The cutscenes are all fully voiced, although they all use the same basic script – it's just the Jedi speaking the line that changes, although there was the occasional extra line with the right character combinations. It sounded like the voices weren't encoded properly though – the sound wasn't clear and had some static when the characters were talking. The same was true of the in-game tutorial, which is also voiced. Unfortunately the pre-level cutscenes can't be skipped, so if you restart a level numerous times you'll have to sit through them over and over.


Score: 5.0 “Avoid”

Jedi Alliance isn't a bad Star Wars game, but it's not a great one either. The attempt to use the capabilities of the DS stylus to control the game is credible, but in the end doesn't work too well when it comes to a game with a lot of action in it – expect your arms/wrists to be tired fairly quickly, especially if you tough it out for a lengthy gaming session – and the touch recognition can be hit-and-miss at times. The story is fairly self-explanatory and it's basically what you'd expect of the series, so Star Wars aficionados and fans of the show will definitely enjoy it more than others (which goes without saying).

Review by TheChimp

BONUS GAME: Count the uses of the word 'tap' and its variants for a spectacular mystery prize!*

*The spectacularity and mysteriousness of this non-existent prize may vary.