Are you saying that Star Wars works on the R4? If it does then tell us how you got it working.stanleyopar2000 said:
DS #2906: Star Wars The Clone Wars: Jedi Alliance (USA)
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stanleyopar2000 said:
Latest R4 FW is 1.19u ("u" as in unofficial) and makes all those games that needed ARM7 patching work without patching.
Dunno if this will work with R4, I sure hope so, since my kid is such a Star Wars fan
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hmm, works fine on my acekard2. but to be honest, it is actually a really crap game only made so big by all the fmv and voice files. It just seems to be a load of crud minigames and fmv sequences linked together by short bits of running around rapidly tapping enemies. I just deleted it from my card to make room for 4 decent games
This game impressed me to tell the truth. Works fine on Supercard DS-ONE.
Positives include spectacular graphics. This is one of the BEST looking DS game ever. The game goes at a silky-smooth frame rate. The worlds are detailed and awesomely designed. And the character models are particularly nice.
One common flaw with DS games is that the quality drops in 3D games when the camera zooms in. This usually creates pixellation due to the lack of a texture filter. But in this game, the closer the camera gets, the more detailed the graphics. Characters show expression and their mouths move with their words.
There are dynamic lighting conditions as well. If your character moves into the shadows, they will be shaded. And in addition to that, the characters have realistic shadows. Most DS games use a cheap round blob for character shadows. But here, they modeled the shadows to contour to the characters. And the shadow position changes depending on how light hits the characters. As far as I know, this is the ONLY DS game to have realistic character shadows. It really looks great.
Complementing the great environments and character models is a "cinematic" camera system. For every area, the camera pans around the area and REALLY shows off the incredible environments. I have to admit, the camera work reminded me of the amazing PS2 game Ico! Unfortunately, the camera isn't nearly perfect. It gets in the way at some times and switches views abruptly in a way reminiscent of Resident Evil. I'd say this system is about 85% good. On one hand, it has that cinematic flair of Ico, on the other it can get disorienting at times. You cannot control the camera.
The only downside is the classic DS limitation: on-screen polygon count. The DS has a limitation that limits the amount of 3D character models on screen at once. For those who are confused, just know that there will seldom be more than 5-6 characters on screen at once. If they had put more on screen models, the game would lag tremendously like Force Unleashed DS.
Overall, this is what Force Unleashed DS SHOULD have looked like. A Perfect framerate, amazing 3D graphics, and really great animation.
The music and sound are almost as great. Playing constantly in the background is the classic John Williams score. It's made of recorded samples strait from the films and is very high quality. Sounds awesome with headphones! The entire story is voiced. Every character talks and says a lot of lines. But I expected as much from a 256MB game. What didn't meet my expectations was the voice quality. Although the voices are well done and well acted (IMO), they were recorded at a low bitrate. This makes them scratchy and low-tech sounding. I expected more for a 256MB game, considering games like Tales of Innocence was half the size voices were high quality. Still, it's just a minor blemish. And this is the only Star Wars game on DS that HAD voices yet (IIRC).
Unfortunately, the gameplay isn't nearly as stellar. The game is controlled entirely with the stylus (except certain force powers using either L or R). This can work well as we've seen from Zelda. But here the movement is sluggish and interacting with the environment was a bit unresponsive. The characters move a bit slow (or maybe that was purposeful to show off the dramatic graphics). You have to tap specific points to jump and I had to tap several times to get the game to respond. One weird thing about the slow characters is when a battle commences. The sluggish characters MUST have been intentional since they speed up and control far better when their lightsabers are drawn. Strange indeed.
Battles are a chore and get boring fast. You can win simply by tapping the enemy repeatedly with no strategy. And be warned, this game is a touch screen killer as tapping hard and fast is mandatory.
The main game BEGS to be played with the dpad and buttons. I can't begin to say how much I longed to play using the dpad and buttons. Even a setup like Force Unleashed DS would have been welcome.
There are a few things that are really good when using the touch screen. The jedi action sequences are basically cinematics using the in-game engine. The action is handled by the game, but there are some contextual touch screen maneuvers that you are supposed to execute in a timed fashion. If you've ever played Dragon's Lair, you'll know what I mean (except this game is FAR simpler and easier).
There are also some other little touch minigames for when you open doors. These are the run-of-the-mill shovelware minigames like:
- sort out patterned blocks
- trace a shape pattern along a line
These are generic and have been done many times before.
As was stated early in the game's development, you choose two Jedi to be partnered with (hence the Alliance part). you can level up their partnership so that the pairs will work better together, but I didn't really see an incentive to do so. You can basically pair any two jedi together and you won't be bothered by it. Sometime, though, the pairing sticks for several missions and you need to pick another different pair while the others are off doing their own thing (I got a serious "meanwhile, at the hall of justice" vibe there
). For instance, I picked Anakin and Asoka for a mission at some planet. I played as them for a while and the mission was interrupted with the "meanwhile" scene and focus went back to the jedi council. Another mission had arisen, but I had to choose 2 different jedi since Anakin and Asoka were away. I chose Obi Wan and Mace for the next part. Then that one ends and you go back to Anakin and Asoka and you play as them again. To sum it up, you can have two teams going at once at certain times and you'll switch between the pairs.
That's another thing that Star Wars fans will like. The selection of Jedi to chose from:
- Anakin Skywalker
- Obi Wan Kenobi
- Ahsoka Tano
- Mace Windu
- Kit Fisto
- Plo Koon
There are even a few minor short parts where you play as the team of R2D2 and C3P0!
They do what droids do best: attempt to jack into computer terminals while avoiding trouble. C3P0 even has a few dialog sequences with villains where you have to choose the correct response in order to talk yourself out of trouble. Those parts were actually pretty cool!
And unlike other games where the computer partner is worthless, this one seems to work pretty well. I left my partner alone with a dark jedi enemy for a minute while I killed the other sith and they depleted a considerable bit of health. One time, even killing it! And they rarely get stuck like in games like Crystal Chronicles.
This game is also way too easy. I was never stumped once, never died, and never missed any of those cinematic context events. Maybe it's my Castlevania and Megaman addiction that makes me more experienced, but this game just doesn't cut it. Although I have to say, they were most likely catering towards children.......yeah, definitely for kids.
This game has amazing potential. Had they mapped the controls to the buttons, enhanced the battles to be more "Jedi Outcast" like, and fixed the sluggish movement, this would have been a BRILLIANT Star Wars game. As it it, it comes off as a game where they put all the emphasis to the graphics, sound, and cinematic aspects than the actual game. And you'll still have a fun time with the game. I'd probably have been underwhelmed had I bought it though.
Graphics- 10/10
Sound- 9/10
Control- 6/10
Gameplay- 7/10
Difficulty- 5/10
Overall- 7.5/10
Note that whatever flaws I saw and whatever I said about Jedi Alliance, I still enjoyed it. This game is fun. It's not perfect, but it is a game that you'll probably enjoy as long as you don't expect a perfect game.
This game is worth playing just to see what they did with the graphics. It's another push to show that the DS can do much more than people give it credit for. In the future, I want more companies to look at this game and create quality full-3D games for the DS (enough generic 2D games that could be a first-gen GBA game). The engine is amazing. I'd love to see an Ico-like game be developed using a modified form of it. This game's visuals are even above the N64 quality. In some ways, it seems to come close to Dreamcast! RPGs, platformer, whatever. Just give us more great-looking 3D games like this.
Positives include spectacular graphics. This is one of the BEST looking DS game ever. The game goes at a silky-smooth frame rate. The worlds are detailed and awesomely designed. And the character models are particularly nice.
One common flaw with DS games is that the quality drops in 3D games when the camera zooms in. This usually creates pixellation due to the lack of a texture filter. But in this game, the closer the camera gets, the more detailed the graphics. Characters show expression and their mouths move with their words.
There are dynamic lighting conditions as well. If your character moves into the shadows, they will be shaded. And in addition to that, the characters have realistic shadows. Most DS games use a cheap round blob for character shadows. But here, they modeled the shadows to contour to the characters. And the shadow position changes depending on how light hits the characters. As far as I know, this is the ONLY DS game to have realistic character shadows. It really looks great.
Complementing the great environments and character models is a "cinematic" camera system. For every area, the camera pans around the area and REALLY shows off the incredible environments. I have to admit, the camera work reminded me of the amazing PS2 game Ico! Unfortunately, the camera isn't nearly perfect. It gets in the way at some times and switches views abruptly in a way reminiscent of Resident Evil. I'd say this system is about 85% good. On one hand, it has that cinematic flair of Ico, on the other it can get disorienting at times. You cannot control the camera.
The only downside is the classic DS limitation: on-screen polygon count. The DS has a limitation that limits the amount of 3D character models on screen at once. For those who are confused, just know that there will seldom be more than 5-6 characters on screen at once. If they had put more on screen models, the game would lag tremendously like Force Unleashed DS.
Overall, this is what Force Unleashed DS SHOULD have looked like. A Perfect framerate, amazing 3D graphics, and really great animation.
The music and sound are almost as great. Playing constantly in the background is the classic John Williams score. It's made of recorded samples strait from the films and is very high quality. Sounds awesome with headphones! The entire story is voiced. Every character talks and says a lot of lines. But I expected as much from a 256MB game. What didn't meet my expectations was the voice quality. Although the voices are well done and well acted (IMO), they were recorded at a low bitrate. This makes them scratchy and low-tech sounding. I expected more for a 256MB game, considering games like Tales of Innocence was half the size voices were high quality. Still, it's just a minor blemish. And this is the only Star Wars game on DS that HAD voices yet (IIRC).
Unfortunately, the gameplay isn't nearly as stellar. The game is controlled entirely with the stylus (except certain force powers using either L or R). This can work well as we've seen from Zelda. But here the movement is sluggish and interacting with the environment was a bit unresponsive. The characters move a bit slow (or maybe that was purposeful to show off the dramatic graphics). You have to tap specific points to jump and I had to tap several times to get the game to respond. One weird thing about the slow characters is when a battle commences. The sluggish characters MUST have been intentional since they speed up and control far better when their lightsabers are drawn. Strange indeed.
Battles are a chore and get boring fast. You can win simply by tapping the enemy repeatedly with no strategy. And be warned, this game is a touch screen killer as tapping hard and fast is mandatory.
The main game BEGS to be played with the dpad and buttons. I can't begin to say how much I longed to play using the dpad and buttons. Even a setup like Force Unleashed DS would have been welcome.
There are a few things that are really good when using the touch screen. The jedi action sequences are basically cinematics using the in-game engine. The action is handled by the game, but there are some contextual touch screen maneuvers that you are supposed to execute in a timed fashion. If you've ever played Dragon's Lair, you'll know what I mean (except this game is FAR simpler and easier).
There are also some other little touch minigames for when you open doors. These are the run-of-the-mill shovelware minigames like:
- sort out patterned blocks
- trace a shape pattern along a line
These are generic and have been done many times before.
As was stated early in the game's development, you choose two Jedi to be partnered with (hence the Alliance part). you can level up their partnership so that the pairs will work better together, but I didn't really see an incentive to do so. You can basically pair any two jedi together and you won't be bothered by it. Sometime, though, the pairing sticks for several missions and you need to pick another different pair while the others are off doing their own thing (I got a serious "meanwhile, at the hall of justice" vibe there
That's another thing that Star Wars fans will like. The selection of Jedi to chose from:
- Anakin Skywalker
- Obi Wan Kenobi
- Ahsoka Tano
- Mace Windu
- Kit Fisto
- Plo Koon
There are even a few minor short parts where you play as the team of R2D2 and C3P0!
And unlike other games where the computer partner is worthless, this one seems to work pretty well. I left my partner alone with a dark jedi enemy for a minute while I killed the other sith and they depleted a considerable bit of health. One time, even killing it! And they rarely get stuck like in games like Crystal Chronicles.
This game is also way too easy. I was never stumped once, never died, and never missed any of those cinematic context events. Maybe it's my Castlevania and Megaman addiction that makes me more experienced, but this game just doesn't cut it. Although I have to say, they were most likely catering towards children.......yeah, definitely for kids.
This game has amazing potential. Had they mapped the controls to the buttons, enhanced the battles to be more "Jedi Outcast" like, and fixed the sluggish movement, this would have been a BRILLIANT Star Wars game. As it it, it comes off as a game where they put all the emphasis to the graphics, sound, and cinematic aspects than the actual game. And you'll still have a fun time with the game. I'd probably have been underwhelmed had I bought it though.
Graphics- 10/10
Sound- 9/10
Control- 6/10
Gameplay- 7/10
Difficulty- 5/10
Overall- 7.5/10
Note that whatever flaws I saw and whatever I said about Jedi Alliance, I still enjoyed it. This game is fun. It's not perfect, but it is a game that you'll probably enjoy as long as you don't expect a perfect game.
This game is worth playing just to see what they did with the graphics. It's another push to show that the DS can do much more than people give it credit for. In the future, I want more companies to look at this game and create quality full-3D games for the DS (enough generic 2D games that could be a first-gen GBA game). The engine is amazing. I'd love to see an Ico-like game be developed using a modified form of it. This game's visuals are even above the N64 quality. In some ways, it seems to come close to Dreamcast! RPGs, platformer, whatever. Just give us more great-looking 3D games like this.
Very nice review, there. It's pretty much convinced me to not get this game. The file size is way too big, and it doesn't sound all that much fun (even though it's apparently really nice to look at).
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thanks for the review
I think i will wait until this is fixed but still not so interested in it yet since it's only touchscreen and not like zelda
I think i will wait until this is fixed but still not so interested in it yet since it's only touchscreen and not like zelda
fracicone said:Still the most bugging thing is not the game per se, but the fact that future titles might and probably will incorporate the new copy protection that screws things up for R4 users like myself.
But you still have Ysmenu which will likely be continued. And there's usually a cheat update in Narin's database that bypasses the copy protection.
I do suggest that anyone TRY the game out. It's entertaining if you don't have to pay (yeah, I'm a salty pirate). Had they spent as much time polishing the gameplay as the graphics, this would easily be a must-have game.
As it is, I'm halfway betweenand
QUOTELooks like this is a modern version of Dragon's Lair, which was a yardstick of style over substance.
Partially true. But those action sequences are FAR FAR easier and they really only make up 1/10 of the game.
BlueStar said:
Yeah, I'm still waiting for Dragon's Lair I & II to get the DS treatment. I loved those games!
Another detailed and tasty post by Granville. GbaTemp should have new sub-board dedicated solely to his writings.
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This game would be a lot better if it consisted entirely of the Dragon's Lair type sequences. It would only be worth playing through once, but I'm not sure it'e even worth a single playthrough as it is.
T
toto
Guest
My test :
R4 v.1.18 (original) = Black screen
R4 v.1.19u = Black screen
SuperCard DS one (enable patch) = Black screen
SuperCard DS one (standard mode) = Works fine
EZ-Flash 5 = Black screen
DSTT v1.15 = Black screen
R4 v.1.18 (original) = Black screen
R4 v.1.19u = Black screen
SuperCard DS one (enable patch) = Black screen
SuperCard DS one (standard mode) = Works fine
EZ-Flash 5 = Black screen
DSTT v1.15 = Black screen
To rub salt in the wounds here ....my NPLAYER plays this JUST FINE no patching messing about using a standard 1gb micro SD
lol @those who slagged off yet another R4 clone lol
gotta admit tho its a damn long boring intro the sound on it sounds tinny like old fashioned AM radio its very scratchy
crappy stylus controlling your character I only played this for about 10 minutes and got bored off my head with the mind numbingly boring tutorial section !
those who cannot get it to work ... MABY its just as well!
compared to other Star Wars games I rate this about 4 outta 10!
lol @those who slagged off yet another R4 clone lol
gotta admit tho its a damn long boring intro the sound on it sounds tinny like old fashioned AM radio its very scratchy
crappy stylus controlling your character I only played this for about 10 minutes and got bored off my head with the mind numbingly boring tutorial section !
those who cannot get it to work ... MABY its just as well!
compared to other Star Wars games I rate this about 4 outta 10!
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