DS #4245: Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes (Europe)

[granville]

^^ndsrelease-5459^^

 

[Placido]

leaked?

 

[Eon-Rider]

Damn, I still need to finish the first game. xD

 

[punkyrule]

Drawn to Life did get an early dump too.. and now this..
and they're both Europe versions..

 

[granville]

This game is a little early. According to Gamefags, here's how the schedule was intended to go-

US- 10/6/09
EU- 10/7/09
AU- 10/9/09

I liked the first game somewhat, but it had its flaws. The controls were way too laggy (touch screen only), and the game had very boring and repetitive combat. The graphics were gorgeous though, and the game was fully voiced. This sequel uses the same engine apparently, but it seems to be half the rom size of the first game, so some voice acting might be gone.

Maybe they fixed some flaws in the original. It had a lot of potential.

 

[Nottulys]

Its almost like a new age Jedi Power Battles....

but I've only played the 360/PS3 Demo version....

does this play like its console counter-parts?

 

[zeromac]

it should minus the you know, controls

 

[granville]

I've tried this new DS game, and i'm happy to report that the game seems to fix all the problems in the previous game, but keeps everything it did right. In the original game, the issues were sluggish control and platforming elements. Response time to your touch is far improved, and does not lag when you press the screen. Jumping is also responsive now. The combat no longer zooms in with the annoying sequence where you tap up and down on an enemy to break their defense. You now just tap them and your jedi will jump to them and slash them down. On stronger enemies, just tap more than once. You can hold L to enter force power mode, where force-sensitive objects you can interact with will glow. You tap and hold the stylus down to use the force on said object. Very intuitive this time.

Everything that was good in the original Jedi Alliance is back, including the gorgeous impressive 3D graphics. That means detailed animated characters, a dynamic lighting engine (characters have real time shading when they enter varied lighting), and even their own modeled shadows which are actually shaped like the characters (not just a round generic shadow like most ds games). This is one of the most impressive games on the system, just like Jedi Alliance. Environments are exquisitely detailed and you can see a lot going on in the background. Great camera work too, that dynamically pans around for a cinematic feel (and never seems to get in the way)

Sound is great too. For a game only half the size of the original, they didn't cut anything here. Still fully voiced, with characters commenting on ingame situations and all. Every line (except tutorial boxes) is voiced so far by the actors from the TV show. And the soundtrack has orchestrated recordings from the show and movies. Impressive indeed.

The newest addition is the ability to not only play as jedi, but clone troopers. They rely on a different kind of combat. They have long range guns, so they attack from afar (still tapping enemies to attack). They don't have sabers to deflect shots though, so they can take cover behind environmental blockades instead. It makes for quite a nice system, where you fight defensively. Shoot - take cover from fire - shoot - repeat. You just shoot whenever your enemy is not attacking. They can't jump though. You will switch between the two playable character types using the up button on the dpad. You play as both types to advance through the levels. Both types are pretty fun too!

There is one minigame i've seen so far (barely even a minigame). You arm a thermal detonator by tapping an object with the bomb (as a clone trooper only so far) and press some number keys onscreen from lowest to highest. Only seen 4 numbers on these games so far. It takes about 3 seconds, but it has a timer which so far, decreases slowly. I assume it will get harder later on.

So far, this sequel improves the gameplay in every way from Jedi Alliance. I'd go so far as to say the game is great! I didn't expect them to make it so much better but they did! My impressions for the game are only based on the first level, but so far so good, and it should play as well for the rest of the game. The only issues I had so far was a VERY minor remnant of the last game- getting a little bit stuck on some objects as you move. It's barely noticeable though.

Initially, my ratings for the game are as such-

Graphics- 10/10
Sound- 10/10
Gameplay- 9/10
Control- 9/10
Overall- 9/10

These scores may change and are only an initial judgment. Know this before you attack me for rating a game I have not yet beaten. I feel like I've played enough of the game to understand the improvements and how well it plays. I'd recommend it to any Star Wars fan, and anyone who likes a good touch-based action game. Play it even if you didn't like Jedi Alliance, it's much better. Every broken thing was fixed.

 

[mrfatso]

thanks granville, sounds like this will be a nice star wars game, so any jedi mindtrick in there?

 

[Lucky Star]

Downloading right now.

 

[granville]

thanks granville, sounds like this will be a nice star wars game, so any jedi mindtrick in there?

No mindtrick so far, just the levitation stuff and such. Other tricks i found were being able to somersault by double tapping an empty space. Touch the jedi you're controlling right as they're being hit by a laser to deflect directly back at an enemy. And get well away from a thermal detonator before it blows up. Instant death if you don't.

 

[Sabri23]

The first one was awesome , cant wait to try this one out

 

[PyroJames]

I remember the first game couldn't play on some flashcarts. Was this problem ever fixed?

 

[Langin]

Oh lol you can play with clones!

 

[mrfatso]

thanks granville, sounds like this will be a nice star wars game, so any jedi mindtrick in there?

No mindtrick so far, just the levitation stuff and such. Other tricks i found were being able to somersault by double tapping an empty space. Touch the jedi you're controlling right as they're being hit by a laser to deflect directly back at an enemy. And get well away from a thermal detonator before it blows up. Instant death if you don't.

I see, well, thanks for the tip.

 

[Jeff88]

I remember the first game couldn't play on some flashcarts. Was this problem ever fixed?

I'm wondering about that too.

 

[Eon-Rider]

I hope someone can answer a question for me.

SPOILER: I've been playing the first game for the past hour so I can move onto this game. The ending of the first game is really sudden with what's her name sacrificing herself. Is that the ending of the first game? I don't really understand if there's anymore to the game or not. If that was the ending, I guess I'll move onto this game.

EDIT: I found out that that was the ending. What a shame! It's great to finally be able to relieve my MicroSD card and replace it with this one which is a lot smaller. 8)

 

[Yuan]

I remember the first game couldn't play on some flashcarts. Was this problem ever fixed?

I'm wondering about that too.

In R4 it's still impossible to play it (even with YSMenu). But DSTT can play it with lastest firmware.

Nice game btw.

 

[Rayder]

Hmm....seems pretty nice. Running fine on a CycloDS with firmware 1.56b3.

Now I have something to play besides homebrew. I thoroughly enjoyed the last SW game, so this should be even better.

 

[Eon-Rider]

I've just started this game. It's much better than the previous one and I agree with everything that Granville said in his mini-review.