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

[Raika]

Hmm looks quite good. I'm tempted to try this out, but KH comes first.

 

[damiussus]

Working on my M3 simply for those wondering.

 

[IAmSancho]

Playing it on my R4 right now.

 

[stzehn]

playing it on cycloDS runs perfect under 156Beta3

 

[Overlord Nadrian]

Doesn't this one have any AP?

 

[GeekyGuy]

Pretty cool so far. Too early to tell if I like it better than the first, but I surely do enjoy playing as a clone. The cover system seems to work well. So far, it feels a bit like Elite Forces 77, which I also enjoyed. I think the graphics of the first Clone Wars DS game, though, were a tad better. Still, it's damned impressive what that Singapore studio can do on DS. I don't think anyone's topped them in terms of fully 3D visuals, including Square Enix.

The Jedi combat here, though, isn't as fun as the first, in my opinion, though yeah, the jump pads are greatly improved. Those things were my main issue with the first game, that and those context-sensitive micro games; didn't care for them much, either.

 

[Overlord Nadrian]

Pretty cool so far. Too early to tell if I like it better than the first, but I surely do enjoy playing as a clone. The cover system seems to work well. So far, it feels a bit like Elite Forces 77, which I also enjoyed. I think the graphics of the first Clone Wars DS game, though, were a tad better. Still, it's damned impressive what that Singapore studio can do on DS. I don't think anyone's topped them in terms of fully 3D visuals, including Square Enix.

The Jedi combat here, though, isn't as fun as the first, in my opinion, though yeah, the jump pads are greatly improved. Those things were my main issue with the first game, that and those context-sensitive micro games; didn't care for them much, either.

Nah, SE made better graphics, look at KH.

Also, the voice acting and sound overall sucked in the first game, I hope that's been fixed.

 

[granville]

The voice acting and sound didn't suck, it was based off of the cartoon series, which was quite good actually. But if you hated the original game for that, you won't like this one any better.

Honestly, this game does some things BETTER than Kingdom Hearts did in regards to graphics-
- perfect 60fps framerate (KH was 30 and had slowdown in multiplayer)
- modeled characters shadows which react to lighting sources (KH used black circles for shadows)
- better lighting (characters are better shaded in dark places)
- less pixelation and some better textures and environments

Kingdom Hearts DS was beautiful and awesome. It's one of my favorite DS games. But I give credit where credit is due, this game DOES do some things better than KH DS. It's THAT good looking.

I did find out how they got away with making the game only 128MB as opposed to Jedi Alliance which was 256MB. It's the cutscene details. In Jedi Alliance, it had some really impressive cutscene animation on the characters. Their mouths move, they showed expressions, basically it looked like they were real characters. They no longer have those scenes here. The characters still talk with full voice acting, but it appears in a speech bubble instead of having the characters move their mouths to it. That IS technically a graphical con, it really added a lot of character to the original, so I guess I'd drop my graphics score to a 9/10. Every other thing is intact though. And the game is much funner anyways, so it's a con worth the cutback for better gameplay. A fair compensation to me.

And I don't think there's any anti piracy, or compatibility issues. It runs on the DSTT firmware, which also just now fixed the old Jedi Alliance game. The original might not have BEEN antipiracy, might just have been non-compatible. But R4 users SHOULD be able to play Jedi Alliance using a Ysmenu built from one of the unofficial DSTT firmwares. This is the better game anyways though.

 

[Overlord Nadrian]

The voice acting and sound didn't suck, it was based off of the cartoon series, which was quite good actually. But if you hated the original game for that, you won't like this one any better.

Meh, just didn't sound good to me...

And I'll try it again to see if the graphics really are better.

 

[GeekyGuy]

Nah, SE made better graphics, look at KH.

Also, the voice acting and sound overall sucked in the first game, I hope that's been fixed.

I finished 358/2 Days the night before last, and though I thoroughly enjoyed the 35+ hours spent on the game, it's not Square Enix's best work in terms of DS visuals. Honestly, I don't know why folks seem to think it looks all that great. It's impressive, no doubt, especially when it comes to the character models, but it isn't as polished as some of their past games.

In any case, both this and the first Clone Wars DS games are doing things that go beyond what SE has done on DS, not least of all the lighting, which is just crazy when you consider...it's DS. There's friggin' dynamic lighting for God's sake.

Anyway, I played through a few more of the missions, and this is definitely an improvement over the first. I really feel like I'm playing Star Wars. It's not going to compare to other AAA titles, but for a Star Wars geek, they really have nailed it with this game.

 

[funem]

I didn't finish the first game as it eventually annoyed the bejezus out of me. The graphics were superb though. This game also has superb graphics and better than Kingdom Hearts in my opinion which I felt were to bitty and pixilated, and don't get me started on the million cut scenes that seemed break up the fluidness of the game. The graphics in this are smooth and detailed and very impressive for a DS game. The sound is the only niggle I have, it seems like a real low bitrate, though it does the job fine, could have been a bit cleaner as it would have rounded this out to be a near on perfect game ( the bit that I have played so far anyway ). As for Kingdom Hearts, call me old fashioned, I though the graphics on the GBA version, considering the console it was on, was far better suited to the game than the DS 3D model version, strangely I enjoyed the card battles as well, still the DS version is a great game in its own right.

 

[kitehimuro]

There SEEMS to be an anti-piracy check at the Recon Moon where you recover R2, the first Drex section has a code-minigame-lock that seems to be impossible to be solved ( there simply ISN'T enough time, it's just too hard for being the first time for that minigame )

Edit: No there isn't, I just didn't understand how to do it :/

 

[GeekyGuy]

Well, I've already hit a personal roadblock with the game. I'm not giving up on it by any means, but it forced me to put the game down for a bit. I played through a huge chunk of gameplay, died, and was sent all the way back to the beginning of the chapter segment I started from. Not cool, especially when I'm dying a lot due to a flawed cover system. You have to finagle with cover in order for your clone to kneel, otherwise he'll just stand there like a sitting duck taking on damage.

 

[Rayder]

I'm as far as the third objective on the third planet. So far, this game is not impressing me much. Pretty graphics only go so far. It just seems like you're flipping back and forth between the two playable characters, walking along a set path and unlocking doors for each other and fighting robots. Nothing impressive has happened yet, just fighting teeny little robots and flipping door switches. BOOOOORING!

I REALLY hope there is more to this game than just that in later levels. At least the previous SW game had some cool sequences here and there. My enthusiasm for this game is dropping pretty quickly.

 

[RxMxG]

it's not Square Enix's best work in terms of DS visuals. Honestly, I don't know why folks seem to think it looks all that great.

that's because KH is from Square Enix... and they are Square Enix fanboys...

 

[cloud_gackt]

works on R4 with YSmenu

 

[Yuan]

works on R4 with YSmenu

Working at 1.18 too.

 

[shakirmoledina]

i really feel the gba star wars was one of the best side scrollers and i bet they will not miss out anything here and the reviews confirm it... difinitely a get

 

[pajousek]

So, I'm trying to play on the NDSTT. But the game freezes on Vaseek in the first mission when I want to change between soldiers or when I come to the first checkpoint. I've tried the latest V1.17a02 kernel and YSMenu [with 1.17] ...

Does anyone have the same issue?

 

[Overlord Nadrian]

I'm as far as the third objective on the third planet. So far, this game is not impressing me much. Pretty graphics only go so far. It just seems like you're flipping back and forth between the two playable characters, walking along a set path and unlocking doors for each other and fighting robots. Nothing impressive has happened yet, just fighting teeny little robots and flipping door switches. BOOOOORING!

I REALLY hope there is more to this game than just that in later levels. At least the previous SW game had some cool sequences here and there. My enthusiasm for this game is dropping pretty quickly.

Exactly what I thought. The previous game was at least a bit entertaining... This is just another one of those 'great graphics=narsty game' kind of games...