Star Wars The Force Unleashed Switch Edition Review

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, when Star Wars games were plenty, Lucas Arts was in full swing and Disney had not yet mangled the franchise, Star Wars The Force Unleashed was released.

Now, this was way back in 2008 and gaming has changed a lot since then. Multiplatform games are not what they used to be. Back then you had a different experience based on the same story for different consoles. Now it’s just the same game and experience just with varying performance and graphics depending on the console.

Star Wars The Force Unleashed Ols School Vs New School

Now personally, I never played the Force Unleashed on Nintendo Wii as I originally played it on Xbox 360 and PC. I thought it was a fantastic game with a compelling story that added to the overall story of Star Wars and one that acted as a nice bridge between Episode 3 Revenge of the Sith and Episode 4 A New Hope. Again, a lot has changed since 2008 this time with Star Wars. As everyone is well aware Disney bought Lucasfilm from George Lucas during the acquisition of October 2012. A decision that ultimately had both its ups and downs, the main downer being the closer of Lucas Arts and the loss of Star Wars 1313 (that still hurts to this day). Every game, story, graphic novel and book made before the acquisition thus became non-canon in the eyes of Disney and so Star Wars legends were born. As we now know the story between Episodes 3 and 4 has since been filled in by Movies and shows such as Rogue One, Solo: A Star Wars Story and Rebels. It has also been most recently filled in with the game Jedi Fallen Order, which (in my opinion) borrows a lot of ideas and elements from the Force Unleashed.

With all that being said, let’s take a look at The Force Unleashed Switch Edition.

Upgrade or Downgrade Let’s find out

With this originally being a multiplatform release (and having not played the Wii version myself) I was at first surprised when the opening cinematic played, to how different this game was from the Xbox and PC versions. This then went for the entire game, with different cutscenes and levels too. Personally, I feel like the story flows better in the later versions as there isn’t as much dialogue and exposition in this iteration of the game as opposed to the more fleshed-out version of the Xbox and PC versions. I noticed this a lot during my playthrough, that the lack of dialogue is substituted for more action-based gameplay. I’d imagine this was due to the use and implementation of the Nintendo Wii’s motion controls, a function that has been carried over to this port by using the joy-cons, a feature that is surprisingly fun and very responsive. The impressive vibration of the joy-cons makes slashing up stormtroopers and using the force ever more satisfying. Now, all be it fun the amount of action that this game has to offer, it does become very repetitive and at times very tedious. While you’re playing you will find yourself thinking ‘right just killed these guys, time to move around that corner and, yep more enemies’ It can be too much at times. Yes, I know the whole point of the game is that you’re a badass Sith apprentice come Jedi who wields the force like Yoda on crack, but too much action can become very deflating. You’ll find yourself asking, when will this end and will the next mission be more of the same. It would be okay if your enemies reacted how you would expect a lightsaber slicing through them should be. But when it takes 20+ hits on a Gamorrean Guard to kill them, the authenticity of a lightsaber goes out of the window.

May for Force be with you – Performance is everything

Performance-wise this port runs impressively well. In handheld mode, the picture looks crisp with no rough edges or graphical glitches. Aspyr has really done a great job at porting this over to the switch and maintaining a great level of detail with the graphics. The game also ran smoothly with now drops in framerate during my gameplay adding to a fluid experience. In docked mode, the game ran even better in full resolution. Everything was crisp and the quality of the package was maintained. Again no drops in frames.

Sound-wise the game holds up to the original, sound effects sound authentic and realistic along with the music and voice acting. There are no audio glitches that I have (at times) found in ported versions of games.

Overall this is a very good port of a classic Star Wars game. And while it may at times have its flaws, it’s still overall a very fun and enjoyable experience that will keep you entertained for hours of play. Plus you can take the game with you when you are out and about. That’s a plus on any given day.

Overall Star Wars The Force Unleashed Switch Edition gets a 7 out of 10. The force is moderately strong with this one…