Happy belated May the 4th for those that celebrate! I started The Force Unleashed on May the 4th for that very reason, it felt appropriate… even if nobody asked. All those years ago, I owned The Force Unleashed and I vividly remember starting it up, but my memory becomes a complete fog somewhere after the initial splash screen. That’s not really uncommon for me in that particular era of gaming, I was generally pretty rubbish at sticking with and finishing games back then. The Nintendo Wii delivered a lot of answers for me on that front though, pulling me into games that were outside my comfort zone at the time. It almost always came with the promise of waving a plastic remote around like a huge dork and somehow feeling powerful doing it. I vividly remember being mesmerised watching Force powers respond to a casual flailing of my limbs. I guess in hindsight, that says a lot about a game that I never finished. I’ve always been a Star Wars fan, but my Star Wars game of choice has always been Knights of the Old Republic. The Force Unleashed was always going to be a harder sell.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was released by Krome Studios in 2008. LucasArts could have developed it, but they were sick that day. I mean… uh, they were working on the next-gen editions instead. The Force Unleashed has you control Starkiller, Darth Vader’s secret apprentice who has been trained in the shadows to hunt down and eliminate the remaining Jedi after Order 66. The story acts as somewhat of a bridge between the prequel and original Star Wars trilogies. Vader’s goal is to use Starkiller to overthrow the emperor, so he says. Life as Vader’s personal assassin starts out pretty straightforward until it inevitably unravels when Darth Vader betrays Starkiller, because of course he does. I think Groundskeeper Willie said it best: Masters and Apprentices are natural enemies. Like Jedi and Sith. Or Rebels and Sith. Or The Republic and Sith. Or Sith and other Sith. Damn Sith! They ruined Korriban! Betrayed and seemingly left for dead, Vader finds and revives Starkiller, sending him on a new mission to secretly unite the Empire’s enemies to force a rebellion to continue with their plan. As with most Star Wars games, you have the choice of two endings: light side and dark side. It’s a shame they don’t consider the story canon, I think it was overall pretty well received.
Looking back at what the game could have been, I’m pretty glad they landed on this story. During development, there were over a hundred possible concepts on the table including a Wookiee superhero and Darth Maul as the main protagonist, LucasArts finally settled on Darth Vader’s secret apprentice and here we are. It was essentially an attempt to bridge the gap between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, which at the time was a largely untouched Star Wars timeline. George Lucas signed off on the idea after watching a one minute video built around the concept of kicking someone’s ass with the Force. After watching the video, he told the designers to go and make that game. The story itself is predictable in a classic Star Wars kinda way. You know Vader is going to betray Starkiller, but the journey is genuinely well written with a strong supporting cast that keeps you invested the whole way through. Starkiller himself is a compelling protagonist and the Force powers do a great job of selling the fantasy of being an unstoppable dark side killing machine. What probably surprised me most is how well the story holds up as a piece of Star Wars lore. Its attempt to bridge the prequel and original trilogies feels entirely meaningful and honestly if it had remained canon, I’d have zero complaints. It works and it works well.
At its core, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is a third person action game and for a 2008 release, it does that particular job incredibly well. Basic combat is straightforward enough to pick up fairly quickly but the real draw card is Force powers and the chaos you can cause with them. Tossing Stormtroopers around like they’re nothing, ripping turrets out of enemy hands to use against them and launching objects across the room never really gets old and the game does a good job of escalating your abilities as you progress. Level design might be the only down point, the majority of levels generally follow a singular pathway, but they’re still serviceable and look great for the time. Every location simply oozes Star Wars. Boss fights feel memorable, with some genuinely creative encounters throughout the campaign. I wouldn’t call it perfect and the checkpoint system might test your patience at times but the overall experience holds up incredibly well, better than you might expect from a game that came out nearly twenty years ago. For a game built around the premise of making you feel like the most powerful Force user in the galaxy, The Force Unleashed absolutely delivers.
The Wii version of The Force Unleashed is where things get genuinely interesting and honestly it’s a big part of why I wanted to include it in Wii’re Going Back. The motion controls are simple, but they’re surprisingly well implemented for what they are. Swinging the Wii remote in different directions to vwing your lightsaber around and flicking the nunchuck to crush your enemies into the ground feels immediately satisfying in a way that you just can’t get out of a traditional controller. The special actions further reinforce interactivity, and genuine fun, these require specific remote and nunchuck movements, or to hold them at the correct angle shown on the screen and push them forward to trigger an attack or counter attack during a boss fight. This simply adds a layer of physical interactivity that actually makes you feel involved with what’s happening on the screen. Force powers all have different button combinations paired with physical controller movements to trigger them and they feel ridiculous in the best possible way. Oh yeah, you’re absolutely going to look like a complete dork doing them and I love it. The game is already built around making you feel like an unstoppable Force user and the Wii controls push that fantasy further by making it physical in a way that totally works.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed on the Nintendo Wii is a genuinely great time and so far, one of my favourites of Wii’re Going Back. It might not be perfect, but for a licensed third-person action game that’s nearly twenty years old, it does so much right. The story holds up far better than I would have expected and the fact that it didn’t make the cut in the official Star Wars universe is actually a bit of a shame. The core gameplay is solid, the boss fights are as fun as they are memorable and the extra layer of physical immersion that comes with the Nintendo Wii motion controls makes the whole experience feel unique in a way that the next-gen versions simply can’t replicate. Waving a Wii remote and nunchuck around like a jackass to activate Force powers is a very specific, dorky kind of fun and The Force Unleashed delivers it in spades. Legitimately, if you have a Nintendo Wii or Wii U on a shelf collecting dust somewhere (or powerful enough computer or handheld) and never got a chance to play or finish this one, it’s worth giving it the time of day it deserves. After all these years, I finally finished The Force Unleashed. It might have taken about… checks notes eighteen years, but it was well worth the wait.
Verdict:
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed tells a genuinely great Star Wars story combined with motion controls that make you feel like the most powerful Force user in the galaxy. It’s uniquely physical and holds up far better than expected. The dark side has never felt this fun.
Deck Compatibility: 10/10
Overall Game Rating: 9/10 – Use The Force
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