Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Lightsaber Duels

Lightsaber Duels is a game that really highlights just how much of a gimmick the Wiimote is. Truthfully, the Wii’s controller is not what it seems at first glance: it can only really sense basic movements, and it can’t really be used to represent an object in completely 3D space. In this game, each of the four directions that you wave the Wiimote — up, down, left, right — correspond, basically, to a button press in any other fighting video game… you aren’t able to stand and wave your lightsaber on-screen the way you would expect. (In fact, the old PC game Die by the Sword played better than this with the mouse — and that was a decade ago!)

So, when the game doesn’t allow you to actually swing a lightsaber, you have to ask yourself — what was the point?  If you love the cartoon, and are having kids over, you might have some fun renting it… but can’t recommend purchasing it when the core single-player “campaign” can be completed in about half an hour.