Star Wars, nothing but Star Wars… Battlefront games are usually third- or first-person shooters, but this DS conversion by n-Space is, well, you can see in the screenshot. I gather that the “proper” version of this game on PSP has a ton of customisation and stuff, but this one is much more streamlined. Or to put it another way, so simplistic as to be dull a lot of the time. There are four classes to choose from, as well as the bonus Jedi class, so at least you have options, but combat is generally very easy.

You’re either moving from room to room blowing up small groups of enemies, or just mowing down incoming waves. Spaceship levels break it up but are even more mindless, with only X and Y axis movement, and even worse are the turret sections or speeder bike-type bits. Boss fights are also spammable with the right class. Multiplayer is a focus of these games, and that mode has potential as a party game, but I didn’t have any human opponents and the Wi-fi connection is gone.

So the gameplay is no great shakes, but I still liked the game. The campaign mode has an enjoyable story spanning the whole saga and beyond, with chapters set in the Clone Wars, the original trilogy, and the OG EU New Republic era. You get to interact with major characters from the movie, as well as Rahm Kota from off of the Force Unleashed, which pleased me. I liked the plot, a tale of two Jedi clone brothers who choose different paths and end up clashing over many years, and your character X2 has a nice arc over the events.

Experimenting with the different classes and weapons was pretty cool, and once you unlock your Jedi powers I had fun using them in addition to the other classes. The gameplay works at least, even if it’s a little shaky at times. But overall the game feels very “Star Wars”, whatever that means. But maybe the PSP version would be a better way to experience the game and story… who knows!