The much-anticipated "Kinect Star Wars" game comes out next week, April 3. And to make sure everyone knows, LucasArts recently released a series of launch trailers to bring anticipation to a boiling point. Each one details the numerous activities that are included, except one, for some unexplained reason.
The following is one such video, and among its many highlights it shows the ability to swing a light saber around and use The Force to push bad guys away, all just with one’s bare hands. For years, many have dreamt of such a game, especially one tied to "Star Wars," and that day has finally come:
In addition to being a Jedi, one can engage in pod racing and even assume a Rancor, who goes on a rampage in Tatooine, much like filmdom's Godzilla does in Tokyo. Missing are the space battles that's part of the package, but which can be seen in this other pre-launch clip; too bad you're piloting a Prequel Trilogy spaceship and not an X-Wing fighter. Oh well.
Yet there's something else missing: the dancing mini game that takes place in Jabba the Hutt's palace. In it, you assume one of multiple characters and dance to various numbers inspired by songs from Earth, but re-worked so it (somewhat) fits into the "Star Wars" universe. One has to wonder why it's not part of the promotional package.
There has been official footage of this somewhat downplayed mode, but it's hard to come by. Here is a clip in which the mode appears at the very end. The high point is how the lyrics from "Y.M.C.A" -- "It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A." -- has been reworked into "It's great to be in the Empire today."
On one hand, having Storm Troopers dance to songs inspired by the Village People makes little sense, no matter how much the lyrics are altered, yet it looks like lots of fun. And given how well-suited dancing games are for Kinect (at the moment, "Dance Central" 1 & 2 are still the most popular games for the platform), this mode might be “Kinect Star Wars”’ real killer app.
In addition to the bad guys, you can be one of the actual dancers from Jabba's palace, series mainstay C-3PO, or even Slave Princess Leia:
Matthew Hawkins is an NYC-based game journalist who has also written for EGM, GameSetWatch, Gamasutra, Giant Robot and numerous others. He also self-publishes his own game culture zine, is part of Attract Mode , and co-hosts The Fangamer Podcast . You can keep tabs on him via Twitter , or his personal home-base, FORT90.com .
