Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Reviews
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed's Switch port tries to capitalize on nostalgia but ultimately fails to capture what made the original game so special.
Is Star Wars: The Force Unleashed worth picking up? Eh… potentially. What we have here is a shallow, short, and rather mediocre action game that's relying awfully hard on nostalgia and the popularity of the Star Wars IP to draw in players. Based solely on its own merits, there's little here that's really worth your time. Simplistic level designs, weak combat, frequent quick time events, and low replay value make this one hard to recommend. It's got a decent story and soundtrack, but neither of these things are good enough to outweigh the negatives. If you're just looking for another Star Wars game to add to your collection, this certainly fits the bill; if you're looking for a high-quality hack 'n' slash, it doesn't. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is simply a passable game; not one we'd actively avoid, but you're not missing much if you choose to skip it.
The original version of The Force Unleashed had a lot going for it when it was first released, as there were few Star Wars games that offered the player the chance to play a Sith in a canon storyline that happens alongside the movies. The Force Unleashed is now showing its age, especially in an era when Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has done many of the same things, but better. The Force Unleashed offers a short ride through a galaxy far, far away, and it does have some moments of making the player feel like an awesome Sith warrior, but it doesn't manage to sustain this feeling, with its lightsaber swinging soon becoming like a chore.
If you played the game on any other console, the Wii version of the game ported to the Switch isn’t the way to go when Xbox Game Pass has the game available on the Series X|S. While the story still hits, the gameplay is beyond dated and ultimately the motion elements remove any feeling of combos and replace them with constant wrist flicks and frantic waving.
For all that, it’s a fun game from a nostalgia point of view. I loved this game originally and I still love it now. Sure, it badly needed some upgrades and it’s disappointing that it wasn’t given them. But the story is a load of fun and the definite highlight and you have an excuse to listen to Star Wars music which always gets you pumped. It seems like that’s what they were going for with releasing this on the Switch. You shouldn’t have to rely on nostalgia to sell a game. All it’ll do is remind people of how poorly this game has aged and how little there actually is to it. Unfortunately, the decent story and soundtrack aren’t good enough to outweigh the negatives. If you never played it originally, then you’ll be left wondering what all the fuss was about. And if you have, you’ll be laughing at the time when this game looked absolutely amazing compared to now. You’ll also notice how the gameplay is severely lacking in so many ways. That said, I’m a sucker for Star Wars, so will I continue the game through to completion? Yes, yes I will. But I’m not going to be entirely happy about it and I definitely won’t be playing it in front of anyone else. I would likely get judged based on the graphics and questioned on it. It’s a fairly mediocre game compared to what we can play in 2022. So with that in mind, I score Star Wars: The Force Unleashed the Bronze Award. Still love the game though!
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for Nintendo Switch is a perfectly fine rerelease of an already great game. However, there is no doubt that the title’s strange legacy will cause this iteration to come with some unfortunate discourse. Understanding why the Nintendo Switch version of The Force Unleashed is the way it is will be important to any Star Wars fan interested in picking up the game.
So do I like this port and do I recommend it? I did have fun with this game but that did require putting up with some pretty rough edges. The combat often becomes a cluttered mess and enemies feel like inconsistent meat shields at times. But I can’t deny there were moments where I felt like an awesome Jedi. Star Wars fans will certainly love this game. I would also recommend this to lovers of the Wii console, a fan base I know exists out there. For everyone else, it’s a bit tricky, since this is a title that resides in the past with no modern quality of life improvements. It’s also hard to ignore that some will see this port as a downgrade from the Xbox 360/PS3 versions. But if you love your Star Wars or just want to play a game that’s a decent action-adventure this is not a bad pick up.