When the announcement was made all those years ago that Star Wars creator George Lucas was making the prequels to the Star Wars trilogy, the world somewhat rejoiced, then retracted their excitement when Episode 1: The Phantom Menace was released. The other two episodes were decent, but with the many alterations that Lucas did with the original three, it had (and still does) hardcore fans angry and frustrated. Why fix something that wasn’t broken in the first place?
Then there’s the millions of merchandise dollars that that Skywalker Ranch rakes in with toys, games and other hoo-haa that would take years to sort through. But the latest Star Wars game released kind of draws the line between decency and taste. Ever since the rumour of including the members of former boy band N*Sync into Episode 2: Attack Of The Clones all because Lucas’s daughter loved the band (lucky it was bullshit), the latest revolution of Star Wars games comes down to the newest type of gaming console techonology:
Kinect Star Wars.
I will say up front – I have not played the game whatsoever, yet alone not owning the X-Box Kinect nor an X-Box. So I fail on all accounts. But upon reading and watching many videos based on this clumsy games system, I can see where the developers were trying to come from: making the entire Star Wars prequel trilogy a fully interactive experience for the young ones and maybe even the older generation, but with the viewing of many mini-games within the game, the one there I have seriously gone “What the fuck?” was the mini-game of the Galactic Dance-Off: an incorporation of the Kinect Dance but embedded within the Star Wars universe. But when you think that it may be acceptable, the songs used are pop/dance tunes, re-written and produced to be all Star Wars puns and themes.
[flv]http://wirelessfodder.com/vid/SWKHS.flv[/flv]
When first viewed, I was laughing for a few seconds, then I turned to anger. Jason DeRulo‘s Riding Solo was changed to Han Solo. Gwen Stefani‘s Hollaback Girl changed to Hollagram Girl. YMCA = Empire Today. It goes on. In utter stupidity, you end up dancing as Han Solo himself, trying to save yourself from being put in frozen carbonite. In another scene, when you walk into a nightclub, Bobba Fett makes the Stormtroopers dance to The Village People – YMCA in order to recruit you to the Empire.
[flv]http://wirelessfodder.com/vid/SWKET.flv[/flv]
Speechless.
It may make a connection with the younger audience, but the amusement disappears if you take Star Wars a bit too seriously. Then again, you’ve probably just bought the game, right?
