Game #1301: Star Wars - The Force Unleashed II(Nintendo DS)

  Leashed, it's very much leashed.

 I was bamboozled! I was watching some videogame footage and came upon Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II on the DS, and it looked as if, unlike the original, it didn't have tacked-on stylus controls. But I was wrong, as it's even worse than I remembered the first one being.

 The game follows the same plot as the console game, however, for cutscenes we get ugly stills. The game is made up of about five stages, and each stage lasts about 30 minutes, which feels like a slog considering this is a handheld game and the game isn't much fun.

 You use the DPAD to move and you use the touchscreen to attack and use your force powers. The gist of it is: Swipe to slash, tap and hold to use: Push, Electricity, Saber Throw or Grip. Force Powers can be used in battle, but you'll also need to use them to solve puzzles, and sometimes, puzzle bosses. So, firstly, combat is a masher, rather, a swiper, it feels clunky and ungratifying. Even worse, as you swipe on enemies, sometimes the game will think you tried using a Force Power instead. It's not too bad since force powers are still useful in battles, but it's annoying.

 So, the combat isn't fun, what about the rest of the game? Just as dull. There's a lot of platforming, and falling into a bottomless pit means being sent back to the start of the section, which can be so frustrating when it feels so unfair. You jump with the R button, but it feels super janky, the jump is too high, and too floaty, so it's easy to mis-calculate the direction. And when it involves the double-tap dash? Ugh....

 The second boss almost made me drop the game. You have to bring down its shields with force powers, but using grip didn't work. So I looked up guides... and nobody wrote one, so I searched for a gameplay video.... I could only find a single longplay.... and the guy was doing exactly what I was doing, so why wasn't it working? Eventually it started reading my inputs... some times? It was SO frustrating.

 The Force Unleashed II on the Nintendo DS is a trainwreck, the first game was already bad, but this one is even worse.

 2.0