Game #1071: Star Wars - The New Droid Army

  No younglings, but at least you get to massacre a ton of droids.

 Taking place after The Attack of the clones, Star Wars: The New Droid Army is an isometrical adventure/beat'em up game in which you, as Anakin Skywalker must put a stop to Count Dooku's new plan.

 New Droid Army is interesting. The small digitized sprites and the isometrical camera angle reminded me of a Gameboy Color game, Obi-wan's Adventures, which makes me think the same people might have worked on it. The game is styled after an adventure game, as you visit towns in-between hacking-and-slashing, and you must even talk with NPCs to figure out where to go next, but it's just an illusion of choice and exploration, as the game is very linear, no side-quests to be found or any reward for for going out of your way.

 The first thing you'll notice is that Anakin's walking speed is unbearably slow, so much so that there's a 'Speed' force power. However, toggling it on quickly saps your stamina, and you need stamina to fend off the ridiculous amounts of enemies you'll be fighting. Having a stamina meter in a game like this is ridiculous. Everything costs stamina, using your Jedi abilities, attacking and even deflecting shots, so there's no point in using the Speed ability, which you'll be tempted to since you are SO slow, if you'll be assaulted by enemies but lack the stamina to fight back.

 Combat looks cool, because tapping directions on the control pad while mashing A will net you all sorts of cool attacks, like an overhead flip or spinning slashes. It looks really cool. Sadly, it all feels clunky, and at times it feels like there's no way to avoid damage. Which is probably why your health and stamina are constantly regenerating.... and eventually you get the 'meditate' ability which roots you to the spot and quicken your regeneration. There's no other way to restore your health, and the combat is clunky so... expect a lot of downtime as you wait for your health and stamina to recover, which was very boring.

 Some levels feature jumping, which isn't completely awful, but sometimes there are enemies on the other side that you just couldn't see and will just push you to your death with a blaster the moment you land on the next platform. Cheap!

 Star Wars wasn't kind to the Gameboy Advance, that's for sure. Sadly this is probably one of the better SW outings on the system, as the basic structure of the game is fun, it's a shame the execution leaves a lot to be desired.

 4.0