New Wii lightsaber game this year
Along with co-op based DS Star Wars.
LucasArts is working on new DS and Wii titles based on the Star Wars spin-off animated series, The Clone Wars, and one of them is billed as a proper Wii lightsaber game. Both are due out in "Holiday 2008". I'm on holiday tomorrow.
Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels is being developed for Wii by Krome Studios, and will include Wii remote lightsaber controls.
"We've tried to make the lightsaber control as intuitive and fun as possible. It's not a lightsaber simulator, but when you swing your Wii remote left to right; your character does the same," producer Ken Fox told IGN.
While you swing the lightsaber with the Wiimote, you'll move around with the nunchuk and activate Force powers, blocks and dodging with buttons.
Pressed by IGN on whether the Wiimote lightsaber control is your exact motions repeated on-screen, Fox dithered: "I wouldn't describe what we're doing as one-to-one in the way that you might picture, but we really tried to make it feel like you get to swing your lightsaber 'manually'," he explained.
You'll be able to play through duels from the Clone Wars film and TV series and control familiar characters, including General Grievous and the stupid doomed Jedi. We want to be the sexy one with the sponge pipes coming out of her head. We miss her.
As well as combat, gameplay is likely to include environmental interaction, LucasArts has said. So you might chop things in half or burn through doors, presumably.
Meanwhile, Star Wars The Clone Wars: Jedi Alliance for the DS is being developed by LucasFilm's Animation in Singapore, which is where the Clone Wars TV series is being made. In fact, it's their first game.
Project lead Feargus Carroll has said that you will get to pick from six Jedi to play as, with two on each mission, sharing control with the AI. There will be puzzles, stylus controls "from the ground up" and events will inevitably borrow from the TV series.
There's also drop-in co-operative multiplayer via Wi-Fi, suggesting lessons learned from the success of LEGO Star Wars - lessons other than "make more Star Wars games", that is.
According to Venturebeat, we can look out for both of those games at E3 and Comic-Con in July. So we will.