The Star Wars Battlefront series has always been focused on intense multiplayer action, usually at the expense of a cohesive, gripping single-player campaign.  The newest iteration, Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron for the DS, takes a radically different approach to its action, and focuses more on story and atmosphere than multiplayer aspects.  They should have left well-enough alone.

Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron tells an all-new story in the Star Wars universe, and it’s not a bad one, either.  Players take control of X2, a Force-sensitive clone during the Clone Wars.  After working alongside his brother, X1, in the Republican military, X2 is one of the few soldiers to defect when Order 66 is issued. This, obviously, puts him at odds with the new Empire as well as his twin brother. X2’s story of loyalty, faith, betrayal, and moral ambiguity takes the player from the beginning of Episode II to the era of the New Republic, taking place after the events of Return of the Jedi.  It’s not quite the magnum opus that Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was, and it’s almost all told through static cut-scenes, but it’s still a fun, exciting narrative with characters and events that fit well into the established Star Wars continuity.

Instead of the series’ traditional third/first person perspectives, Star Wars: Battlefront: Elite Squadron places the camera high above the action, presenting the game as more of a dungeon crawler than a standard action game.  For the bulk of the game, you, and sometimes a computer-controlled partner will roam hallways from familiar Star Wars locations, blasting every droid, clone, stormtrooper, and dark Jedi that crosses your paths.  To accomplish this, players will start off with a standard soldier, but be able to choose from other classes, like the spy and heavy gunner later in the game.  While there’s plenty of variety in the classes (each has a primary and secondary weapon, as well as a grenade type), once you figure out the spy’s ability to hack turrets, there’s really no reason to use any other class.  Rgardless of which class you choose, your strategy will likely be the same; hold down the B button and run forward.  Seriously, this method works in every single ground conflict except for boss battles.  Needless to say, this makes the game extremely easy, even for very young gamers.

Dealing with the game’s bosses is a slightly more tactical affair, and much like in the earliest console action games, each one features a specific pattern that must be learned in order to defeat them.  These are quite easy, too, but somewhat more difficult than the rest of the on-foot action, making them something of a respite.  At least the bosses are characters you’d want to fight, like General Grievous and Boba Fett,

Occasionally, players will board vehicles for space combat sections and high-speed chases.  The chases are simple, but somewhat enjoyable on-rails segments that essentially ask you to not slam into anything.  The space battles, on the other hand are extremely poorly handled, and add nothing to the game.  I understand that the DS’ limitations make it difficult to produce a full-on space vehicle battle, but the inability to change your pitch OR your altitude makes this one of the most un-space-like experiences ever.  An X-Wing that can only turn left and right, blasting away at barely visible dots, is hardly an X-Wing at all. 

The isometric angle the game is viewed at must have been implemented to disguise the game’s uninspired visuals.  Character models are vaguely reminiscent of the characters they are intended to portray, but their animations are laughable.  X2, in particular, has a very slim animation set that includes walking, shooting, falling down, and rolling to avoid projectiles.  The roll is quite funny to watch, as he does a sort of cartwheel/back-flop that looks more like a grand mal seizure than an evasion attempt.  Luckily, the game’s environments fare much better, and the various planets on which you’ll fight look just like they should, giving the whole affair a convincing Star Wars atmosphere.  Every sound effect and musical element in the game is taken directly from the Lucasarts library, so everything sounds like it’s taking place in the proper galaxy, far, far away.


Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron is certainly a victim of its platform’s shortcomings, but it’s also not a very good game to begin with.  There’s a multiplayer aspect, allowing up to four players to battle head to head, but it’s so shallow and unenjoyable, it’s not worth bothering with, and barely worth mentioning.  Without that, all we’re left with is a sub-par action game with land visuals and zero challenge.  It does manage to tell a decent story, and the game is so easy, anyone who wants to see it unfold can do so with little to no difficulty, but for gamers looking for their Star Wars action fix, this isn't the game you're looking for.