Star Wars fans young and old can live out the sweeping galactic adventures of the Clone Wars. You can fight as you favourite Jedi and clone troopers from the preeminent animated television series - from familiar faces like Anakin Skywalker to new heroes like Clone Captain Rex. A brand-new storyline, which bridges the gap between season one and two, takes the player on a multi-faceted adventure to stop a mysterious techno assassin's destructive plot. Turn your enemies into weapons as you commandeer droids and use their unique abilities to blast enemies and solve puzzles as a Jedi. Be part of an elite clone trooper squad with unique game play that puts firepower at your fingertips...

I get a sneaky suspicion that Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes was rushed to the market before it was actually ready, in order to ride the wave of publicity for the next season of the animated TV series. This is a great shame because with a little more time in development this game could have had some of the lumps knocked out of it. As it is, however, this is a pretty poor offering which will disappoint fans of the TV show.

The biggest problem with the game is that there are just way to many bugs, which make it practically unplayable in places. In fact, it was one such bug that finally had me switching off in frustration.

The graphics are pretty poor and, on way too frequent an occasion, it's difficult to see your character on screen as the camera pans back leaving you looking at tiny little figures in the distance. This means that unless you have a 40"+ screen you're going to spend ages focusing on the wrong character, or dying accidentally. The perspective also doesn't help. All too frequently you can't gauge where you need to be placed in order to jump over obstacles, or where to fire your weapon in order to hit the enemy.

For me the most enjoyable sections of the game involved those where you can play as a clone trooper. Here the Jedi sections weapons of lightsabre and The Force are replaced by a gun and backup explosive devices like rocket launchers and thermal detonators which you must throw at your enemy. But, as with the repetitive hack and slash style of the Jedi based lightsabre battles, the clone trooper section soon seem a little too predictable.

There's the option to play a single player campaign mode, or team up with a friend in co-op mode. There are also plenty of unlockable content including masks and costumes your characters can wear; cheats and special abilities.

If dull, repetitive, badly conceived games that don't capture the essence of their source material are your thing then you'll love Star Wars: Clone Wars: Republic Heroes. However, for everyone else, who hasn't been sectioned under the mental health act, this game is about as much fun as watching Jar Jar Binks runaround flapping his stupid arms and ears around and yelling. I think I've made my point.

3

Darren Rea