Star Wars The Force Unleashed Switch: Review round-up & gameplay footage

By Rob Leane

Published: Thursday, 21 April 2022 at 12:00 am

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed arrived on Nintendo Switch this week, with Aspyr porting over the LucasArts original from 2008, but is this memorable adventure starring Darth Vader’s secret apprentice worth picking up and playing in 2022?

First off, it’s worth noting that the Switch version of The Force Unleashed is based off the Wii release of the original game. The Switch edition, like the Wii version before it, invites you to play with motion controls, with the Switch’s Joy-Cons being swapped in for the Wi Remotes (an elegant weapon, for a more civilised age).

You might be wondering, do you have to use the motion controls in The Force Unleashed on Switch? The answer to that question is no, which will be welcome among some players. You can play the Switch version of TFU with traditional buttons and sticks if you’d rather not do the hand-waving stuff.

It’s also worth remembering that The Force Unleashed is no longer considered part of the official Star Wars canon, with Starkiller’s story being dropped from the franchise’s continuity along with all the other old LucasArts games that are now considered mere ‘Legends’.

With all of that in mind, then, is it worth picking up The Force Unleashed on Switch? We’ve pulled together a review round-up and some gameplay footage to help you decide if this is the game you’re looking for.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Switch review round-up

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Starkiller and Darth Vader in a promo still for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed on Switch.

How are the reviews looking for The Force Unleashed on Switch? As ever, there seems to be a bit of a mixed bag of critical responses on the web.

For Destructoid, Chris Carter gave the game a 7/10 rating, saying: “While it’s often mechanically janky, aesthetically it nails the feeling of being a Star Wars game.”

Carter notes that “the same problems of the original remain of course, as this is not a full remake”. He states that, while the performances are “on point” and the soundtrack is “straight out of a Star Wars film”, the game is let down by its “very linear” levels and platforming segments that remain “2000s-era pointless”.

Mitch Vogel from Nintendo Life was less positive, giving a 5/10 score. The positives are listed in that review as “decent story” and “great soundtrack”, but the negatives called out include “simplistic level design”, “weak combat system”, “low replay value” and “Quick Time Events [that] make boss fights dull”.

Scott Baird of ScreenRant gave the game 2.5/5, saying in his final analysis: “The Force Unleashed is now showing its age, especially in an era when Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has done many of the same things, but better.

“It does have some moments of making the player feel like an awesome Sith warrior, but it doesn’t manage to sustain this feeling, with its lightsaber swinging soon becoming like a chore.”

Michael Leri from ComingSoon didn’t give a score but came to a similar conclusion, citing such negative features as “archaic visuals”, an “unwieldy” camera, and combat that is “even more dull than ever before”.

He went on to argue that The Force Unleashed “deserves more”, with a full remake perhaps being a better approach than this “puzzling port”.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Switch gameplay footage

The reviews don’t seem to be overwhelmingly positive, then, but how does The Force Unleashed on Switch actually look?

Gameplay videos of TFU on Switch are beginning to do the rounds, and this one from ContraNetwork shows a screen capture of the opening cut-scene and the Darth Vader tutorial level that follows it. This should give you a decent idea of what level the graphics are operating at.