Critical Consensus: Kinect Star Wars

Terminal Reality duels with the Kinect's shortcomings. Can the Star Wars license save the day?
Cast your mind back to E3 2010. Microsoft unveiled 'Project Natal', the full-body motion-sensing peripheral that promised to do nothing less than revolutionise the way we play games. The standard bearer for that promise was Lionhead's ultimately doomed Milo & Kate, but lurking somewhere in the back was a deeply unimpressive demo of a new Star Wars game. It looked bland, both visually and in terms of gameplay; What's more, it seemed to be running independently from the person frantically waving his arms on-stage.
Two years later and very little has changed. Kinect is still widely regarded as unfulfilled potential, we're still waiting for the game that will give us a taste of what Milo & Kate promised, and Kinect Star Wars is everything that E3 demo indicated and a whole lot more - or less, depending on which review you read.
VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi can see the good in Terminal Reality's labour of commercial necessity, as indicated by his 7 out of 10 score. However, while a 7 implies a good game - a solid recommendation - Takahashi's text seems to be describing a very different experience. Star Wars Kinect is energetic, intuitive and sporadically fun, but it's bad points vastly outweigh the good.
Inaccurate controls, poor storytelling, dull enemies, hollow characters, stilted dialogue, poor animations; the gang's all here. Commendable score notwithstanding, Takahashi is open and direct in articulating his disappointment.
"Like many other fans in the galaxy, I was willing to overlook little problems," he says. "After all, I grew up with Star Wars, and I share the common fantasy of one day becoming a Jedi Master. Unfortunately, Kinect Star Wars wasn't worth the wait.

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