The above-mentioned Order 66 is a challenging game in and of itself. Your goal is to defeat twenty-three waves of increasingly difficult and numerous enemies in a variety of locales, like the now-defunct Jedi Temple on Coruscant in Figure D.

FIGURE D


Visit the decimated Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Once accomplished, you unlock the Force Out game and an additional player skin. The catch with Order 66 though is that your progress is not saved, you have to complete it all in one shot. If you die, you have start over at the first wave.

Finally, the last PSP-specific feature is Historic Missions. This is where you get to relive some of the most famous lightsaber battles from the Star Wars movies. How would you have handled the duel against Count Dooku aboard General Grievous' flagship in Revenge of the Sith? You'll get to find out in the Historic Battle shown in Figure E.

FIGURE E


Battle against Count Dooku in the Historic Battles. Roll over picture for a larger image.

You'll also get to fight as Mace Windu in the Geonosis arena, as Luke Skywalker against Jabba's henchmen over the Sarlacc Pitt, and as Darth Vader against Luke in the Bespin carbon freezing chamber.

That's right; they pulled a switcheroo on us. Most would have expected to battle Darth Vader as Luke, but they've turned the tables on us, allowing us to don the mantle of the Dark Side in one of the most famous father-son battles in history.

Wrapping it up
Where does all this get us? Trashing and thrashing stormtroopers, mercenaries, Jedi, and a whole lot of property with lightsabers and the Force across a number of worlds, that's where. I've played the majority of the Star Wars games, on a multitude of different systems, and most of the time I've found myself a bit, if not greatly, disappointed. Not so with The Force Unleashed. I liked it from the very beginning, and loved it by the end. I mean, it's Star Wars. You get to use a lightsaber and the Force; and you're a bad guy.

I'm currently on my third run through the game. The first was just to complete it, the second to blow the snot out of everything. Now I'm going through and picking up the things I missed the first two times.

With so many systems to choose from, some may think it difficult to choose. The decision is really quite easy. For its additional content and multiplayer options, the choice is clearly TFU for PSP. If all that matters to you is a pretty picture, then by all means have your PS3 or Xbox 360. But if you want to take your Force on the road and fight those historic duels, then you'll want the PSP version. Despite a few glitches here and there, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is still an awesome game on the PSP and earns 4 out of 5.

OUR RATING: 4 of 5

Jorge Sosa is a writer/photographer for the Hutchinson Leader. He can be reached via e-mail at jsosa1234@yahoo.com or on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jsosa1234.