Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron (Nintendo DS) - Review by Chris

Introduction

The Star Wars Battlefront series of games has been around for quite some time now and due to its gameplay being heavily based within the realms of multiplayer, it has mainly stayed on the home consoles bar a few exceptions elsewhere. Feeling that it was time to bring it to Nintendo's dual screen handheld, LucasArts has teamed up with n-Space, who have shown great talent when it comes to DS development as of late, to provide an iteration in the series that doesn't quite possess the same multiplayer nature that its forbearers do. Does this change in gameplay work in the game's favour or has it fallen to the dark side?

Gameplay

Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron takes a different take on the Battlefront formula with this DS iteration. The game has become more single player oriented, with a robust single player campaign present. In it, you will primarily take on the role of a clone trooper, known as X2, who has been created from the DNA of a Jedi and thus possesses the ability to use the force. Having originally been part of a squadron of clone troopers set to take out a Jedi collection, X2 decided to defect and instead help the Rebellion fight back against the Sith and their ever growing empire. His brother, X1, is of a similar nature, born from the DNA of a Jedi, and after his brother defected and decided to fight alongside Luke Skywalker and the Rebellion cause, he has taken it upon himself to hunt down his brother and kill him. As the player, it is your job to take control of X2 and thwart X1's plans. The story all unfolds over the course of the Star Wars saga, covering many aspects from the various films while also including characters from them as well. This then provides the basics for the game's main allotment of gameplay.

Gameplay, for the most part, takes the form of a top down shooter, with all of the action you head into as X2 taking place on the top screen. You'll have to fight your way through waves of Sith droids and soldiers on a collection of 11 worlds while at the same time, taking orders for superiors to take down key objectives that can ultimate aid the efforts of the Rebellion against the Sith. The game's mechanics grant you as a foot soldier a couple of weapons, which can be changed on the fly and some of which have ammunition constraints, as well as the ability to use force powers, because of your genetic makeup, and grenades but the game's action starts to become mundane as the game wears on, simply boiling down to moving through and area, defeating all of the enemies, rinse and repeat until the missions end. The game does alleviate some of the monotony by the inclusion of boss battles but these aren't a particularly saving moment for the gameplay, coming back to the already tried and tested formula of the rest of the gameplay. This is the first Battlefront title that allows for ground, space and intergalactic ship fighting but each of these segments of the game is curtailed into its own section, chopping the gameplay into chunks instead of being seamlessly put together and thus it feels like a fragmented experience. The battles on the ships play out almost exactly as those on the ground but those in space show a nice diversion. You'll commandeer a fighter and have to take down a specific number of enemies, akin to the Rogue Squadron games, but it's incredibly limiting and in no way replicates the feeling of excitement that those games brought. It is a nice inclusion but ultimately feels more like a tech demo rather than a fully fledged part of the gameplay.

The Battlefront series is known for its great multiplayer and yet here, it feels anything but great. The game is limited to 4 player wireless multiplayer, with all players needing to have the game. Each of the match types split the gameplay up into the ground, space, and ship gameplay that the game has tried to push but it again feels anything but seamless and lacks the enjoyment factor of a typical Battlefront multiplayer experience. The class specific troops remain, allowing you access to a decent selection of soldiers with preset weapons but bar the weapons they hold, they all play out the same and killing your opponents seems to take an eternity. Even as a starting point for a multiplayer series on the handheld, it feels bare and lacklustre and should the series continue on the console, then some big improvements are going to be needed if it is to come anywhere close to being as memorable as it's bigger brethren titles.

Controls

The game sticks to a purely button only setup which is great for the most part. You'll control you character or ship with the d-pad, while using a combination of the face buttons to fire weapons or, should you be controlling characters that can use them, force powers. It's all very accessible but getting an aim on some of the enemies can often be a bit on the difficult size but luckily there is a lock-on system which works wonders. There are some issues with the buttons though, foremost being the grenade throwing mechanic which requires you to hold down the requisite button until a cursor reaches the desired location and then let go. It's not the best way it could have been handled and can be too slow when you need to be quick in the heat of battle. An area where touch screen control would have been a nice touch is the space levels in the various fighters but the game limits your movement to a horizontal plane, not allowing for any vertical movement whatsoever. The ships do control well, although they do feel rather sluggish at times.

Graphics

For the on foot sections of the gameplay, the game employs a top down camera which allows for a larger and more detailed world to be shown on the screen. The various worlds and ships you'll be running and gunning in are well designed, showing a good level of detail even if things do look a little on the small side due to the viewpoint. Character models are likewise smaller due to the viewpoint but they are well built and have a decent level of detail about them. Their animation isn't as good as it could be, perhaps due to the limitations of the hardware, but it easily gets the job done and many of the small misdemeanours will go unnoticed. The space levels are equally well done, with ship designs being pulled right out of the films and some of the other franchise media, and look superb. The main issue, however, is that of severe frame rate drops, occurring in all areas of gameplay. But they are more prevalent in the dog fights in space due to the scale and detail of everything on screen at one time. It does become frustrating as it can hamper your shooting but you will learn to work around it but it is something which you shouldn't have to work around and something which should have been minimised before the game was released.

Sound

It's the typical Star Wars fare in terms of audio in the game, with sweeping orchestral scores and shorter, more punctuated ones conveying the action and the tension of the gameplay superbly. The sound effects sound as if they have also been pulled from the movies, with blaster fire and such sounding exactly as you'd expect them to, albeit at a slightly lower compressed quality. It's all very recognisable and well done but it is to be expected of a franchise which has taken care and pride to produce such wonderful scores and sound effects over the decades.

Dual screen

Again, we have a game where the top screen shows the action and the touch screen is relegated to showing a radar and map of the surrounding area along with your weapon stock. It is helpful and works in the context of the game but the touch screen could have done with some extrapolation to make it more helpful in the maps it shows.

Final comments

Clearly, getting the Battlefront series to fit within the DS' limitations was always going to be a stretch but the end result of Elite Squadron is one which doesn't come close to replicating the experience. The single player is lengthy enough, and a nice inclusion to the series which should become a standard across the titles, but the fragmented ground, space, and ship gameplay hurts the game beyond belief, nowhere more apparent than in multiplayer where it just halts the experience altogether. As a foundation title for the console, it's not bad but it could have and should have been far better in all respects. Here's hoping that n-Space and LucasArts can improve the formula for the next one.

Pro: Excellent musical accompaniment and sound effects, campaign is lengthy and not bad, graphics are detailed
Con: Frame rate issues plague the game, controls aren't as robust as they could have been, and multiplayer is a complete let down
Final score: 6.8

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