When my brother and I were quite young, our parents bought us our first dedicated game console: the Sega Master System. It had just come out, and the guy at Toys 'R' Us recommended it for the holidays. Of course, he also recommended Gangster Land, a game which required us to shoot well-dressed Bugsy-era gangsters to death, then shoot their angelic visage as it floated to the top of the screen toward heaven. After all, nothing says wholesome family fun quite like shooting down angels, right?
It was those moments my parents wished they had a resource for knowing such things beforehand. As games have grown from the pixelated affairs of the past to the complex masterworks of today, this need has intensified. WhatTheyPlay.com understands this need, and provides you -- the parents -- with an easy-to-digest review of the disc you just bought your 10-year-old.
Recently, WhatTheyPlay played through the current LucasArts catalog in order to give parents an inside scoop on 10 Things Parents Should Know.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 10 Things Parents Should Know (Excerpt)
Throughout the game, players are put in control of quite an evil guy, Starkiller. It's important for parents to realize this, as WhatTheyPlay points out:
4. Players can kill innocent characters including Wookiees and Jawas.Everyone loves Wookiees right? Chewbacca's roar is endearing. So it may prove disturbing for some to portray Vader as he slices and dices the furry behemoths left and right with his red lightsaber. Players also fights lots of stormtroopers, plant people, green guys who look like Greedo, and even gigantic monsters called rancors. Other missions feature the pig-faced Ugnaughts from The Empire Strikes Back and blowtorch bearing Jawas from Star Wars. There are even innocent droids. All of these can be killed with your lightsaber, Force powers, or both, and with little to no consequences for doing so. Even when you're a "good guy," killing Wookiees just means fewer Wookiees helping you out in your mission. Of course, there is no blood or gore, and no actually Wookiees were harmed in the making of the game.
If The Force Unleashed is on your holiday list this year, it is definitely worth giving the article a read. If not, perhaps you've got The Clone Wars on your mind? With two wildly differing games hitting both the Nintendo DS and the Nintendo Wii, the decisions are tough. You could buy both of them, of course, but perhaps one that better suits the child you are buying it for.
Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels What Parents Should Know (Excerpt)
Lightsaber Duels offers many of the same gameplay features found in traditional fighting games, but with obvious Star Wars twists. Padawans can fight alone against a computer-controlled opponent, or they can follow along with the story, based on the Clone Wars movie and animated series, which stops at all the proper junctions for fights. Players can also choose to complete challenges, such as having to meet a certain objective in a set amount of time. Of course, they can battle each other as well. Each player requires his or her own Wii Remote and Nunchuk attachment.
Star Wars The Clone Wars: Jedi Alliance What Parents Should Know (Excerpt)
Set in The Clone Wars timeframe, between Episodes II and III of the Star Wars saga, the game is based on the hugely successful animated TV show from Lucasfilm, currently shown on Cartoon Network. The adventure charges the player with taking two Jedi at a time (from a selection of six that includes Anakin, Obi Wan, Mace Windu, Kit Fisto, Ahsoka Tano, and Plo Koon. Ask your kids -- they know the significance) out into the field, and has them work together to defeat the bad guys and open up new parts of the story. In terms of gameplay structure, Jedi Alliance has a lot in common with another Nintendo DS title, Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword.
Our final recent title to come out of LucasArts is the non-Star Wars title Fracture. Since it is an original storyline, nobody quite knows what to expect from the gameplay. Once again, WhatTheyPlay comes the rescue, with a brief synopsis of the storyline
Fracture What Parents Should Know (Excerpt)
Fracture tells the tale of a future United States geographically divided (fractured, if you will) where the Pacifican States battle the Atlantic Alliance. The Pacificans favor stem cell research and the resulting genetic modification, while the Alliance prefer technology and cybernetics; thusly, a divide has been wrought. As Jet Brody, players will fight for the Alliance across the warn-torn U.S. soil, in a quasi sci-fi action game, played from the third-person perspective where players see their character on the screen.
With the glut of video games on, or coming to, the market this holiday season, parents certainly have their work cut out for them. It's good that places like WhatTheyPlay.com are there to let you know that the Force can be part of everyone's Christmas morning, and nobody will have to be shooting Gangster Angels to make it happen.
