Star Wars Droidworks (UK Version)

Description:

Your task is to build droids, and guide them through various missions. Along the way you are helped by familiar characters from Star Wars, such as C-3PO, R2-D2 and the Jawas.

Different areas/activities of the game include:

Workshop - design and build your droid using the various pieces of equipment available. You can also test your droid out here to make sure it works and watch it try out dancing.

Training Facility - take your droid through the tarining facility to make sure you can control it and to learn how to do different things, such as jumping, operating doors and picking items up.

InDex - if you get stuck at any point in the game, the InDex is available to help you. This provides scientific information on a number of topics that may be of use. It also asks real-life questions to help translate the infomation to every-day examples.

Missions - there are eight missions in total, each with three difficulty levels. These range from negotiating some magnetic conveyer belts to finding your way through a maze in the dark.

Features:

• Science
• Critical thinking skills
• Adventure format
• Star Wars!

Technical Aspects:

The installation was easy and straightforward. I found no major bugs during the game, but occassional graphical errors did occur. For the most part, the graphics were fine, but occassionally, I would pass over a ravine, not knowing it was there, and would find myself floating on top of it in mid air. Another graphical problem was that boxes and crates seemed to pass through my droid, for example, when I was stuck on a conveyer belt, the boxes kept passing through me on it.

The sound in the game is good. The mechanical operating noises are realistic and the characters' voices are well done. The only aspect I found a little annoying was your companion's voice, the one who travelled with you through the missions pointing things out. Luckily you can turn this voice off and still receive the messages by way of a message screen scrolling at the top of the screen.

Report and Conclusions:

I suppose my only problem with the game was that at times I found it too difficult. In the first mission, you have to complete the tasks within four minutes. No chance. I did it in five, at a push. On another mission, I simply couldn't see the way out, no matter how hard I tried. There are three levels of difficulty in each mission, where you have to do something slightly different each time, but sometimes I got stuck on the easiest level. The InDex is great for helping out in some of these situations, but when it's a problem with your speed, it can't really help.

In conclusion, I liked Droidworks a lot. But it was frustrating not being able to complete some of the missions and I think that some children may get annoyed with this, but others may just sit and work at the missions for longer. With Episode 1 due for imminent release, Star Wars is going to be big business again (not that it ever really went away), and so, if you're looking for some merchandise to go with the film, you could do a lot worse than Droidworks. Despite the bugs I have mentioned, it's fun, educational, challenging and has loads of gameplay time.