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> Results: Star Wars Battlefront II
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Despite being widely touted as the ﾑbest selling Star Wars game ever', 2004's Star Wars Battlefront was not warmly received by the established Star Wars gaming community. The graphics were comparable to those from the two year old Jedi Outcast, the gameplay felt ponderously slow and there were abundant network issues. When Star Wars Battlefront II was announced, the developers said that they had addressed much of the feedback, but gamers were skeptical. Would this be the game they were looking for, or just another DVD tie-in rushed to release without adequate balance or polish?
The PSP version of Battlefront II is the first Star Wars entry for the handheld, and the developers decided to make a number of changes based on the limitations of the hardware and the ﾑpick up and play' gaming style. Unfortunately, getting rid of long load times didn't make the list of things to remove, but the entire story mode did. Story mode is replaced by ﾑChallenge Mode'. That's three sets of missions, each based around a premise. ﾑImperial Enforcer' has you killing indigenous species such as Gungans, Ewoks, Jawas and Wookies; ﾑRogue Assassin' has you tasked with assassinating Imperial Officers, with a bonus for anyone else you can eliminate. Finally, in ﾑRebel Raider' you need to collect critical equipment or contraband for the Rebel Alliance. Many of these missions are challenging, but they are short, simplistic and have limited replay value. Fortunately the ﾑGalactic Conquest' mode at the heart of the game is much more enjoyable. The object is to take control of all ten planets on the Galactic map. You move your fleet on your turn, buy special abilities or reinforcements, and then attack if you are able. On your opponent's turn they do the same. There are battles on many famous planets of the Star Wars universeﾗHoth, Tatooine and moreﾗas well as space battles. The space battles allow you to choose from various ships appropriate to your alliance, including X-Wings and TIE fighters. This allows you to decide whether to focus on destroying the enemy capital ship defenses or taking out their fighters and bombers. The space fighting works pretty well. The analog stick and button combinations are much better suited to flight than to shooter action. However, the precision and accuracy of the stick pales compared to the touch screen flight control from the Nintendo DS Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. game.  The ground battles offer one of the most touted features of the sequel, the ability to play as a Jedi or other Star Wars hero such as Boba Fett or Han Solo. You buy this ability, and your ﾑhero' has a time bar which erodes as they take damage, but can be refilled by defeating enemies. While this sounds great, the non-Jedi heroes are just more powerful versions of normal troopers. The Jedi warriors are the real highlight, but while playing as a Jedi has moments of glory where you slash through several enemies effortlessly, the need to engage in melee combat combined with the control issues limit the epic feeling you expect. Jedi mode has possibilities, but is a disappointment. The biggest problem with Star Wars Battlefront II is the same thing that limits every other first-person shooter released for the PSP: the controls aren't up to the task. The first thing I tried in the game was a ﾑchallenge', and my task was to kill twenty-five Gungans. My assumption that this would serve as a training mission turned out half right. I spent over an hour dying or otherwise failing the mission while trying to figure out how to work the controls properly. Once I got the controls set up in a way that I could use them, the game was much more enjoyable. However, throughout the game I felt myself battling the controls, and often died from the inability to move or aim as intended rather than from the intensity of the enemy attack.  Star Wars Battlefront II is a good but unremarkable first entry for the Star Wars franchise on the PSP. Even the multiplayer implementation is merely serviceable. Rather than offering full WiFi multiplayer battles, the game only allows players to use the ad-hoc (local wireless) mode. The graphics and sound are nice, and there are elements within the game that point to the possibility of an excellent Star Wars game for the platform. However, the fundamental issues with first-person shooter controls and camera issues on the PSP are a significant limiting factor for entertainment value and the quality of this game. 
The original Star Wars Battlefront was Rated T based on the intense action and first-person shooter gameplay. Star Wars Battlefront II is virtually identical in that regard and therefore is also Rated T and recommended for kids 14 and older. The PSP version adds a number of ﾑchallenge' modes, including ﾑImperial Enforcer', which involves wiping out species generally considered ﾑcute and innocent' from the films. You are tasked to eliminate Gungans, Ewoks, Jawas and Wookies, and while some older fans may find this enjoyable, younger kids are likely to be bothered by those images.
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