What should have been an enjoyable Lightsaber swinging annihilation of your best loved badguys (and your mums favourite ornaments) from the many star wars films (Jar Jar Binks included) is in fact a series of one on one fights (with frantically cut together snippets from the movie acting as story fillers. Combine this with frustrating controls and a limited selection of characters and things aren't looking good.

The control system, which, Star Wars aside, is the selling point of this game, is where the majority of the problems lie. The truth is the Wii's motion sensing technology is not responsive enough. For example, Ahsoka Tano's Shii-Cho Slash four hit combo requires a swing of the Wii Remote left, right, left, then down. Sounds easy but even with slow, measured movements you can't pull this off everytime. This problem is exasperated in The Lightsaber Showdown mini-games.

The mini games are a stand off, one attacking - one defending. If defending you use the Force to predict what attacks are coming via a small box that prompts the correct direction to swing the Remote. Because the Wii doesn't pick up your swings accurately you fail this mini-game more often than not. But the parry system is even worse! Here you need to hold B and swing the Remote in the opposite direction of your opponent's swing. Timing this correctly in an actual fight is virtually impossible because the Wii wasn't designed for this kind of precision gaming. It's a shame though as a solid parry system might have given Lightsaber Duels some much needed depth to its shallow combat.

The rest of the controls aren't too taxing. Character movement is controlled with the control stick on the Nunchuck, dodging is a case of pushing a direction and pressing A, blocking is with B and Force powers are triggered by holding the Z button and swinging the Wii Remote.

Lightsabres and Wii Remotes were made for each other and so perhaps we are expecting a little too much from this game? The release of Wii Motion Plus add on, scheduled for release in the UK in the spring, may save this game so perhaps wait till then before purchasing.