Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is an enjoyable, if linear, third person action game set in the thick of the Star Wars universe, in the murky area between Episode III and IV. As such, it isn’t perfect, and the Wii version isn’t always pretty, but the game is solid, entertaining, and engaging.

Cut scenes are brief, yet utterly compelling to anyone with the mildest interest in Star Wars mythology, and feature first-rate voice acting and animation (especially for the Wii). Story progression is excellent – players with a pulse will feel compelled to play on (even through the game’s least impressive and most frustrating sections) just to see what happens next.

While later enemies deflect Force powers (encouraging swordsmanship over your little bag of tricks), the powers themselves are – in a word – awesome. You’ll feel like a total badass throwing enemies around, shooting them up with lightning, choking them Darth Vader style, and so on. Easily the best part of the gameplay is the fun you’ll initially have wielding these skills.

The pacing is quite good – just when you begin to tire of killing roomfuls of cronies, an actual challenge (i.e. boss) comes up. Boss battles are intense and incredibly fun – like any good old-school action game, you’ll learn the patterns and weaknesses and attack. A modified “Quick Time Event” system comes in to play with critical attacks, but it’s implemented quite well. For example, you may be locked in a lightsaber stalemate with a foe, and the screen will prompt a few quick motions to gain the upper hand and land a valuable blow. I know many gamers pooh-pooh the notion of a QTE system in any game, but it works well in context here.

Since this is the Wii review, it makes sense to take a quick look at how this version fares against its console brethren. While it’s nowhere near as pretty, with some drab environments and undoubtedly lamer cut scene animation, the Wii version certainly has an edge over its bigger brothers on the PS3 and Xbox 360. It’s just so visceral and fun to use the motion controls to actually push and throw baddies, and the Wii-mote makes for some very tactile dueling. Really, who complains about graphics when you can look like an idiot flaying your lightsaber around your real-life environment?