Star Wars games that tie in directly with the film versions have always been notoriously bad in comparison with other Star Wars games that are only set in the Star Wars Universe. Although Star Wars Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith doesn't look like it is set to change this mold, it is definitely one of the better direct film tie-ins, and although it essentially is just a GBA game with a couple of extra 3D flying modes added on, it can become a very enjoyable game on occasions. The plot of the game mirrors that of the movie exactly, and for those few people that haven't seen it, you play as Obi-Wan Kenobi or Anakin Skywalker battling through a series of levels before eventually reaching the final showdown between the two Jedi masters, in which only one can prevail. Obviously, not many people are going to be buying this game for the plot, especially considering that the majority will see the movie before they buy the game.

In the game you get to play as either Obi-Wan Kenobi or Anakin Skywalker, depending on who you prefer. Playing as one will take you on the same path with a few minor differences from the other. The main difference between the two characters is their fighting style. Obi-Wan has a far more defensive style than Anakin, and his force moves and special abilities once your power meter has built up, clearly show this. Obi-Wan's abilities include being able to heal himself or deflect laser fire with the force, while Anakin's more offensive abilities are things like increased power and choking enemies with the force, not unlike Darth Vader. You can quickly access these different moves by touching them on the bottom screen. This is only a slight improvement over the GBA version of the same game and is one of the main differences between the two games.

The gameplay is rather simple. What you need to do is battle your way through a series of different side scrolling levels. In these levels you must fight a collection of droids and occasionally other enemies. It does require a lot of button bashing to get to the boss battles, although occasionally you will need to think about how to take down bigger enemies. The boss battles themselves aren't particularly hard, but it will normally take a couple of attempts before you destroy the likes of Count Dooku or Mace Windu. Overall, the game is not going to keep you playing for a large amount of time. It is too easy. The majority of people will complete it in not much over 10 hours and even less for veterans of the genre. Because of the very linear layout of the levels, there is only one way to go about them, there isn't really any replay value to the game. The addition of multiplayer, that isn't included in the GBA version, will keep you playing for longer, but ultimately there isn't enough in the game to keep you coming back time and time again.

The audio and visual aspects of the game are nothing special either. While the in-game music and sounds are pleasant enough, they may begin to annoy some gamers after periods of extended play. The music itself sounds very nice coming out of the DS's speakers, and it has one of the best scores in a DS game so far. But the actual sound effects of the lightsabre and laserfire sound weak in comparison. The graphics are almost identical to those in the GBA version and could have been vastly improved upon. The graphics have a cartoon style to them, similar to the style of the recent Star Wars animated series, Clone Wars. While the backgrounds and characters would look nice on a SNES or GBA, they aren't the sort of graphics that a gamer would expect from the Nintendo DS.

The only real advantage of the GBA version of this game is the flying levels and multiplayer. In the flying levels you pilot some sort of spacecraft in a 3D world and take part in dogfights. It is quite similar to early StarFox games, and the graphics are the same sort of caliber. Although in screenshots the graphics occasionally do look weak. When you see them in the game you will realize how great they actually are. These levels almost make it worth trudging through the boring hack and slash levels to get to.

Although at times you may begin to feel that the game is just another lazy film tie-in, occasionally the levels do become quite enjoyable despite the rather simplistic gameplay. However, the easy to use controls more than make up for the lack of variation in the game. The 3D flying levels are easily the best aspect of this game, and they do make it probably the best ever Star Wars game on a handheld, despite the lack of any decent competition.

Gameplay 7.0 The controls are very easy for anyone to use, and despite the lightsabre duels and dogfights the levels become very repetitive too quickly.

Graphics 6.0 The graphics are actually straight out of a GBA game and push the DS in no way. The 3D levels, however, look very nice.

Sound 8.0 The in-game music and sound effects very rarely get annoying and the music fits in with the plot of the game very well.

Lifespan 6.0 Very few people will bother to play the game through more than once, and even with the multiplayer mode its lifespan is still short.

Tilt 8.0 The 3D flying levels are great fun, with simply stunning visuals at times, and more than make up for the rest of the game.

Unfortunately, the game is just another cheap attempt to cash in on a film. Hopefully, now that there are no more Star Wars movies, the games can begin to get better by having their own plots and storylines.