PhoneSaber finally re-released as Lightsaber Unleashed – Oh, and yeah, THQ ruined it

September 24th | Posted by Dr. Macenstein

[Note, as of this writing, Lightsaber has not yet hit the iTunes store, but it DOES show up in your updates if you previously bought PhoneSaber]

There was much speculation a few months back when THQ asked TheMacBox to remove their popular free PhoneSaber Star Wars app from the iTunes store citing copyright issues (apparently you can’t just make apps based on popular movies without permission… who knew?). Many wondered if it would still be free when it returned, while others (including us) wondered if it would return as looking like a Nascar Car, full of ads and excess marketing crap.

Well, it’s still free….

You now choose a color of lightsaber by clicking on a character. I hope you like RED.

Last month the TheMacBox confirmed that THQ actually was “pretty cool” about the whole thing, and were going to be working with them to bring about a more official, licensed version of the app to the iTunes store. Well, long story short, the long awaited updated has indeed arrived in the form of Lightsaber Unleashed, a mixed bag of an update that ultimately we feel does more harm than good.

The Light Side

We have to admit there are a couple nice things about the update. First, there is now a “music” button which plays a very intense selection of Star Wars “action” type music that goes a long way towards adding a feeling of intensity to your lightsaber battles.

The Lightsaber looks basically the same – you can still battle in regular or full screen saber mode.

Another nice addition is the ability to choose your color of lightsaber by choosing a character from the Star Wars universe. Unfortunately unless you are an uber Star Wars geek, odds are you’ve only heard of one of them. Other than that, graphically the game has not changed much. You still have a choice of full screen or regular dueling mode, and the sounds seem more or less identical (there might be 1 extra swoosh or something, but nothing that is all that noticeable).

The Dark Side

Isn’t this the splash screen for The Force Unleashed? Why am I seeing it when I launch Lightsaber Unleashed?

The two best things about using the original PhoneSaber app were that 1) The app loaded quickly, allowing you to quickly do battle with a fellow geek, and 2) you had a choice of 5 different colors of lightsabers to choose from. Well, with the THQ-blessed Lightsaber, you now have to sit through a splash screen for The Force Unleashed (Lightsaber doesn’t have its own splash screen) and a “commercial” screen asking you if you want to buy the new THQ Star Wars iPhone game The Force Unleashed before you are able to activate your Lightsaber. EVERY time you launch the app.

Once you load the app, you are given a choice between 5 different Star Wars characters to do battle as. At first you might think these 5 would correspond to the 5 colors of lightsabers you had in the original PhoneSaber app, but you’d be wrong. Sure, you still have the choice of 5 colors, but 3 of them are RED. That’s right, they have 3 characters who have the exact same colored LightSaber, so no yellow or purple saber for you. I might also be crazy, but the accelerometer’s sensitivity to shaking seems somewhat less responsive than I remember the original PhoneSaber’s being.

Yeah! I LOVE clicking through this screen each time! (How about “No Thanks” once and this goes away?!

So yes, we totally understand THQ needing to protect its licensed properties, but unfortunately THQ has made Lightsaber Unleashed into nothing more than a commercial for TFU, and by stripping away the ability to do a quick battle and limiting the number of Saber colors, THQ has given PhoneSaber users very little reason to upgrade. The battle music is nice, but ultimately not enough that I can recommend replacing PhoneSaber with this version.