Star Wars: The Gungan Frontier

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Let’s face it, in a world full of mediocre game titles there has been a shining beacon of hope for the future of games—Lucas Arts.  Whether you like Star Wars or not, you can’t deny that they produce some of the most creative, stable, and complete gaming experiences (and they have the critical appraise to prove it).  While it is true that they have a couple of rich licenses to build upon, including the aforementioned science fiction trilogy and Indiana Jones, what they do with them is nothing less than superb.  Their original titles, such as Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, and the Monkey Island series have also received critical acclaim for their creativity and originality.  Then came their new division Lucas Learning.  Now it appears that Lucas Arts is passing the torch over to companies like Blizzard and Westwood, because it seems as though the most Lucas Learning can achieve is what their parent company has tried so hard to avoid in the first place--mediocrity. 

Thus starts the review of Star Wars: The Gungan Frontier.  Based on the bumbling Gungans from Episode I, an aquatic race of floppy eared idiots, Frontier has you helping them build a new underwater bubble city on Naboo’s moon.  You do this by placing various animals and plants down to create a thriving ecosystem.  Then you can designate how much of each plant and animal the Gungans will harvest.  Some will provide food for the aliens, while others will physically help in building their city.

Ok, that’s the basic gist of the game, but before I go on in a little more detail, let’s get one thing straight—I liked Jar Jar Binks.  I simply do not understand all of the web sites and forum discussions devoted to bringing down Episode’s I comic relief.  I admit I thought a lot of his routine was contrived, but he was great for the kids.  When I went to see Episode I for a second time, a kid in back of me cracked up every time Jar Jar fell, slipped, or screwed up.  Perfect—the kid gets Jar Jar, the older crowd gets Darth Maul.  It just wouldn’t work if George Lucas had created a completely dark and foreboding picture.  After all, we Star Wars fans should realize that we need new recruits to keep the saga alive.  You may be asking what my point is in all of this Jar Jar discussion, but it is relevant to this review, because the only kids (this is definitely a game for the preteen crowd) that may like this game are kids who like Gungans. 

You can choose to play an open ended version of the game, in which you get to choose a set number of different plants and animals to take to the moon (or you can opt to have the computer automatically select them for you).  Or you can play from a selection of scenarios that are divided into different difficulty levels.  The scenario goals range from saving an endangered species, such as the kaadu, to using the wind to help the bubble spores spread their seeds.

Kaadu? Bubble spores? They may all sound strange, but they are explained well in the in-game encyclopedia.  Some of the creatures will be familiar to Star Wars fans, such as Dewbacks and Rancors, but most of the game’s plants and creatures were created for the game.  As a nifty bonus there is a poster included that contains every life form, separated by what they eat (carnivore, herbivore, etc.).  What could have been the coolest feature of the game, and ends up being a mere novelty, is the Create-a-Critter.  It allows you to create your own Star Wars animal, and then name it.  You can dictate how it will reproduce, how many babies it will have, and even the speed it will move.  The problem?  Well, you can choose how big it is and change the colors, but you have to choose from a preset selection of animals which are uninspired to say the least, so every animal you create ends up looking the same.  It would have been great if they gave players the option of mixing and matching body parts like Maxis’ earlier title SimLife. 

Graphics wise, this game is lacking.  The plants and animals are nicely detailed, but there should have been more animation.  For instance, if a Rancor eats a Kaadu, it merely walks over it and the prey disappears, replaced by a pile of bones.  Hello?  I want to see the Rancor fight with it’s dinner and eat it in all of the gory detail, and don’t tell me kids don’t want to either.  I have a problem with the terrain as well, and I can sum it up in one word—boring!  It is both static and grainy, and doesn’t hold up against current games on the market.  Also, why does this kids game sometimes run choppy at high detail on my Pentium II 400 with 64 MB RAM.  Beats me.  There is a little bit of music, the best of which plays during the title screen, but each animal has its own unique sound.  Pretty standard fare.

Quibbles aside, this game can be very fun.  It is not nearly as complicated as SimLife, but then again that was intended for a different audience.  It does, however, simulate a pretty convincing ecosystem within the confines of its simplicity, one in which kids should be able to follow.  In other words, they will understand that their Dewbacks are dying out because they have twenty of them on the map and have fifty Rancors running around (who chomp them into little bits).  Players can also click on any plant and animal and examine the specie’s population and its individual health, hunger etc.  All in all, a simple and manageable interface that should not give anyone a problem.

I was disappointed with Star Wars: The Gungan Frontier, but maybe that is because I secretly desire a SimLife 2.  I must, however, assess the game on its own level, and in that respect it can be very entertaining.  The best thing to do is to play the demo first.  And please, when Jar Jar pops out to give you advice, don’t send anything through the screen.  Then again, if you hated Jar Jar, why would you have even looked at this game?  Or are you just in denial?