LucasArts' Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes is a 3-D adventure that takes place, as the title implies, during the Clone Wars. With Obi-Wan Kenobi initially away on business, Anakin Skywalker and his Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, visit the planet Ryloth to crush what's left of the droid army. A legion of clone troopers back them up, and LucasArts breaks up the levels between troopers and Jedi, allowing two players (offline or through Xbox Live/PlayStation Network) to team up and destroy tons of bad guys using lightsabers, Force powers and conventional weapons like blasters, Thermal Detonators and rocket launchers. To that we say, bravo.

Anakin and his Padawan turn some Battle Droids to scrap metal.Click to see more images from the game...

But man, what a frustrating intro. We invited a buddy over for some co-op, and completing the first level took extreme levels of patience. Navigating our way across gaps was the least favorite activity, since the game has a fixed camera and it's tough gauging the distance between jumps. Sometimes, the characters will automatically land on objects, but for the most part, we watched as our Jedi plummeted to their dooms. This issue also affects boss battles, especially an early one against a droid, where both Jedi need to weaken their enemy and then hop onto one of its legs. Trying to land on this leg, and being unable to adjust the camera, led to a lot of misses.

In addition, we struggled with hacking droids. Republic Heroes' developers let you jump on top of and control them, but actually landing on one takes a bit of skill; again, because of those fixed camera angles. As for controlling them, you can't physically maneuver their blasters, and steering them in the correct direction is more difficult than it should be.

As for the clone trooper missions, blasting bad guys and chucking Thermal Detonators kept us busy for a few hours, but not being able to accurately aim those weapons and getting hit with off screen enemy fire drove us a little crazy.

Finally, the game looks horrible, with bland colors, characters that lack detail and boring levels. We understand that LucasArts based it off the animated film/TV series, but for an Xbox 360 game, it falls woefully short.

We just wish the designers paid more attention to the controls and did something dramatic with the gameplay. Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes is a below average adventure that's difficult to recommend, even as a rental. We suggest Force pushing it into a galaxy far, far away.