Republic+Heroes+(Brooke)

Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes

Star Wars the Clone Wars: Republic Heroes is an action adventure game within the Star Wars storyline. The fictional events occur after Star Wars episode two and before episode three. The assigned characters in each level allow the player to experience a variety of roles and special talents, including Jedi’s and clone troopers. During each level the Jedi or clone trooper characters fight to defeat Count Dooku and the droid army.
 * (5 points) The kinds of learning involved (i.e. What specifically did you learn from playing the game?). Think about the game tasks, objectives, terminology, etc. What skills did you need to learn to be successful at the game?

The initial game play is slow, there are numerous suggestions which are narrated by Yoda. The tutorials helped familiarize which buttons to use and how to effectively fight and maneuver through the level. Yoda’s iconic voice and speech patterns aid in the players immersion into the Star Wars realm. Throughout the first level I played the character of Ahsoka Tano, her special abilities included a force push, super jumping and the ability to wield a lightsaber.

Star Wars has maintained a presence in our popular culture for many decades, it is easy to assume most people have a working knowledge of most Star Wars terms. Jedi’s are able to invisibly shove or lift far away objects. The Jedis also have super physical abilities which allow them to jump and deflect laser blasts with their lightsabers. The Jedi’s lightsaber is a sword like weapon comprised of a beam of plasma. The lightsaber is capable of cutting through any material. My character had to use her combined talents and weapons to traverse the environment and destroy incoming waves of robotic enemies.


 * (5 points) The kinds of teaching involved (i.e. How did the game teach you?). Think about the kinds of feedback, rewards, guidance, and information the game gave you, and how it paced and structured your learning. Which Principles of Learning did the game utilize?

The early portions of the game had many repetitious events. The repetition creates a early familiarity with the essential skills. The game has dozens of checkpoints during transitional points of the level. Gameplay is paused during some of the checkpoints by a Yoda tutorial. During these pauses Yoda shares new skills and suggestions on how to defeat the level. Some portions of the level were not completed in a satisfactory amount of time, Yoda would reappear and provide another hint. Each characters health and score is displayed at the top of the screen. The talents needed to progress in the game were built from earlier acquired simple skills. As the first level progressed I was required to combine skills or use them in a coordinated quick succession. As the level progressed it became taxing on my finger dexterity and short term memory. Without the benefit of hours of repetition I frequently confused the buttons, this caused a delay in the game and subtracted from my score and the health of my character. “Psychosocial Moratorium” principle allowed me to take appropriate chances and this allowed me to learn about the game without ending the game. The achievement principle was pretty evident to me. I like to know when I am doing well and earning new jumps as I learned how to fight the droid army.

[|__http://clonewars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_The_Clone_Wars:_Republic_Heroes__] discusses in great detail the characters with their back story and what they can use to defeat the droid army. [|__http://www.ign.com/games/star-wars-the-clone-wars-republic-heroes/wii-14348792__] takes you through the some items that you use such as the lightsaber. There are instructions on how to use the items and walkthroughs of some of the levels. I found multiple other websites and wikis that gave a limited amount of information but they had details about the video, audio and input setting but they did not contain information to help me play the game!
 * (3 points) A brief description of the kinds (and quantity) of online sites, forums, wikis, etc. devoted to the game. What game activities (e.g. walk-thoughs/guides, databases, cheats, theorycrafting, modding, etc.) are most-commonly discussed?

My husband was very excited that I had to play a video game. We have had Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes for at least four years and I had never played or watched him play the game, we are not big on video games! I do have to say that I found myself checking the clock because I had homework to do but I was also having fun. I played for about 1 ½ hours and we had a good time.
 * (3 points) Your overall reflections on playing the game.

Images: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_The_Clone_Wars:_Republic_Heroes