 By our best recollection, this is the first time in at least four years that LucasArts has had any sort of prescence at a Macworld Expo. After all but ignoring Mac Gaming following the release of Tie Fighter Collector's Edition almost 4 years ago, LucasArts and Lucas Learning showed up at Macworld at the very last minute to set up a 20x20 square foot booth equipped with four iMacs (two for each company).
On the LucasArts side, Episode I: Collector's Guide and Pod Racer were being shown. On LucasLearning's side, we were introduced to two new kids games starring Yoda and the Episode 1 droids.
Pod Racer was obviously the star of the both drawing tons of gamers to even get a peek at the small iMac screen. Although no sound was implemented into gameplay as yet, the action was pristine and smooth as could be running off of a stock color iMac (equipped with the standard Rage Pro). It wowed the MacReactor editors so much that I took it upon myself to grab at the keyboard and give the game a try. Control was precise (as precise as it can get on a keyboard, that is), and the action was fairly intense considering that there were no enemies to race against yet. The good news was that multiple levels were fully playable and we experienced no glitches in our brief testing. Lucas tells us that the game is being programmed by the same team that produced the PC and N64 versions. In that sense, the game is not so much a port as simply a release on another platform, says Lucas.
The Episode I guide arrives much in the tradition of the Star Wars: Behind the Magic CD that made its way to the PC last year. The product is shipping on two hybrid CD's and includes behind the scenes footage and many other bells and whistles.
Yoda's Challenge, Lucas Learning's latest venture, is targetted primarily at the smaller Mac users in the family (4-6 year olds). The game includes sing-alongs and simple activities.
Lucas Learning was also showing Pit Droids, a lemmings-esque thinking/puzzle game where you must guide droids into a pre-set task. We made the comment that this could very well be released as an adult-targeted game as well, as the levels get pretty darn hard and complex.
To learn more about LucasArts's and Lucas Learning's upcoming releases for the Macintosh, visit http://www.lucasarts.com or http://www.lucaslearning.com.
[Guroian] |
