Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith on the Game Boy Advance offers a surprisingly deep and varied gameplay experience for a handheld title. From the outset, you must choose between stepping into the boots of Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker or Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, a decision that not only alters your lightsaber style but also slightly shifts the character abilities and special moves you can execute. Both paths faithfully recreate key moments from the film, and the choice adds an appealing layer of replayability as you explore each character’s unique combat flow.

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The single-player campaign unfolds as a side-scroller enhanced by a clever depth-of-field effect. Rather than a flat two-dimensional plane, you’ll move between foreground and background layers, uncovering hidden alcoves, secret corridors, and collectibles that reward exploration. As you progress through each level, you’ll pick up Mission Points; these let you unlock new hilt designs, force powers, and improved stats, allowing you to tailor your Jedi to your preferred playstyle.

Combat leverages both the GBA’s face buttons and the touchscreen: pressing specific icons on the bottom display unleashes signature maneuvers such as Anakin’s vicious “Crimean Slash” or Obi-Wan’s elegant “Guard Break.” These special moves feel impactful and cinematic, especially when paired with the force pushes, pulls, and lightning effects you earn over time. The inclusion of three fully rendered 3D stages per Jedi path—moments where the action shifts into a third-person perspective—breaks up the side-scroll formula and provides welcomed variety.

On the multiplayer front, the game offers frantic dogfights and skirmishes. You can pilot any of 17 iconic starfighters—X-wings, V-19 Torrent Fighters, or even the deadly Tri-fighters—across eight distinct arenas, ranging from the skyscraper canyons of Coruscant to the icy plains of Hoth and the sandy dunes of Tatooine. Matches support up to four participants via multi-card link play, and you can fill empty slots with AI bots if you’re short on human opponents.

Unlocking your full roster of ships requires victories in deathmatch bouts against legendary Star Wars characters such as Grievous, Boba Fett, and Darth Vader himself. This unlock system adds long-term goals for multiplayer enthusiasts and encourages repeated sessions to earn every vehicle. Though dogfight controls can feel a bit stiff compared to console entries, the variety of arenas and ships helps keep the mode entertaining for hours on end.

Graphics

Visually, Revenge of the Sith is one of the GBA’s more ambitious titles. The sprite work for Anakin and Obi-Wan is crisp and detailed, capturing their flowing robes, distinctive hilts, and animated lightsaber swings with satisfying clarity. Environments are richly layered: you’ll see distant cityscapes, towering pillars, or swirling energy fields in the background, lending the side-scroll levels a surprising sense of scale.

The depth-of-field effect, while inherently a 2D trick, is handled so smoothly that it almost feels three-dimensional. Foreground elements occasionally slide in front of your view, and enemies can leap out of the mid-ground to flank you. These transitions are seamless and never disrupt the flow of battle. The brief 3D stages—where the action shifts into a behind-the-back camera—are modest in polygon count but well-textured, making for an engaging palate cleanser between side-scroll missions.

Particle effects for force powers and blaster fire are surprisingly vibrant on the small screen. Explosions bloom with bright pixels, and the crackle of force lightning arcs convincingly across enemies. Ship models in multiplayer are equally impressive: each craft has unique silhouettes, color schemes, and thruster effects, ensuring that you can immediately identify friend from foe in the heat of battle.

Terrain textures in the multiplayer maps are somewhat repetitive—ice and desert sands rely on tile patterns—but the overall aesthetic remains faithful to the Star Wars universe. Background details, such as Coruscant’s neon billboards or Tatooine’s twin suns, inject atmosphere without straining the hardware. In motion, the game maintains a steady frame rate even with multiple ships and projectiles on screen, a testament to the developers’ optimization efforts.

Story

Revenge of the Sith’s narrative closely follows the tragic arc of Episode III, condensing major plot beats into bite-sized levels. You’ll witness Anakin’s inner turmoil, his fateful duel with Count Dooku, and the climactic showdown with Obi-Wan on Mustafar. Dialogue excerpts from the film are intercut with short cutscenes, providing context and emotional weight before and after each mission.

Playing as Obi-Wan emphasizes the stoic restraint and defensive mastery of the Jedi Order, while Anakin’s path is tinged with aggressive force attacks and darker special moves. The branching character choice doesn’t alter the ultimate outcome, of course, but it does offer two distinct narrative lenses, letting you experience the tragedy from both sides of the lightsaber.

Though the GBA’s screen size limits text and voice samples, the game compensates with expressive sprite animations and dynamic camera angles in the 3D segments. Key emotional moments—Anakin’s fall to the dark side, the birth of the twin infants—are depicted in small but potent bursts, ensuring fans of the film recognize and re-live those pivotal scenes.

The multiplayer mode sidesteps the film’s story to deliver pure dogfight action, but that’s perfectly in line with its sandbox nature. Unlocking iconic ships by besting characters like General Grievous in one-on-one combat feels like a mini narrative reward; it gives you a sense of progression tied to the broader Star Wars lore.

Overall Experience

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith for GBA strikes an impressive balance between faithful adaptation and handheld innovation. The mixture of side-scrolling combat, depth-shifting exploration, and occasional 3D interludes keeps the single-player campaign fresh from start to finish. Character choice, difficulty settings, and unlockable customization options add depth and replay value rarely seen in portable Star Wars titles of its era.

Multiplayer dogfights, while constrained by link-cable logistics and the limits of four players, offer a robust complement to the solo mode. Seventeen pilotable ships and eight varied arenas ensure battles rarely feel repetitive, and the unlock system encourages friendly rivalry as you aim to add the fastest or deadliest fighters to your hangar.

Graphically, the game makes full use of the GBA’s hardware, delivering fluid animation, bold color palettes, and detailed sprite work that bring the prequel trilogy’s aesthetic to life. Controls are generally responsive, though some players may find the dual‐screen special‐move inputs take a bit of getting used to mid-combat. Fortunately, the learning curve is short, and landing that first multi-target force push feels immensely satisfying.

For Star Wars aficionados and handheld gamers alike, Revenge of the Sith offers a compact yet substantial taste of the galaxy far, far away. Whether you’re reliving the final days of the Republic as Obi-Wan or embracing Anakin’s tortured path, this GBA entry delivers an engaging, action-packed journey that remains a standout among its portable peers.

Retro Replay Score

7.1/10