BY: MATT L

Before the Wii, Hasbro was helping the lone gamer master their Jedi skills in the comfort of their own home with this lightweight, battery powered plug and play. Downside? It's super lame. The bonus? Your own lightsaber.

A long, long time ago, in this galaxy, a plug n' play was created to rival all plug n' plays. 

Doesn't look like much does it? That little ball, that's where the data's processed. What does this contraption do? It simulates a lightsaber. I am not kidding you. Before the Wii came out, we already had a motion-sensing console capable of simulating a lightsaber battle. The lightsaber doesn't take batteries as far as I know, and it doesn't plug into anything, so I'm going to assume it runs off the Force.

The unit that plugs into the TV takes four AA batteries and - as with all plug n' plays - it has a jack for a power supply if you don't want to waste batteries. (You'll never find this power supply though, no matter how many Radio Shacks you go to.) The game sure does look impressive, like someone bottled up the video output of a Sega Genesis and spilled it all over my screen.

No way. Did Nintendo steal their idea from this plug n' play? I've seen this warning a thousand times playing whatever Mario game I play on the Wii, but never has it been attached to the word 'lightsaber.' I do believe this has turned my world upside down, moreso than Super Mario Galaxy ever could. 

It takes like an hour to calibrate this garbage, and then all I get to do is slash at droids. Lame. The droids shoot at you, and you can deflect the shot, but the shot always goes back the way it came. I guess they were too cheap to add physics. It is still controlling a lightsaber though, and the sword handles better than Red Steel's ever did. For all I know, you might get to fight Darth Vader later, but my patience is taxed.