A great birthday present.
Sometime last year we saw an ad for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Limited Edition Star Wars Bundle Game Console. My Star Wars fans have been drooling over it ever since. My father-in-law got the memo and gifted it to my hubby for his 10th/42nd birthday this month. Does it live up to the hype? Let’s just say that I can now get my 6-year-old to do just about anything to earn a few precious moments of game time. That, to me, is totally worth it. That and all the smiles and bonding it brings when they play together. Are you on the fence about getting it? Here are some things to consider.
PROS:
- The look is fabulous. The design of the console and controller are based on the characters of R2D2 and C3PO. The Kinect sensor is white. As with most limited edition products, it seems to be made of good quality materials. It definitely leaves an impression.
This console just looks cool.
- The box makes R2D2 droid sounds whenever you turn it on or off.
- This system has all the functions of the regular Xbox 360 plus a little extra storage on the hard drive, 320 GB.
- Included are the Star Wars Kinect game and Kinect Adventures. If you are not familiar with Kinect, it is a motion sensor that allows you to participate in the games using your body instead of a controller. With the Star Wars game, you can actually be a Jedi. Rocky has so much fun being part of the action; swinging his imaginary light saber and using the force to play. He actually works up a sweat. We also love the one where you get to drive your own podracer.
- With this hard drive, you can sign up for a service that will stream movies through it.
A controller worthy of a Star Wars fan.
CONS:
- The price is high! We’re talking $395-450, you are paying a little extra for the Star Wars theme.
- Some of the Star Wars games, while promising in concept, seem to need a little more tweaking for a smoother run. If you set your expectations too high on this game, you may be disappointed like this reviewer: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/122/1222167p1.html. My child doesn’t seem to mind this or the fact that the graphics could be a little more sophisticated, however. He is just thrilled to participate in Star Wars on any level.
- If you want to play other Xbox games, you have to buy separate.
- There is only one controller included.
- You need about 8 feet of space for two players.
- Your kid may not want to do anything else!
All things considered, if you can swing the cost (or find a wealthy relative to gift it to you), it is a lot of fun to have.
