Star Wars: Ask Yoda Hands-On

Yoda's celebrity has far outgrown his humble origins as a small green puppet who retired to a jungle planet. It turns out the wispy little dude was actually a superstar in his (somewhat) younger days, as he was effectively chairman of the Jedi order, as well as an eternal font of platitudes. In Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, we'll get a more extensive look at Yoda's other primary skill: turning his enemies into kindling with the Force. But recently, THQ Wireless harnessed this talented sloganeer for its mobile Star Wars blitz. In Ask Yoda, the Jedi master's gone back to his advice-dispensing roots to provide the mobile equivalent of an animated, extracryptic Magic 8-Ball. True, Ask Yoda is really more of an entertainment application than a game, but it looks like it could provide the more casual side of Star Wars fandom with a lighthearted diversion in between the collapse of the Republic and the advent of the Empire.

Ask Yoda has a bit of a virtual-life feel. You get to watch Yoda as he hangs out in front of his cave while meditating and performing a bunch of other rote activities. He might start cooking something, sweeping out his humble domicile, meditating, or waving his stick around like a lightsaber. If you decide to interrupt Yoda by asking a question, he has about 220 lines of witty dialogue with which to respond. You can even ask for Star Wars factoids and the like. Yoda's behavior changes with the time of day, and he'll even have special messages for you on Star Wars holidays, like Empire Day (yes, these holidays actually do exist).

The game's graphics obviously focus on Yoda, who's the star of the show here. His appearance and animation have been jacked right out of Cartoon Network's excellent Star Wars: Clone Wars series, and he looked practically larger than life on our Sony Ericsson S710a during our test session. Watching him go through his aerobics routine with his walking stick was particularly hilarious.

THQ Wireless will deploy Yoda's arsenal of pithy sayings exclusively through Cingular starting April 2. Since this isn't a game to speak of, we won't be reviewing it. However, if you're interested in getting your very own mobile Yoda, you should have a look at our screenshots.