Mediocre graphics and sound and extremely repetitive gameplay, but this game has an elusive X Factor: It's still fun.
Like on consoles, the handheld versions let you play as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, the protagonists of the new trilogy films directed by George Lucas. There are two different stories, one for each character, and Obi-Wan's takes us to Utapau to kill General Grievous, and to Mustafar to fight the game's final boss. This story, while being intricate to the narrative of the game, really isn't as exciting as Anakin's story, where you transform from a powerful Jedi to an evil Sith Lord. Anakin's quest takes him to Coruscant to save Chancellor Palpatine, the Jedi Temple to do his evil master's bidding, and Mustafar again to take on the final boss for his story.
For each character there are a range of force moves, and each are useful in there own way. Like Ubisoft's previous Apprentice of the Force for GBA, this force powers are nessecary to beat some of the game's numerous mini-bosses, such as Seperatist Tanks and the like. Obi-Wan has goody-goody powers like restoring health and the jedi mind trick, whereas the treacherous Anakin has more bad-ass moves like the awesome force choke and force push.
Also, exclusively to the Nintendo DS version are various space fighter missions, which are also available for a multiplayer dogfight (More on that later). These missions are in full 3D and are a delight to play, especially when shooting at enemy targets, which uses a nice lock-on feature. This is easily the best bit of the DS Version.
The graphics for both versions are almost the same, with the DS version having a slightly higher resolution. The graphics look very Game Boy Advance, and that is poor considering the 3D power of Nintendo's new handheld. The level designs are repetitive and kind of ugly, and the little effects put in from time to time are not very good, and fade a little bit when they are actually happening, which is really disappointing, again considering the console's power. The audio is also shoddy, and there are not even any music clips from the movie.
The gameplay in Revenge of the Sith plays like an updated version of the NES Ninja Gaiden games, but nearly as hard. The similarities are obvious between the two: Swords, Heroes and tons of cookie cutter enemies that have no smarts whatsoever. The gameplay is just a standard hack'n'slash fluff, and is not overly compelling stuff.
In closing, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is a fairly generic game that has something really likeable about it. Whether that's because I'm a Star Wars fanatic or there is something really cool underneath many layers of crud, this is game is really one that grows on you.