App Review: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic returns to sell you an iPad

It’s the tenth anniversary of one of the best Star Wars video games of all time. That’s why BioWare has teamed up with Aspyr Media to bring Knights of the Old Republic to the iPad, a gift for the series’ die-hard fans. Well, a gift for the series’ most die-hard fans who also own an iPad – the rest have probably just been gifted with a desperate desire to drop several hundred dollars on Apple.

It may not convince many of the mouse-and-keyboard Jedi who are currently enjoying the Steam version of Knights of the Old Republic, also currently available for $9.99, but for me there’s probably no turning back. I’ve been trying to get excited about the game since I first played it through on the first Xbox in 2003, but it wasn’t until I had the game in my hands and Sara “Randomly Generated” Starcrod and friends that I felt that initial urge again could control with finger movements.

This is the full version of the original game. The only changes that have been made have to do with the controls, because touchscreen. The graphics may look a little sharper, but that’s only because older games simply look better on smaller screens. This is an illusion that I am happy to accept.

This is BioWare at its peak – or at least at its peak in the early 2000s. Star Wars: The Old Republic is a celebration of compelling characters, tough moral choices that truly matter, and ancient emotional engagement. The graphics and animations aren’t particularly impressive given the advances of the last decade, but the voice acting and story are just as great as they were when the game still had that wonderful, newly opened box smell.

I had almost forgotten how much I missed some of these characters…

…and hated others.

I generally play Light Side of the Force, but if I ever switch to Dark Side, you can be sure that Carth Onasida will be responsible. Call me a pet name again, Carth, and you’ll see how many innocents I kill.

So yes, this is Knights of the Old Republic, a classic piece of interactive Star Wars that ushered in a whole new era for the series. I don’t want to review the classic today – you should have played the game already, at least enough to know the big twist at the end – you are actually Chewbacca.

No, I want to review the port for the iPad – and I have. Aside from a bit of clumsiness with the motion controls, Knights of the Old Republic is more fun than ever.

Branching dialogues are handled with numbered answers, with choices appearing on the right of the screen, easily reachable with your thumb should you have one.

When enemies become visible, the game pauses to allow the player time to select a target and appropriate actions. If you tap Continue Play, your character will perform these actions, after which you can add more or let the auto-attack system finish the fight. It works pretty well.

Actually, most of the game’s mechanics work incredibly well, with the exception of movement, as mentioned. The way the character moves is handled is that you move the camera around with your thumb and then move forward and the character moves in that direction. This works quite well in wide, open environments, but when things get tight you’ll unfortunately find yourself stuck behind Mission, Zaalbar and Carth quite often. I suspect Carth does this on purpose, because Carth is an .

The biggest advantage of the touchscreen version of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is definitely the menu navigation. On the touchscreen, these adapted versions of the original menus have a real sci-fi Datapad feel. You want to play with a Lobot headset.

Playing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic on the iPad is like retreating to a cozy corner with your favorite book to spend an afternoon reading. It’s a more personal and immediate way to travel through a galaxy far, far away, a long, long, long, long time ago. The overall gaming experience is largely unchanged, but those tiny moments between you, Mission Vao, and an angry Rancor beast are much more intimate when you can sadly touch the screen before searching the Internet for FAQs because you don’t remember some of it can.

By the way, the game is a massive 1.84GB in size, so you may have to delete some things to make room. But it’s worth it.