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Disney Releases ‘Star Wars Journeys: The Phantom Menace’, An Interactive Story and Pod Racing Game Thing

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A great sale on KOTOR isn’t the only Star Wars-related iOS news today, as Disney has also released a brand new app/game called Star Wars Journeys: The Phantom Menace ($6.99). It’s broken up into two main parts: an interactive visual storybook that retells the tale of Episode I: The Phantom Menace, and a pod racing game.

The interactive story part features really nicely illustrated scenes from The Phantom Menace, with options for voiceover or text narration explaining what happens in each scene. It uses a neat parallax scrolling effect which gives each scene a sort of 3D feel, and you can use your device’s motion-sensing capabilities to pan back and forth horizontally across the scenes. If you’re not into the whole motion thing there’s an option to simply use your finger two swipe through the scene, which ended up being my preferred method.

There’s sort of a meta game inside the interactive story too, as you can tap on certain characters or items in the environment and unlock a profile for them. But, unlocking their profile through the story is just one part of it, and to fully unlock each profile you’ll need to compete in the second major part of Star Wars Journeys which is the pod racing game.

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The pod racing is surprisingly decent, considering this isn’t even really a “game" and is billed as an Entertainment app. There are plenty of different pods and characters to choose to play as, along with a good number of different tracks. It’s not going to change the face of racing video games as we know them or anything, but I’ll say I’ve had more fun with it than I thought I would. Racing well will earn you “SP" which goes towards upgrading the various pod racers in the game. Happily, there’s no IAP in Star Wars Journeys, so you’ll have to earn those upgrades the old fashioned way: by playing.

Part game and part interactive story, if you’re a Star Wars fan looking for something a little different for you iOS device, consider checking out Star Wars Journeys: The Phantom Menace. More of these Journeys apps are on the way too, and according to the App Store description Attack of the Clones is the next one up to be getting this treatment, so keep an eye out for that.

  • Star Wars Journeys: The Phantom Menace

    EVERY JOURNEY HAS A BEGINNING
    * Experience the Star Wars story in an epic new way!
    * Unlock hidden secrets in e…
    $6.99
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