There's no shortage of Star Wars themed games (or books, or comics, or...), but Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner does something entirely new for the franchise. For the first time ever, there is a Star Wars game that makes use of Augmented Reality (AR) and it looks incredible. Unfortunately, the controls of Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner aren't quite as impressive.

Before we go any further, what is Augmented Reality? It's a broad term, with many different applications, but for the purpose of Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner it simply means that the game blends its virtual world with the real world by way of the iPhone's camera.

Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner is very similar to an arcade turret shooter, with the added twist that the player is positioned in the gunseat of Han Solo's infamous spacecraft, the Millennium Falcon. While players can't actually fly the ship, they are given complete control over the quad laser, which they can wheel around in any direction to fire at incoming enemy spacecraft.

Though AR is a big selling point for Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner, the game's default setting leaves it turned off. Without AR, the game's backgrounds depict outer space in the Star Wars universe, Death Star included. While they aren't overwhelming in detail, they are crisp and clear and serve their purpose well. The same can't be said for controls in this mode, however

Outside of AR mode, the gun turret's positioning is controlled through the iPhone's accelerometer. But whatever system used to determine positioning when bending and tilting the device appears to be severely out of whack, causing the turret to lurch and spin inconsistently. The on-screen virtual joystick controls used to maneuver the quad laser itself (as opposed to its housing turret), are equally spastic, making it exponentially more difficult to hone in on enemies.

While the frequently stark starry black backgrounds of Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner help with ambience, they make positioning your gun turret even more difficult. With few visual landmarks, it becomes difficult to gauge how fast you are rotating the turret, or if you're even moving it at all. Additionally, to move the gun turret quickly, you must tilt it at sometimes-severe angles, which can make it difficult to actually see the screen. These control issues in the game's non-AR mode make it near unplayable.

Things improve significantly once you enter AR mode, however. With this setting turned on, the game's backgrounds are replaced with whatever your iPhone camera happens to be looking at. At first, the feature is somewhat disappointing, as it does little more than use your bedroom or office as a green screen background - you shouldn't expect to shoot down your cat or zoom past bookcases. Where AR mode really shines, however, are the gameplay mode's modified controls.

Instead of basing the controls strictly on the phone's accelerometer, the interactions between your movements and that of the gun turret are now one-to-one. This means that if there's a bogey directly behind you, you'll need to turn completely around to face the enemy fighter. Once you get used to swinging your iPhone around in every conceivable direction, this can be a lot of fun, especially if you play while seated in a swiveling office chair.

Unfortunately, the game still suffers from shaky quad laser controls, which become even more difficult to manage when spinning yourself around in circles. Luckily, there is an auto-aim mode, which is meant to take away the user control of the quad laser. But the game's AI only seems to have a slightly easier time controlling the quad lasers than an average human player would, resulting in a lot of missed shots.

As aforementioned, the graphics in Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner are nothing to get too excited about, with enemy spacecraft depicted by stark angular designs, with thin, green outlines around them. The enemies' small size and the thinness of their outlines make them difficult to pick out even on a black background, but that becomes even more difficult when confronted with the complexity of your living room. AR mode, while improving the game's controls, makes it far too difficult to actually find what you're supposed to be shooting.

All in all, Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner feels ill-considered. Augmented Reality is a neat idea, but the technology really isn't evolved enough to be anything more than a gimmick. Gimmicks are all fine and good, of course, as long as the underlying gameplay is solid, which in this case it certainly isn't. Simple changes, like allowing gamers to use AR controls in non-AR mode, could go a long way to improving Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner.

If you're a huge fan of the Star Wars universe, you might find yourself overlooking these problems for an opportunity to take a seat aboard the Millenium Falcon. There's a fair amount of fan service on display, including cut scenes from the movies, which look absolutely fantastic on the iPhone's screen. But for those of us who aren't hardcore fans, there's little in this gimmicky shooter to justify the hefty $4.99 pricetag.

Final Score: D