App review: Star Wars is a cool, interactive promotional tool for the franchise
The Star Wars app includes a variety of activities but is ultimately a promotional tool for the Star Wars movies. (Handout/TNS)
Screenshot from the Star Wars app. (Handout/TNS)
Parents need to know that the Star Wars app is an informational, interactive, but ultimately promotional tool for fans of the Star Wars franchise. (Common Sense Media/TNS)
Parents need to know that the Star Wars app is an informational, interactive, but ultimately promotional tool for fans of the Star Wars movies, books, games, and TV show, “Star Wars Rebels.” It includes a variety of activities, including a simple lightsaber game, a selfie maker, news, a “This day in Star Wars history” section, a soundboard of quotes and sound effects, and videos that include trailers for the new movie, “The Force Awakens.” It does not, however, include any graphic images, nor any social/sharing aspects, though you can send your selfies to friends through your existing social media apps.
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
Star Wars is a promotional and informational app, and as such doesn’t have a story. Instead, it’s a series of activities and minigames that serve as promotion for the 2015 movie. The app includes gifs, audio quotes, video clips, a lightsaber game, Star Wars news, a selfie creator, and an augmented reality feature that you can use in conjunction with a poster, if you purchase one.
IS IT ANY GOOD?
For a promotional tool, it’s pretty cool. Not only does it give you up-to-date news and the latest trailers and videos, but it also lets you make selfies with you as a Jedi, gives you GIFs for easy meme-ing, and a soundboard that has such sound effects as Chewbacca laughing, Darth Vader breathing, and a lightsaber powering up, as well as quotes from Han Solo (“I got a bad feeling about this.”), Qui-Gon Jinn (“Don’t touch anything.”), and Princess Leia (“I’d just as soon kiss a Wookie.”). There’s even a simple lightsaber game, a “This day in Star Wars history” ticker, and it uses your phone’s GPS to not only tell you how hot it is, but what planet in the galaxy far, far away has similar weather. In other words, it’s everything a Star Wars fan would want in an app, whether The Force is strong in them or not.
RATING AND CONTENT
Recommended for ages 7 and older
Quality rating: 4 out of 5
Ease of play: 3 out of 5
Violence and scariness: 1 out of 5
Sexy stuff: 0 out of 5
Language: 1 out of 5
Drinking, drugs, and smoking: 0 out of 5
Privacy and safety: 3 out of 5
Consumerism: 2 out of 5 (Are products/advertisements embedded? Is the title part of a broader marketing initiative/empire? Is the intent to sell things to kids?)
APP DETAILS
Devices: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android
Price: Free
Release date: July 7, 2015
Category: Entertainment
Size: 143.00 MB
Publisher: Disney
Minimum software requirements: iOS 7.1 or later; Android 4.1 and up
