Kinect Star Wars is a compendium of ideas and game modes, with some fleshed out more than others. The main component is the story-based Jedi Destiny: Dark Side Rising which casts you as a trainee Jedi who has to use his/her lightsaber and minor Force powers to defeat what ends up being rooms full of enemies - which come in various forms, but are mostly droids of some type or another.

The really weak enemies more or less stand there and let you virtually attack them by swinging your arm about. You can use your other arm to Force Push as well as Force Move objects - including some but not all enemies. Things get more complex when foes block your attacks, which then requires you to block their moves in order to create an opening to attack back - something that generally needs repeating a couple of times for each encounter.

Gun-toting foes try to get the upper hand by firing at you from a distance, but you can tackle this onslaught of projectiles in two ways: perform a figure of eight motion with your saber to deflect all incoming fire, or slash your saber at the right moment to send the blast right back at the enemy. Generally I found it far easier to dash forward when there was a gap in the fire (dashing itself is a pain thanks to having to step forward and fling your arms back behind you) and then leap into the air and perform a powerful lightsaber smash.

When you're not fighting you're either performing utterly terrible and entirely redundant platforming where you do nothing but jump when the game tells you to, manning a speeder through dense forest, or sitting in the gunner's seat in on-rails space battles. None of these are entertaining and most stretch the term interactive to near breaking point.

Of the other game modes, it's Rancor Rampage that takes the award for most awkward to play. It's admittedly decent fun flailing your arms about to smash bystanders and buildings, or eating villagers to regain health, but it's a fleshed out mini-game that gets tiresome to play even before the first stage is over.

Podracing is decently handled, but the controls feel far too automatic for the mode to taken seriously by anyone looking for a competent Star Wars racer, and the forced use of gestures for tedious tasks (such as clearing the screen of moisture) gets in the way of the actual racing.

Less thrilling are the Duels of Fate challenges, which might tempt players due to the lure of eventually facing off against Darth Vader himself. The lightsaber combat (with its heavy reliance on tediously slow blocking) seen in the Jedi Destiny mode returns, and is made all the more dull when it's all you do over and over again.

That just leaves the now infamous Galactic Dance Off. A lot of people have failed to see the funny side of this, and in doing so haven't given the game's only redeeming feature a chance. It's a Dance Central-like system, albeit with Leia and co dancing in famous Star Wars locations such as Jabba's palace and the Death Star.

While I can't see anyone buying Kinect Star Wars for this mode alone, it's the one you're most likely to get something out of that isn't arm ache, a miserable face or general contempt for whoever thought the rest of the package was fun.

Virgin Media verdict:

• Gameplay: 4
• Graphics: 6
• Sound: 7

• Dancing mode is decent
• Rancor Rampage is awful
• Visually disappointing
• Gameplay is incredibly basic