Not content with helping electrical high street stores promote ways of communicating with washing machines or invading a couple’s bowling/sushi date as they whisper sweet nothings about Yodaphone call plans, a host of iconic Star Wars characters joined commuters around London earlier this week to celebrate the launch of the new Xbox 360 Kinect Star Wars game. A highly polished Darth Vader and a gaggle of Stormtroopers were riding the buses and catching the Tube (though we’re not quite sure how R2-D2 minded the gap), displaying their amazing controller-free powers of movement as they filtered through the early morning crowds.Also to celebrate the launch, Microsoft and Lucas Arts have created the first ever customised Xbox360 Kinect bundle and the attention to detail is amazing. The controller is C-3PO gold whilst the R2-D2 themed console has custom sounds when the disc tray pops open and has a little inscribed message of “Help me Obi-Wan Kinobi, you’re our only hope” inside. If only the white Kinect sensor would project a little Luke into my front room. The 320 GB hard drive bundle also comes with the Kinect Star Wars game, exclusive downloadable content, an Xbox 360 wired headset and a Kinect Adventures Game.Love or hate the Star Wars Universe, there’s no denying that the characters, locations, vehicles and ships continue to inspire fans and so spin-off games are inevitable. Pitched at the family audience and informed by all six movies, Kinect Star Wars offers a new take on what it takes to train as a Jedi Master. Using the full body to leap and slash a lightsabre against foes, or hand movements to control the Force, the Jedi Padawan must complete a series of tasks, fights and races. Elsewhere in the game there is a Rancor Rampage mode where players can stomp and chomp through four different planets, Pod Racing tracks plus the Galactic Dance Off. If the Kinect system does one thing well, it’s dance games and here, with 15 remakes of popular tracks, a whole new audience will be introduced to the franchise. I expect die hard SW fans will shake their heads in sad disbelief to see their favourite characters reduced to nightclub boppers but the watching Stormtroopers perform the YMCA or my particular favourite Han Solo throwing some shapes under a Death Star shaped mirrorball has to be seen to be believed:

Kinect Star Wars and the custom Xbox 360 bundle are out now exclusively for Xbox 360 with Kinect.