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New Star Wars free-to-play game puts fans in command

Star Wars: Commander asks players to build and attack sci-fi bases, but does this iPhone and iPad games seem a little too familiar?

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Star Wars: Commander tasks players with building and attacking bases.

Disney on Thursday released Star Wars: Commander, a new iPad and iPhone game that tasks players with building and protecting sci-fi military bases. However, fans of the wildly popular Clash of Clans may be quick to call this free-to-play Star Wars game the “clone wars.”

People familiar with Clash of Clans – the top-grossing game on the Apple App Store – will note that Star Wars: Commander adheres to the same formula of having players construct bases, attack others online, and generally make mayhem – but this time, you do so while the Tatooine suns shine – or the multiple moons, as the case may be.

Players can expect visits from Han Solo, Chewbacca, and even Darth Vader, who pop on screen with tips and vital information to aid progress.

While “free to play,” the game offers to sell players in-game currency known as “crystals” that can be used to speed-up game play. With Clash of Clans raking in an estimated $1.2 million each day through its own fake currency, you can understand Disney’s attempt to make back some of the $4 billion it spent on the acquisition of the Star Wars universe.

“The game will be promoted on Disney's StarWars.com website, which is drawing steady traffic from fans more than a year before the next film, ‘Episode VII,’ hits theaters,” reports Reuters. 

Star Wars: Commander is available for 30 days exclusively through Apple's App Store and later on Android devices.

“For the team, this has been an opportunity of a lifetime to work with the Lucasfilm team and build a game set in the Star Wars universe,” Disney Interactive’s executive producer and vice president of operations, Nathan Etter, told The Guardian. 

Now players can experience what it’s like to be a battlefield commander on either the Empire or Rebel side, says Mr. Etter.

Players may begin as independent, but quickly choose a side in the ongoing galactic civil war that fans have come to know so well over the years via films, books, and games.

You can really get fan geeky with this game with rebel armaments and vehicles that hearken back to, well, the time of the Clone Wars, so to speak.

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