At E3 this weekend, Kinect for Xbox 360 (formally known as Project Natal) announced that one of their first games will be a Star Wars title. For those who don’t know, Kinect is the 360’s camera based motion-sensing add-on, to be released in November.

Very little information was given about the game, though the demo video was said to look very much like The Force Unleashed. The video showed a male Jedi fighting waves of droids and stormtroopers using a lightsaber and the Force. The Jedi deflected blaster shots, used power-slides to move, and even used the environment to his advantage before Darth Vader showed up. The video ended in a duel between the two.

Kinect uses bodily motions rather than remote motions like the Wii. The player, or “actor”, uses movements to control what the character does, using their arms, legs, and whole body. Despite the lack of hard facts thus far, the game shows a lot of promise. The game is said to be released sometime in 2011.

There are literally thousands of parody songs about Star Wars out there. There is no way I could review them all and decide which are “best”, so I decided just to feature five songs that I personally really like. [Ed: We did one with The Beatles’ song Yesterday many years ago.]

5. “Jedi Drinking Song” by John Ryan of the Dust Rhinos
I’m a big fan of Celtic style drinking songs, so of course this one caught my ear. Its a funny little tune about drinking a little too much and finding yourself trying to become a Jedi.
Favorite line: “I looked that puppet in the eye and said give me the test”

4. “We Didn’t Start The Star Wars” by Mikey Squirrel
This parody is as catchy as the song its tuned to. While its mostly just a list of characters, planets, and other aspects of Star Wars, there are little jokes thrown in. The rhyming is really clever, and the video is fun to watch.
Favorite line: “We didn’t start the Star Wars, no we didn’t dream them but we went and seen them”

3. “Yoda” by Weird Al Yankovic
Weird Al Yankovic is the king of parody songs, so it would be rude not to mention him here. Weird Al actually does three Star Wars songs, but I chose just one. “Yoda” makes me laugh every time I hear it. Its just so well put together, and goes so well with the original song, “Lola” by The Kinks. He also does “Livin’ La Vida Yoda” and “The Saga Begins”.
Favorite line: “The long term contract I had to sign says I’ll be making these movies till the end of time with my Yoda”

2. “Star Wars Theme Song” by Goldentusk
A creative song set to the tune of the main theme of A New Hope. A lot of work was put in to the video and the lyrics. And he does all three movies in five minutes.
Favorite line: “May the Force always be with you, if its not, you’ll end up just like Anakin”

1. “Star Wars Cantina” by Richard Cheese
This is my favorite Star Wars parody song! Richard Cheese fits this song with Barry Manillow’s “Copacabana” perfectly. It will get stuck in your head for days and days!
Favorite line: “In that galaxy far, far away Luke has had a lousy day”

We have updated our image gallery and merged its design with the rest of the web site. Hope you enjoy it, and let me know what else you would like to see in the gallery.

Happy Life Day, and happy holidays from GFA and these folks hanging out in my tree.

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Based on requests from readers, the following new sounds to the sound archive:

• hansolo-use_a_good_kiss.mp3(36kb) – "You can use a good kiss"
• vader-he_will_join_us_or_die.mp3(80kb) – "He will join us or die, master."
• yoda-help_you_i_can.mp3(60kb)- "Help you I can. Yes, mmmm!"
• yoda-wars_not_make_one_great.mp3(140kb)- "Great Warrior. Wars not make one great"
• AT-AT_walking.mp3 (12kb) – AT-AT walking sound.

So how does one spend an idle Friday evening, armed with a camera, some action figures and a poor imagination? Behold:

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The GalaxyFarAway.com Star Wars Image Gallery which is home to over 1000 Star Wars images- from prequel pics to toys to Wallpapers to all kinds of weird and cool stuff – we’ve revamped the section and are bringing it up to date.

Here are the things we have to download here at GFA:

A few things to enjoy while you are here:
Pictures

Sounds

Midis

Scripts

Downloads

Wallpapers
Expect lots of cool updates next week!

Welcome to 2002- the year of the Attack of the Clones. Years from today, you will look back on this year not for anything else, but for Epsiode II; whether you like it or not. Though I do hope you like it! For me, I have no choice- I already like it.

In the next few weeks, and in the months leading into Episode II, we will be having a few contests here and lots of giveaways. The first one is a bumper sticker contest. The object is to create the funniest, non-obscene Star Wars bumper sticker idea and mail it to me at skywalker@galaxyfaraway.com. I’ll have details on the prizes soon- but be assured that the winning entry will be printed on actual stickers. The stickers will be available before the Celebration in May and I will be giving out stuff there too!

We have four separate WinAmp skins for download; I’ve rated them out of 4 stars below to give you an idea of their quality. Enjoy!

Star Wars Episode I Skin – ****stars – 112KBytes

Tatooine Suns – ***stars – 100 KBytes

ROTJ – ***stars – 118 KBytes

YodAmp – ***1/2 stars – 94 KBytes

A large zip file full of Star Wars cursors for your desktop; there are all kinds- download and enjoy!

Download (172 Kbytes)

Cursor Installation Instructions:

• For Windows

We have over a hundred icons for download in this zip file. From R2D2 to Yoda, everyone’s in here! Enjoy.

Download (88 Kbytes)

We have a couple of very different Star Wars fonts for you to download:

• Aurabesh (27 Kbytes)- The alien script used in the Star Wars movies on walls, in pod racers and in other random places. Very cool; take a look.


• StarVader (53 Kbytes)- The font used in the Star Wars title logo.

UPDATE: (March 9th, 2006)

• Windows Font Installation instructions


• Mac OS X Font Installation instructions


• Linux Font Installation instructions

The Duel of Fates (31kb)

Anakin’s Theme (9kb)
Jar Jar’s Theme (40kb)
Augie’s Municipal Band (55kb)
The Flag Parade (108kb)
Qui Gon meets the Jedi Council (9kb)

Others
20th Century Fox Fanfare
Star Wars Medley
Star Wars Main Theme
Swtheme.mid (44KB) - The Star Wars Theme, with the 20th Century Fox.
Cantina.mid (28KB)- The Mos Eisley Cantina Band
Empire.mid (5KB) – The Empire theme.
Swbattle.mid (28KB) – The Star Wars battle theme.
Sw_cere.mid (11KB) – The Star Wars ceremony at the end.
Ewokcel.mid (14KB) – The Ewok celebration music.
Ewokcele.mid (13KB) – Another ewok celebration midi.

jedirock.mid (9kb) – the Jedi Rock piece of ROTJ
imperial.mid (17kb) – the Imperial March.
empire.mid (16kb)
leiathem.mid (5kb) – Leia’s theme

swbattle.mid (28kb) – Star Wars battle
Yoda.mid (9kb) – Yoda’s theme
starwars1.mid
starwars2.mid
starwars3.mid
Do you have a midi to request or have a midi that you don’t see here? Well, tell me about it.