Star Wars and Vive team up to let you wield a lightsaber in virtual reality
Don HTC's headset to fulfil your Jedi dreams
Look, don’t deny it: at at least one point in your life, you have grabbed an umbrella, a broom handle, a tent pole or similar implement and wielded it like a lightsaber.
What we’re saying, essentially, is the only difference between you, us and that viral Canadian “Star Wars Kid” is that he filmed himself doing it, and he got caught. But wanting to be a Jedi warrior is nothing to be ashamed of – and from today you’ll be able to play pretend without the need to don a brown dressing gown and reach for the Hoover attachment.
It’s all thanks to a collaboration between Lucasfilm, Valve and HTC. Trials on Tatooine is a virtual reality experience designed for owners of the HTC Vive, and it’s available now on Steam. For free, no less.
After a classic Star Wars opening crawl amidst a vast VR star field, you’ll find yourself in the desert surroundings of Luke Skywalker’s home world. A Padawan (in other words, a Jedi-in-training), it’s your job to take up a lightsaber (using the Vive’s wonderful motion controller, of course) and defend yourself while familiar sights and sounds assail you from all sides, R2-D2 and the Millennium Falcon among them.
Trials on Tatooine was developed under the watchful eye of Lucasfilm CTO Rob Bredow, and co-written by Bredow and Pablo Hidalgo, the company’s “guy in charge of canon”, so it’s definitely as official as it comes.
Head over to Steam and grab it, if you’re lucky enough to have one of the initial batch of Vive headsets.
Sam Kieldsen
Contributor 
