The Force Unleashed hits the U.S. on Sept. 16, Southeast Asia and Australia on Sept. 17 and Europe on Sept 19., LucasArts announced today.

The game will have you playing as Darth Vader's secret apprentice and takes place in the era between Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. The game will have players assisting Vader in his quest to rid the universe of Jedi.

"Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is one of the most ambitious projects LucasArts has ever launched. The combination of a great new Star Wars story with revolutionary new technology and game play means more fun than you've ever had in the Star Wars universe," said Peter Hirschmann, Vice-President of Product Development, LucasArts. "We can't wait until gamers get their hands on it this September."

LucasArts teamed up with Spike TV to air segments about the upcoming game during the channel's upcoming showing of all six Star Wars movies this weekend. The channel will be airing six different segments about the game "each with an exclusive announcement or new game play footage."

Hit the jump for the segment times, more box art shots and some details on the game.

Variety has a pretty epic story in their March issue that delves deep into LucasArts upcoming Star Wars game The Force Unleashed. Writer Frank DiGiacomo does not only an amazing job of shedding light on a hotly anticipated game, but also manages to lead the uninitiated on a quick tour of both the history of video gaming and the problems the emerging medium still struggles with. The story then quickly plunges into the making of the upcoming game and some of the issues the devs have run into while trying to blend new tech with old for the game.

The story does mention a few things interesting to the hardcore as well, like the fact that they had to play down the game's realism because if a person was really hit with a force blow it would be like being smacked with a cannon ball, and perhaps a bit too gruesome for the T-rating they are shooting for.

The article says that Force Unleashed, which is meant to tell the story of the time between Episode III and Episode IV by fleshing out Darth Vader, has a plot twist "almost as good as the "I am your father" moment from Star Wars: Episode V—The Empire Strikes Back." The game also contains surprising revelations about the birth of the Rebel Alliance.

WiiSaber Update!

This time from Game Informer, we have some fresh new details on LucasArts' The Force Unleashed (Wii) and the mythological WiiSaber. As we'd heard rumblings of before, swinging the Wiimote will not be 1:1 with the onscreen saber. Force powers will be motion controlled, but whether or not the Wiimote will do double-duty between lightsaber and said powers is uncertain. The only example we know of is Force Push, which requires the player to (you guessed it) push with the nunchuck.

I'm really, really hoping this will be good. And until we have the game in our hands to decide, expect bajillions of such updates as we get more info.

A few more Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Wii details [gonintendo]