Star Wars: Rise to Power Opens for Early Testing on Android

Despite its initial announcement just last year, EA's Star Wars: Rise to Power looks like its getting closer and closer to release. This week, the game's Closer Pre-Alpha opened up for download on Google Play, following a blog post on the update from the EA Star Wars team.

The strategy game is being built specifically for mobile devices, and invites players to join the growing New Republic or the falling Empire in during a period of the saga that has yet to be very deeply explored. While players have been given peeks at what happens after the end of Return of the Jedi through books and comics, the actual rise of the New Republic hasn't been explored very deeply in the new canon games games outside of Star Wars: Battlefront II. In the wake of the Rebel victory on Endor and the fall of the second Death Star, the New Republic, under the guidance of characters like Mon Motha, Leia Organa and Admiral Ackbar, struggles to take out the remnants of the Empire. It's up to the player to support thier size through strategy and win battles in order to claim the galaxy as their own.

Here's a little more about the game from its official listing on the Google Play Store:

In Star Wars: Rise to Power, the war between the Empire and the dawning New Republic continues to rage on – and players influence who will ultimately reign supreme. Every move helps to shape the fate of the galaxy in game as players choose a faction, establish their base, and begin building a fleet of starships. Players will form or join an alliance and engage in epic galactic warfare with other players from around the world in the hopes of emerging victorious.

Power is earned by outwitting adversaries in carefully orchestrated attacks and by building a mighty coalition through the loyalty of other players. In Star Wars: Rise to Power, players embrace destiny by engaging in diplomacy or deception to ultimately become a leader of the Empire or New Republic.

At the moment, there's no official release date available for the game, though it's pretty obvious that it will be headed for Android.