After more than a year of hype touting Star Wars: The Force Unleashed as the next full-fledged instalment in the Star Wars saga, the game finally shipped to stores across the world last week.

While reviews have been decidedly mixed, the game has been a huge succes in retail, with more than 1.5 million copies of the game sold worldwide during its first week of release.

So far, LucasArts has shipped 4.3 million copies to retailers worldwide, but is ramping up production to meet what it calls "unprecedented demand".

This easily makes the game the fastest-selling title in both LucasArts and Star Wars history, according to the publisher: "The record-setting sales of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed shows the undiminished power of Star Wars and its popularity across all media types, including video games," said LucasArts president Darrel Rodriguez.

Though The Force Unleashed is selling like hotcakes, some versions of the game - particularly the Wii, DS and PS2 versions - have received unflattering reviews, while the Xbox 360, PS3 and PSP reviews have been mostly mixed.