Lucasarts Star Wars Games Review

Overall 5.00 of 5 view all 2 reviews

dukethepcdr
Las Vegas, NV

The best and worst Star Wars games ever.

a Star Wars fan since the 1970's

Pros

When they're good, they're really good., The good games are better than movies.

Cons

When they're bad, they're awful., Bad 1's make you question your fandom.

JUL

2008

Long ago in galaxy far, far away....

Those immortal words have started six movies (with one on the way in the animated Clone Wars movie), three cartoons, almost countless toys and other memorabilia and many many games. Star Wars is probably the riskiest gamble any movie producer ever made (back in the 70's, hardly anyone thought A New Hope would even become a finished movie let alone a cultural phenomenon) and it has paid off big time for both consumers and makers of everything Star Wars.

I am a huge Star Wars fan. I also love to play video games on my PC, consoles and now even my cell phone. Few intellectual properties have spawned as many games as Star Wars. There have been Star Wars games in arcades and for just about every game console ever made ever since Star Wars Episode iV A New Hope came out in the 1970's. Some games have been great, some ok and some just plain awful. Here's my picks for the best and worst Star Wars games. They are not really in order as it was too hard to make up my mind which was better or worse than the others within the list.

The Worst:

Super Bombad Racing - Kart racing is a kinda dumb idea for a video game anyway, but when you add deformed things that vaguely resemble Star Wars characters for drivers it doesn't help much. The game had terrible controls and wasn't significantly different from any other kart racer out at the time.

Rebellion - This strategy game for the PC took a good idea of having you command the entire Rebel Alliance or Galactic Empire and build it planet by planet, then ruined it with pitiful graphics, a very non-user friendly interface and dull as dishwater game play. Trying to guess what to do or desipher the thick owners manual was more challenging than actually doing anything in the game.

Force Commander - Another neat idea ruined by poor game making. You play two brothers who are commanders in the Galactic Empire (playing as just the bad guys was novel when this game came out). The game focused on land battles and had some neat real time strategy (RTS) elements to it. However, the highly touted "totally controlable" camera system was too controlable. You spent so much time trying to get the best camera angle and zoom level to see what you wanted to see that you wound up losing a bunch of your guys before you could get a proper view of what was happening to them. The graphics were amazing for the time, but it also meant having to have a pretty beefy PC too.

Episode One Racer for the Verizon cell phones - Episode One Racer for the PS2 was a lot of fun. It recreated the second best scene from the movie (the duel with Darth Maul was the best). This cell phone game however, was terrible! The pods are hard to control, the maps are bland and boring yet way too hard to even finish a race let alone win.

The Best:

X-Wing VS TIE Fighter - This flight simulator for the PC was and is still the best sci-fi themed flight sim ever made. Besides getting all the details of the dogfights in the Star Wars trilogy right (It came out way before the prequels were even announced), it was very challenging in good way. You had to manage your power, shields and damage repair while trying to shoot the enemy and complete the missions at the same time. The graphics were excellent for the time the game came out and you felt like you were really flying in the movies.

Rogue Squadron - This game for the Nintendo 64 took the fun aspects of X-Wing VS TIE Fighter and made the game accessible for the console playing crowd. With the improved graphics ability of the N64, the graphics looked even better. The controls were considerably dumbed down but the game was still very challenging. The remake for the Game Cube was one of the best games ever released for that console.

Dark Forces: Jedi Knight - This PC game is a true stand out from the crowd of games for three reasons: a brand new storyline that intertwines with the stories from the movies, very well done full motion video cut scenes with real actors and high production values, and getting to wield a lightsaber in a 3-D game for the first time. The graphics were on par with Half-LIfe 1. The puzzles and platforming were so daunting that I had to resort to cheat codes to finish the game.

Republic Commando - This multi-platform game that came out for the PS2, Xbox and PC is a fine squad-controlling shooter. It's more gritty and realistic than most Star Wars games. It really makes you feel like you are a clone in the clone wars. Great graphics and user friendly squad command system.

LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga - One of the most unlikely yet most genius ideas to come along in Star Wars games yet. I'll admit when I first heard of LEGO Star Wars games, I was a skeptic. I was enjoying the turn towards the more realistic in games like Commando and Obi Wan (a decent console game) and wasn't sure about a cutesy puzzle platformer made to look like it's made of LEGOs. The games grew on me though and now I probably play LEGO Star Wars games more than I do my other Star Wars games. The puzzles are deceptively easy looking, the controls are pretty good and the humor is pretty funny. Best of all is the co-op mode in the PC and console versions (except for some of the Gameboy Advance versions). Playing LEGO games in co-op mode with a friend is really where it's at as many puzzles are very hard to do by yourself.

Knights of the Old Republic II: Sith Lords - This game has probably done more to win over skeptics of Star Wars games than any other. Even professional reviewers in magazines who insist they are not Star Wars movie fans gave it rave reviews. It's ability to ape great games like Final Fantasy and Baldurs Gate while staying true to (and even digging deeper into than any game before) the Star Wars universe is pretty impressive.

The Future:

Despite the fact that the last of the saga movies has been made and that the prequels have gotten a very mixed reception (more bad than good among some circles), the future of Star Wars games looks bright as a lightsaber blade. The Force Unleashed coming out this year for just about every console looks simply amazing. It may blow away every previous Star Wars game if it's as good as the preview writers say it is. Also, with the Clone Wars TV series about to kick off with the feature film, there will probably be some games based on it in the works as well. Then there's the dozens of books set in the Star Wars universe that have barely been touched by games like Bioware's Knights of the Old Repubic games.

The Force looks to be with us gamers for some time to come.