“May The 4th Be With You” – The Best & Worst Star Wars Games
A long time ago in a galaxy not so far away (in 1977 Los Angeles to be precise) the first of the Star Wars films was released and although today is not the actual anniversary of it's premiere, May 4th is known as international Star Wars day for people around the world to celebrate this great franchise.
Over the years, the Star Wars name has spawned a huge range of merchandise and video games are no exception with every format imaginable having a Star Wars game released on it. Many developers have released many games, some have been good, some have been bad and some have been downright terrible! Therefore, in honour of this great day, XG247 takes a look at some of the very best and very worst that the series has had to offer.
"May the 4th be with you!"
Three Games That The Force Was Strong With...
Super Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi - SNES - 1994
The last of the three Super Star Wars titles, this followed a similar formula to the first, introducing a side-scrolling games that loosely followed the story of the corresponding film. However, the real joy for Star Wars fans came in the form of being able to use any of the various main characters to play through the story with. There's nothing quite like using Han to defeat the Rancor or using Leia to blast through the various levels in "that bikini". But the real gem of this game? The level which involves you flying the Millenium Falcon deep into the Death Star the destroy it's core, all in first-person. That and being able to play as Wicket the Ewok. Fantastic, fun stuff!
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga - Nintendo DS, PS3, Wii & Xbox 360 - 2007
Over the past few years, many great cinematic franchises have received the Lego treatment; Batman, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Pirates Of The Carribean (soon) but Star Wars was the daddy of them all. At the time it was a completely new concept and one that had some within the gaming media a little confused as to how it would turn out. "You mean, you're going to combine Star Wars...with Lego...in a video game?" Luckily for the millions of fans of all three, it worked a treat! Lego Star Wars was a huge hit upon it's initial release and when Traveller's Tales decided to combine every one of it's interations into one game, it made perfect sense.
Here you can experience all six films in their Lego-converted glory: collecting, blasting and slashing your way through all the stories as well as having the ability to go back and replay levels, using your very own created characters and creatures in a way only Lego can truly get right. Some would say that the games have begun to turn stale in the last year or so but this is well and truly Lego at it's very best: combined with Star Wars!
Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic - Xbox & PC - 2003
Epic. Epic is the only word truly, well, epic enough to describe this game, in terms of both scope and overall quality. Every fan of both Star Wars and gaming should play/should have played this game, it is the definition of a good RPG as well as the perfect example of a great Star Wars tie-in.
Developed by Bioware, the game did something controversial for a Star Wars title and it's own brand new storyline, not following the plot of the movies in any way. Set 4000 years before the exploits of Mr Skywalker and his fellow rebels, KOTOR followed the adventures of your own created character, tasked with discovering and honing your force powers and combat abilities, while travelling the galaxy recruiting comrades to join you in the fight against the Dark Lord Malak, apprentice of the mysterious and unseen Sith Master Revan.
This game did so much for restoring people's faith in Star Wars games and was a classic example of everything that a role-playing game should be. It had a fantastic combat system, interesting side-missions and upgrade possibilities, some great humour and in-jokes and, most importantly, an engrossing and engaging storyline which had easily the most jaw-dropping twist near the end that I have ever had the pleasure to encounter in a game. Overall, this was a truly great title and one that, if you haven't played before, really should pick up. The Force was indeed strong with this one.
Three Games That Had Turned To The Dark Side...
Star Wars Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels - Wii - 2009
This will almost certainly be a game that, unless you are under 13 years old, passed you by...and you should be glad it did. Developed especially for Nintendo Wii just two short years ago, this game had so much potential. "You mean we can use our Wii-Motes to act out all of the greatest lightsaber battles we've always wanted to? Yes please!" was what many said. It's release was highly anticipated by fans to say the least! Then it was released....oh dear. The main problem with this game was that it quite simply didn't work. The Wii could never properly detect your fast motions and translate them to what you wanted your on-screen saber to be doing. Therefore, like our parents have said to us so many times, we weren't angry, just very disappointed. And that it always so much worse.
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back - Atari 2600 - 1982
This was, in fact, the very first Star Wars game ever created and so the world held it's breath, expecting the chance to play along through the story of the biggest movie in the world at the time. However, this is NOT what was delivered! Instead, people who excitedly bought this at their local shop and rushed home to plug it into their Atari 2600 were greeted with one of the most dull (and surprisingly tough) games ever created! It essentially involved you controlling a group of Snowspeeders against a group of AT-AT walkers on Hoth, trying to prevent them from reaching the Rebel base. Imagine failing again and again and again....and again at doing this....until it's repetitive nature had turned your brain into mush. That was the unfortunate legacy that this game left the world.
Star Wars: Yoda Stories - GameBoy Colour & PC - 1997
So it comes to this, quite possibly the very worst Star Wars game ever created! Imagine taking the grand scope and scale of these great films and condensing it all into a tiny screen (on BOTH the GameBoy and PC!). Then imagine taking every single ounce of fun and joy to be had and removing it completely. Then add on the famous John Williams soundtrack, broken down into 8-bit sound and playing on a constant loop. What you're left with is Star Wars: Yoda Stories.
I had this on my PC and was so excited when I first installed it and opened the game. I had images of big lightsaber battles and exciting action, all in glorious 3D, instead what I had was a brain-numbingly simple, top-down game in which I played Luke Skywalker, learning the ways of the Force from the aformentioned Yoda. However, apparently the best way to learn to become a Jedi is to go on fetch and return missions again and again, battling the same enemies every single time and hearing that same music go around and around. I dedicated hours and hours to this game in the hope that there would be a moment when it all came together and a finale occured. Unfortunately for me, that moment never came. So for wasting possibly hundreds of hours of my life, Star Wars: Yoda Stories is declared the Worst Star Wars Game Ever!
