In this article we introduce you to all the ultimate games for Star Wars fans out there. Make sure to try them all!
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire is a game that’s based on the Star Wars universe that was created by George Lucas in 1977, when the movie “Star Wars” was released in the cinemas around the world. From this time until today, Star Wars became one of the biggest brands in the history of the modern cinema and led to a total of 8 movies, following the main plot, as well as various spin-offs.
And there were also several games that have been released over the years on many consoles as well as on the PC.
One of those games was Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire that was released in December 1996 as one of the release titles of the new Nintendo console at that time, the Nintendo 64, and in September 1997 the game was also released for Microsoft Windows PCs as well.
The Story of the game takes place at the beginning of Episode 4 at the ice planet “Hoth” where the player needs to protect the rebel base from the attack of the imperial troops.
Within the game the player is in the role of the rebel Dash Rendar and needs to take control of many different situations.
In one of the missions Dash Rendar must save the life of Luke Skywalker while he’s practicing his Jedi skills at the house of his old mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi. And in another mission the player takes part in a search for Han Solo, where the player needs to infiltrate the circle of the headhunters to find out where Boba Fett brought Han Solo.
When Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire was released as one of the Nintendo 64 release titles in 1996, the graphics of the game were on a new level so that for many Star Wars Fans a childhood dream became true. Now they could take place in their favorite universe that was created completely in 3D for the first time in the history of Star War Games.
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire combined the core mechanics of various genres. The game does not only take place in a shooter scenario but in some parts the player had to participate in racing events or had to navigate a spaceship, that were known from the movies, while fighting the enemy ships in space.
So the game was really varied. This helped the developers from Lucas Arts to sell over one million copies of Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire until the end of 1997. Some magazines by that time criticized the weak level design in some parts of the game as well the small amount of save points that the players could find within the Game. So Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire ended up with a total score of 73,61 % on RameRankings.com.
Nonetheless the game was placed third at the list of the most sold games at the Nintendo 64 between September 1996 and September 1997, but that could also be based on the fact that Shadows of the Empire was one of the launch titles.
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, was, in 1982, the first Star Wars game that was ever released for consoles. The game was developed by Parker Brothers, a studio that produced many games for the Atari 2600 within the 80s, such as Frogger, Q*bert or Popeye, for example.
In the game, the players were able to play as Luke Skywalker, and take control over a Snowspeeder to fight the Imperial AT-ATs. The goal of the game was to stop the enemies for as long as possible, from destroying a generator in the rebel base.
Players could choose their preferred difficulty in the game; at the harder levels the Imperial Army walked much faster than at the lower levels and used different types of shields and ammunition too. To destroy the Imperial AT-ATs, the player had to shoot them with the lasers of the Snowspeeder.
The players got points for every destroyed AT-AT. If players reached the end of the map, they just came out at the other end, where new enemies appeared. The Imperial AT-ATs also attacked the player with their lasers, when it was hit, the Snowspeeder changed its colour for a while, until it exploded. That happened after three hits, then the player was forced to start again, for up to five times, until the game over title appeared on the television screen.
While attacked by the AT-ATs, the player was able to aim at the shots fired at him, and protected himself from getting hit. At the higher stages, the enemies were armed much better, so the player was challenged much more than at the lower stages of the game. If the player crashed into an enemy at a higher stage, he could probably be killed, which wasn’t possible at the beginning of the game.
Besides the much better shield, the AT-ATs at the higher stages could also use so-called smart bombs; these bombs were able to follow the player for a while, like a missile that follows its target. If the player got hit by one of these smart bombs, the Snowspeeder exploded directly.
At some points of the game, the player could get the Jedi-force as a bonus, which was displayed by a glowing Snowspeeder. After getting the force, the player was invulnerable for a short period of time, and he couldn’t get hit by the hostile lasers. As a bonus, the well-known Star Wars theme was played, while the player got the force.
Like many other games for the Atari 2600 at that time, the player wasn’t able to win the game. The game ended if the enemy reached the base, right at the end of the map, and destroyed the generator, or if the player died five times. So, the only motivation for the players was to beat the high-score, by winning time and points over, and over, again.
By that time, many players developed strategies that helped them to get a better high-score in the game. In 1983, the developer Jeff Minter released the game “Attack of the Mutant Camels”, which was nearly identical to Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II is an Action-Adventure game for Windows PCs and consoles like the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii, that was released in October 2010 by Lucas Arts and was the sequel of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed that was released in 2008.
In the game the player becomes the clone of “Starkiller” who was the hero in the first The Force Unleashed game. He was created by Darth Vader to replace Starkiller after he died. But at a training session the clone is able to escape from the i
mperial base in the search for his own identity and “Juno Eclipse” the love of his life.
Within the story of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II the player is able to use several weapons from the Star Wars Movies such like laser weapons, light sabers or the force of the Jedi.
The player controls his character from a third-person view through the Star Wars Universe in The Force Unleashed II.
With the progress of the player within the story missions the character earns experience points that can be spread on the various skills and talents, so that the clone becomes stronger as long as the game lasts.
While playing the single player campaign of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II the player needs to pass through a number of different missions. Those missions are developed like linear levels where at the end, after the player was able to solve every challenge, an end boss waited to challenge the player in a special way.
The critics were mostly excited by the graphics of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II while the game’s reception got mixed reviews . Those were based on the short time that players needed to play through the whole game, as well as because of the fighting mechanics that don’t seem balanced in the right way by the developers of the game. Others said that the game was way too easy especially for those games that searched for a challenging video game in the Star Wars universe.
In the end Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II just got a score of 64,50 % on GameRankings.com and led to many true lifelong Star Wars Fans who were sorely disappointed by the game of their favorite science-fiction universe. Those fans were hoping for a good sequel of the first Star Wars: The Force Unleashed what was released in 2008 and this came as a big surprise for fans and critics as well. The game got a score of 71,81 % on GameRanking.com and was one of the best Star War games that got released until that time.
Until 2009 around six million copies of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed were sold and even before the game was released in September 2008 a book was published, where the players were able to read more about the background story and the characters featured by the game.
Within the US this book sold 100 000 copies and entered the New York Times bestseller ranking.