The Complete History of Star Wars Games (part 2)

It was inevitable that George Lucas would eventually form a games division of Lucasfilm, and what began as a bit of water-testing, alongside industry stalwarts Atari and Epyx, would lead the company to begin publishing its own games. Maniac Mansion was the first game Lucasfilm would publish under its Lucasfilm Games videogame banner (now known as LucasArts). It was a game that would come to mark the succinct style of pointand- click text-based PC adventure games that the company would become synonymous with. For a period, the PC would become the favoured platform for fleshing out the Star Wars universe while its hirsute creator baited the demand for a new trilogy. From Dark Forces to Masters Of Teras Kasi, join us as we conclude our retrospective look at the Star Wars videogame saga.

STAR WARS: X-WING RELEASED: 1993 FORMAT: MS-DOS, MAC Lavished in polygons and set inside a 3D Star Wars galaxy, X-Wing (set a few months before the events of A New Hope) split itself into a trilogy of lengthy campaigns that finally gave insight into a few of the events we weren’t made visually privy to in the films. Doing battle from inside the cockpit of X, Y and A-wings, in its rawest form, X-Wing is essentially a pretty reboot of the Star Wars arcade game, but with plenty more variety in its missions. Also, like the original arcade game, it splits itself into three parts. It begins with your usual dogfighting/ reconnaissance tours to set the scene, before tasking you with apprehending and delivering the Death Star plans and it then finishes with the Battle of Yavin. For the first time, players were entrusted the keys to the internal workings of an X-wing cockpit to impart a greater sense of realism. The game also made great use of the iMUSE music system – first used in Monkey Island 2 – which allowed the in-game music to respond to your actions on screen. It was a hugely successful PC release that went on to garner numerous industry awards and critical acclaim.

X-Wing would receive two expansion packs, Imperial Pursuit (1993) and B-Wing (1993) that would chart the Rebel’s escape from Yavin and attempt to seek solace inside the midconstructed Echobase on Hoth, setting the scene for The Empire Strikes Back nicely.

STAR WARS: TIE FIGHTER RELEASED: 1994 FORMAT: WINDOWS, MAC TIE Fighter begins after the Rebel’s escape Hoth and it covers the period in the films where Luke is being schooled by Yoda, all the way up to when the first drop of Ewok blood is spilled at the Battle of Endor.

The gameplay remains relatively untouched from X-Wing, with the main difference being that the game puts you to work for the tyrannical Imperials – a first in a Star Wars videogame. This means that throughout the campaign you get to pilot TIE fighters, TIE bombers and TIE interceptors, plus a bunch of made up enemy crafts that didn’t appear in the film. A rushed tweaking to the X-Wing game engine meant that the visuals would only really benefit from Gouraud shading, enabling the odd dynamic-lighting effect here and there. What made TIE Fighter slightly unusual is the sympathetic way in which the Imperials are portrayed in the game. Although it incorporated Rebel-crushing, many of the missions involved policing the skies from treachery and space pirates, dealing with defected Imperials and basically maintaining order in the galaxy. Two subsequent expansion packs, Enemies Of The Empire and Defender Of The Empire (1994), were later released for the game and would further bolster the appeal and life span of this popular, if atypical, addition to the Star Wars franchise.

STAR WARS: X-WING VS. TIE FIGHTER RELEASED: 1997 FORMAT: WINDOWS This risky addition to the X-Wing series was completely polarised around multiplayer skirmishes across the internet. Sadly, this meant it sorely lacked any kind of engrossing narrative – an element that its developer, Totally Games, would come to realise was vital to the success of its franchise. As a result the game is often seen as a slight blip on an otherwise immaculate PC series, but if you look past the lagging, the shortcomings of a decent story and accept the game for what it’s trying to do – offer fans the chance to shape their own untreated Star Wars experiences – hours of online gameplay awaited. Listening to the criticisms, LucasArts would hurry out an expansion pack six months later (Balance Of Power), which included a deluge of Rebel and Imperial missions that played out parallel to each other.

Although going some lengths to rectify many of the issues that fans bemoaned about the original release, with multiple outcomes to many of the main skirmishes in the game, ultimately, it would come to sit awkwardly within the main Star Wars canon.

STAR WARS: X-WING ALLIANCE RELEASED: 1999 FORMAT: WINDOWS A deep and layered narrative – stretching a plentiful number of space battles – plus a solid multiplayer backend, came bellowing out from this popular X-Wing swan song. Working as a space merchant ferrying and protecting cargo from pirates and poachers, the game’s everyman hero is swept up inside the interstellar feud between the Rebels and the Empire. X-Wing Alliance, set during the events of The Empire Strikes Back, concludes alongside Return Of The Jedi with you assisting with the obliteration of the second Death Star.

Often considered to be the definitive Star Wars interstellar combat sim by fans, X-Wing Alliance proved that by this time Totally Games had clearly established what elements were working in the series (essentially, an immersive storyline and robust online support) and would get things right first time… considering that it’s the only game in the X-Wing series to never receive an official update or expansion pack.

Masters of Teras Kasi Apparently, Masters Of Teras Kasi, which is said to (loosely) translate as ‘steel hand’ in Finnish (why Finnish?), is set between the events of A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. It seems that after the Battle of Yavin, Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Boba Fett, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca and a stormtrooper met up and started kicking seven shades out of each other for reasons unbeknown to us. If the films are anything to go by, it seems that after the fight everyone agreed to sit down and brush the whole deflating incident under the carpet and never speak of it again – for which we should be eternally grateful to them. Playing out like an extremely broken version of Battle Arena Toshinden (which should speak absolute volumes), a Star Wars beat-’em-up was, in all honesty, a pretty exciting prospect until Teras Kasi came along.

Marred by poor and sloppy gameplay and a lame knocked-out-in-seven-minutes subplot – some rubbish about a female assassin with a metal arm tasked to kill key members of the resistance by forcing them to fight each other – Masters Of Teras Kasi was the metal pallet of iron rods that fell on the camel’s back thus killing him. Adding to the problems were cheap and gluttonous attacks that happy to gorged on far too much health bar, plus a roster of crude and unbalanced fighters that lumbered around the screen like they were suffering the recent effects of carbonite encasement.

STAR WARS: REBEL ASSAULT RELEASED: 1993 FORMAT: WINDOWS ALSO ON: MAC, SEGA MEGA-CD, 3DO The Rebel Assault series was somewhat of an oddity when it was first released back in 1993. It ushered in a glut of on-rails, FMV-style games that would come to find homes on the inaugural wave of CD-based game platforms. The game splits opinion among fans of the series, however, as its cinematic 3D pre-rendered visuals and CD-quality soundtrack hides a very linear Star Wars episode. Loosely based on the events of Episode IV, oddly Rebel Assault doesn’t find you playing the role of Skywalker, but instead an illusory character called ‘Rookie One’ who also happened to be a farm hand on Tatooine.

The game’s action is essentially moving cross hairs around looping levels of FMV that chart the space battles of the Rebel Alliance. Forming part of Blue Squadron, you essentially play out an alternative version of A New Hope that includes a brief Hoth battle scene that oddly smacks of The Empire Strikes Back.

STAR WARS: REBEL ASSAULT II: THE HIDDEN EMPIRE RELEASED: 1995 FORMAT: WINDOWS ALSO ON: MAC, PSONE More blue-screen gaming ensued with this sequel to Rebel Assault, which maintained the original’s movie-styled gaming and control issues. The game, however, can be considered a slight improvement over the original. It looks better, the difficulty curve is less jarring and overall it feels like everything has been ramped up a notch or two. Reprising the role of the Rebel cadet ‘Rookie One’, The Hidden Empire story would continue where the previous Rebel Assault game left off.

After the destruction of the Death Star, strange reports begin surfacing about Rebel forces being set upon by invisible ships. After Rookie One is sent to investigate aboard the Super Star Destroyer, he uncovers a prototype of a Phantom TIE inside (a TIE with a cloaking device), which he steals before blowing up the facility. Sure, they’re not exceptional games, and they haven’t stood the test of time, but the cheesy moviestyle gameplay certainly holds a nostalgic charm.

STAR WARS: DARK FORCES RELEASED: 1995 FORMAT: MS-DOS ALSO ON: WINDOWS, MAC, PLAYSTATION Given that at the time Doom and its sequel were fast becoming some of the biggest PC games of all time, the thinking of lumping pseudo-3D demon-slaying gameplay with the Star Wars franchise was clearly a no-brainer for LucasArts. As you might expect, the fruits of this hybrid harvest would prove to be immensely successful. Blasting away fuzzy-looking stormtroopers feels somewhat laughable today, but at the time the tone and tension that Dark Forces emitted was staggering.

Whereas Doom filled its boots with ‘find key card to open lock’ puzzles that stretched dark and claustrophobic corridors of hellish blood-letting, Dark Forces would dazzle with far greater immersion, an emphasis on puzzle solving and varied level design. It was the first game to be set inside the Star Wars ‘expanded universe’, sat aloft a mountainous pile of books, comics and thematic spin-offs that dubiously fleshed out the Star Wars universe for its fan base after the credits rolled on Return Of The Jedi. The story, sitting somewhere between Episode IV and V, tells the story of the ‘Dark Troopers’ project: a super strain of black stormtroopers who threaten the Rebel campaign. You play Kyle Katarn, a shadowy mercenary employed by the Rebels to try to validate whether the project exists, who then has the task of pulling the plug on the operation before it’s too late.

STAR WARS: JEDI KNIGHT: DARK FORCES II RELEASED: 1997 FORMAT: WINDOWS If Dark Forces could be seen to draw influences from Doom, for the sequel LucasArts would clearly select Quake to play its muse. Set after the events of Episode IV, Dark Forces II would again choose to centre on the mercenary Kyle Katarn. Kyle has since learned that he is a Jedi and has agreed to help the Rebels pro bono. Of course, being a Jedi now means Kyle gains access to ‘the Force’ and more importantly a Lightsaber. The synopsis also echoes a familiar father/son story; with Kyle racing to train in the ways of the Jedi so he can seek a Sith Lord who he believes was responsible for the death of his father.

The game is also the first to introduce two-tiered (dark or light) Force powers, influenced by a novel point system that awarded you ‘dark points’ for merciless Anakin-style butchering and ‘light points’ for helping defenceless old droids cross the road. Dark Forces II also came packed with an online multiplayer mode and became the first Star Wars game to allow proper Lightsaber duels online. An expansion pack, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries Of The Sith (1998), soon followed and saw the main protagonist switch from Kyle to his female apprentice Jan Ors. The add-on included more multiplayer modes, removed the whole Force power element, and played to a familiar, but flipped, Anakin/ Obi-Wan tune, with Kyle falling into the hands of the Empire and Jan vowing to find her disillusioned master and wheedle him back to rectitude.

STAR WARS: JEDI KNIGHT: JEDI ACADEMY RELEASED: 2003 FORMAT: WINDOWS ALSO ON: XBOX, MAC By the time the final instalment of the Dark Forces series was nearing completion, the Quake III engine was beginning to look a little long in the tooth. Nevertheless, Raven Software would serve up another solid instalment to a popular Star Wars series. Sadly, Kyle has once again been ousted and in his place stands another of his unpolished Jedi apprentices. The removal of Kyle (which was to allow Raven to wipe the Force-levels clean and sustain a smooth progression of difficulty) means that we too must start afresh, taking part in a new chapter that tries to offer more freedom, but at a cost.

For the first time, players could customise their Jedi and choose the hilt, colour and style of his/her Lightsaber. To its benefit, straight off the bat you get to wield both the Lightsaber and ‘the Force’ (the latter of which you could now level up between missions). But what good Jedi Academy added, through more options and solid gameplay, is sadly squandered by the game’s narrative. There’s no real sense of an epic story being told here, essential for any Star Wars game worth its salt.

JEDI KNIGHT II: JEDI OUTCAST RELEASED: 2002 FORMAT: WINDOWS ALSO ON: XBOX, PS2, MAC, GC In a twist of development irony, Jedi Outcast would chug from the Quake III: Team Arena engine. After the events of Mysteries Of The Sith, Kyle had lost confidence in himself and his loyalty to the Rebels. As a result, he has entrusted his Lightsaber to the wistful Luke Skywalker, who we find is leading his own Jedi school on Yavin IV. However, a defected scholar and the apparent death of Jan Ors force Kyle back into battle. For Jedi Knight II the general gameplay would remain, but Force powers would find themselves split into more tangible powers, including ‘push’, ‘mind-trick’ and ‘lightning’. The game would also pander to multiplayer crowds by allowing Jedi wannabes to do battle across the internet.

STAR WARS: ROGUE SQUADRON RELEASED: 1998 FORMAT: N64, PC (AS STAR WARS: ROGUE SQUADRON 3D) Rogue Squadron was originally intended to be a game that would cherry-pick space battles from the first trilogy. Taking its lead from Shadows Of The Empire, Rogue Squadron would share similar controls and combat, but would set the action over the various surfaces of the Star Wars universe rather than keeping it solely in space. The game plonks you back into the comfy jumpsuit of Luke Skywalker as he and Wedge Antilles lead a series of rescue, destroy, recon and protect missions across some impressively vast vistas from the Star Wars films. As well as seriously ramping up the visuals, where Rogue Squadron really excels are the fulsome and varied missions, the impressive roster of crafts and the exhilarating sensation that came from leading a squad of semi-intelligent NPCs into a space battle. In fact, the only issue we have with it is its lack of a multiplayer mode, shortening the life span of the game dramatically.

STAR WARS: ROGUE LEADER: ROGUE SQUADRON II RELEASED: 2001 FORMAT: GAMECUBE The Star Wars franchise is no stranger to a retread, and as such you’re probably getting as bored of reading ‘such and such let you relive the climatic Death Star trench battle’ as we are of writing it. But here we are again reliving those classic moments from the films that Atari was first vectoring 18 years prior to this GameCube launch title. Owing to the Cube’s extra muscle, the missions now find themselves in glorious outer space, and the graphics benefit from a massive overhaul – cleansing the screen of all that Nintendo 64 fog that cluttered up the skies in the last game and instead plying it with a silly amount of ships. The game was one of the most successful and popular release titles for the GameCube and is considered by some to be one of the best looking and most accurate Star Wars games ever released – if you need numbers, the Star Destroyers in the game are reputedly constructed of 300,000 polygons!

STAR WARS: ROGUE SQUADRON III: REBEL STRIKE RELEASED: 2003 FORMAT: GAMECUBE Ever heard of the expression ‘if it ain’t broken, leave it how the hell you found it?’ Well, this statement really does apply with Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike. Blatantly feeling the pressure to tweak the game in some way, Factor 5 opted to permeate its fantastic aerial dogfighting engines with laughable on-foot sections that go some length to making Grand Theft Auto’s combat system look truly inspired. As a result, you get a game of two distinct halves: more of that great aerial combat, but with some vehicular stages thrown in for variety and these tepid and unrefined on-foot sections.

Essentially, it’s Shadows Of The Empire meets Rogue Squadron, and it’s certainly not a perfect cocktail. However, it comes with a co-op and multiplayer mode, plus a ménage à trois of Easter eggs in the shape of Atari’s original Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi arcade games.

STAR WARS: EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE RELEASED: 1999 FORMAT: PSONE, PC Even though The Phantom Menace movie faced a stiff lambasting for failing to recapture the whimsical feel of the first three films – due to the decision to try to quantify the Force with midi-chlorians (Jedi-germs) and every scene with that camel-faced Jar Jar Binks in it – when compared to the fugly videogame tie-in, the movie is something of a spectacular wonder. The problem in The Phantom Menace lies with its terrible graphics, which allow you to move blocky sprites of the film’s main players, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon Jinn, around what is essentially a headache-inducing third-person run-‘n’-gun maze game that lets you control in-game conversations.

The game also seemed to have difficulty following the events of the film, simply doing its own thing and adding peculiar events that didn’t actually appear in the movie – the most infamous among fans being the level where Qui-Gon seeks out to find Jabba the Hutt. And while this might sound like you’re getting slightly more bang for your buck here, with a game that’s this lame the last thing you want to occur is some unnecessary milking… especially when the milk looks like it’s been extracted from the hairy and crusty nips of a dead Wookiee.

STAR WARS: JEDI POWER BATTLES RELEASED: 2000 FORMAT: DC, PSONE, GBA To say Star Wars: Jedi Power Battles is one of the better home console games to come out of The Phantom Menace is kind of like saying that being forced to watch an episode of Sex And The City is better than pulling your eyes out with a spoon. Placing you in the roles of various Jedis, including Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Plo Koon and Samuel L Jackson’s Mace, the game can best be described as a simple, hair-brained hack-’n’-smash arcade game that benefits from having a neat targeting system and some pretty snazzy visuals (in fact, we would probably even go as far as to say that some of the best-looking games we’ve seen pumped out of the PSone). Jedi Power Battles is not without its faults, however, as a maddening fixed camera makes the game’s twitchy platform sections quite laborious at times, but for the most part the game’s ten stages do hold momentary pockets of enjoyment, especially if you’re playing it with a mate, a family member or an especially good-looking stranger that you happened across in a bar.

STAR WARS: OBI-WAN RELEASED: 2001 FORMAT: XBOX Bestowed with one of the ugliest-looking Star Wars box arts ever (what can only be described as an out-of-focus snap of Ewan McGregor with gamma poisoning), this once-PC-turned- Xbox exclusive takes Obi-Wan and fleshes out his past over a handful of repetitive levels that predate and eventually reunite with the events of the film. Such new additions include Obi’s encounter with a criminal organisation called the Black Hoth and his infiltration of a Tusken Raider hideout. The game also cheapens his Jedi training by implying that it simply involved him occasionally sparring with other Jedis in a room. The result is a game that feels a little all over the place, not helped by its unkempt visual style and some monotonous gameplay.

The jewel in its crown was its innovative and intuitive Lightsaber controls that allowed you to satisfyingly wield your weapon using the right analogue nub (had the game been released on PC the Lighsaber combat was due to be controlled by the mouse). Parrying laser blasts and slicing droids with organic combos added some light relief to an otherwise bland and limited game.

STAR WARS: SUPER BOMBAD RACING RELEASED: 2001 FORMAT: PS2, WINDOWS, DC Given the childish handling of The Phantom Menace, it was inevitable that LucasArts would eventually steer the series into the kiddie racer genre. Close in feel to Diddy Kong Racing, Super Bombad Racing pits familiar Star Wars faces into one of those ‘kart racers’ that never seem to have any karts in them. What is slightly peculiar about Bombad is that it features characters from both trilogies, so you get to see Anakin, Darth Maul and Obi-Wan racing Darth Vader, Boba Fett and Yoda. Thankfully, Bombad isn’t the shameful pap that it deserves to be. There’s a few issues – the controls can take a while to master and the characters are unbalanced, but the game is blessed with a few impressively vast racetracks.

STAR WARS: BATTLE FOR NABOO RELEASED: 2000 FORMAT: PC, N64 Battle For Naboo is essentially a grounded version of Rogue Squadron (although there are aerial vehicles in the game). It charts the story of Lt Gavin Sykes, a resolute resistance pilot who, after being forced out of his home following an invasion by the Trade Federation on his home of Naboo, works to overthrow them in a series of 15 search and destroy, sabotage, recon and escort missions. Like the film, the game eventually culminates in a final push to try to break the Federation’s grip over the capital Theed. Great mission variety, and a plentiful amount of crafts are spoiled by gradually repetitive gameplay that really begins to wear you down towards the end. A game for Rogue Squadron fans looking for something a little different.

Shadows of the Empire Continuing the LucasArts affinity with Nintendo, both companies would commemorate the launch of the N64 with the most daring Star Wars game to date. Shadows Of The Empire chronicled the Rebellion campaign between the period of The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi, and would effectively shoehorn an entirely new videogame episode into the movies – hence its cinematic-sounding title. Planting the player into the role of the bounty hunter Dash Rendar, your mission began with you entering the Echobase on Hoth as the rebels make their escape. The game is similar in style to Dark Forces, but fuses the occasional race and space battle into the mix. It also charts Dash’s clash with Boba Fett as he tries to rescue Han Solo and retrieve Princess Leia, who’s been captured by a villain called Prince Xizor. Behind those unmistakable N64 visuals – foggy worlds full of crude-looking angular characters – is an enjoyable game marred by camera issues and clumsy controls.

STAR WARS RACER REVENGE RELEASED: 2002 FORMAT: PS2 The races in Star Wars Racer Revenge were as much about trading blows as they were about jostling for position. This time crashing your pod ends the race, and there’s a subtle element of strategy introduced into the racing that comes from the in-race damage repair. Deftly repairing your craft – which you can do by holding the L button – will cause it to heal but at the cost of it losing power (essentially adding pitting to the races). This meant you had to consider wisely the moments you chose to repair as you weighed up the risk of regaining position over whether or not you were likely to see the next corner. Overall, Racer Revenge is a short but ultimately satisfying little racer.

STAR WARS: EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH RELEASED: 2005 FORMAT: PS2, XBOX, DS, GBA, PSP Essentially taking its lead from EA’s Lord Of The Rings games, Revenge Of The Sith is basically a third-person scrolling hack-‘n’-slash game that places you inside the Jedi boots of either Obi-Wan Kenobi or Anakin Skywalker. Boasting your usual Lightsaber laser parry and Force powers, the game’s real selling point is that it has some additional scenes that you wouldn’t have been able to see in the movie, and it even features an unlockable alternative ending (which we won’t spoil for you). While doing nothing that we haven’t seen done a billion times before… and better, Revenge Of The Sith does offer plenty of fan service.

STARFIGHTER SERIES MADE UP OF: STAR WARS: STARFIGHTER (WINDOWS, PS2; 2001) / STAR WARS: STARFIGHTER SPECIAL EDITION (XBOX; 2001) / STAR WARS: JEDI STARFIGHTER (XBOX, PS2; 2002) The Starfighter games are essentially PS2 and Xbox takes on Rogue Squadron. The bottom line is Star Wars: Starfighter Special Edition should have been the version LucasArts rolled out in the first place. It’s frustrating for PS2 owners, but the Xbox’s special edition features more multiplayer modes and some customary tweaks to the visuals. Sitting somewhere between X-Wing’s sense of realism and the arcade feel of Rogue Squadron, the game played out through the eyes of three central characters and charted the Battle of Naboo from inside various ships associated with each pilot. In typical Star Wars fashion, for the sequel, Jedi Starfighter, LucasArts would introduce ground vehicles to the mix, making use of ‘Force powers’ through the ship’s weapons and a co-op mode.

LEGO STAR WARS SERIES MADE UP OF: LEGO STAR WARS (2005) / LEGO STAR WARS II: THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY (2006) / LEGO STAR WARS: THE COMPLETE SAGA (2007) (ALL VARIOUS FORMATS) When you’ve totally exhausted all avenues with a franchise, sucked it dry of every conceivable way you could try to turn, shoehorned or adapted it to a videogame, there’s apparently one last port of call: Lego. With Indiana Jones recently getting a good Danish blocking, and Batman waiting in the wings, it was Star Wars that would pioneer this peculiar gaming phenomenon. Cramming the game with over 50 playable characters (100 or so in the sequel), and adopting a unique and humorous take on Force powers, where you could destruct and manipulate individual Lego bricks. The series kicked off chronologically with Episodes I to III released first and IV to VI the following year. Both games have since been compiled into Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga. Its kiddie-centric nature, lack of any real challenge and frustrating trial-and-error gameplay meant it was a little rough around the edges (and Indy doesn’t make any effort to rectify these issues), but bags of irreverence and humour simply make these must-play games for any Star Wars fan.

KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC SERIES MADE UP OF: STAR WARS: KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC (WINDOWS, XBOX, MAC; 2003) / STAR WARS: KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC II: THE SITH LORDS (WINDOWS, XBOX; 2005) Fleshing out the Star Wars extended universe like no game had done before, RPG stalwarts BioWare would adapt the meticulous attention to detail and epic narrative of PC games Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights into the Star Wars world. Knights Of The Old Republic was a sprawling role-playing game that used a combat system more commonly seen in collectable card games (which Darran can happily chew your ear over for several hours a day). It also actively jotted down your speech and actions, so if you acted dishonourably your appearance would evolve accordingly. For the sequel, The Sith Lords, development duties would be handed over to Obsidian Entertainment at the bequest of BioWare and, set a few years after the original, would simply offer more of the same immersive Star Wars gameplay.

GALAXIES SERIES MADE UP OF: STAR WARS GALAXIES: AN EMPIRE DIVIDED (WINDOWS; 2003) / STAR WARS GALAXIES: JUMP TO LIGHTSPEED (WINDOWS; 2004) / STAR WARS GALAXIES: EPISODE III: RAGE OF THE WOOKIEES (WINDOWS; 2005) / STAR WARS GALAXIES: THE TOTAL EXPERIENCE (WINDOWS; 2005) / STAR WARS GALAXIES: TRIALS OF OBI-WAN (WINDOWS; 2005) / STAR WARS GALAXIES: STARTER KIT (WINDOWS; 2005) / STAR WARS GALAXIES: THE COMPLETE ONLINE ADVENTURE (WINDOWS; 2006) MMORPG series from the makers of EverQuest set inside the Star Wars universe that was predominantly a ground-based RPG. The first expansion pack, the idiotically titled Jump To Lightspeed, would jettison the game into the far reaches of space and the third, Rage Of The Wookiees, would capture the release of Revenge Of The Sith by adding it into the narrative of the new trilogy. Numerous other expansion packs would work to flesh out the universe and provide a comprehensive and realistic Star Wars world for PC owners to potentially while away a few light years with.

BATTLEFRONT SERIES MADE UP OF: STAR WARS: BATTLEFRONT (PS2, WINDOWS, XBOX, MAC; 2004) / STAR WARS: BATTLEFRONT II (PS2, WINDOWS, XBOX, PSP; 2005) / STAR WARS: BATTLEFRONT: RENEGADE SQUADRON (PSP; 2007) Pandemic’s Star Wars take on the Battlefield franchise is one that suits the epic feel of the series well. Giving you the opportunity to engage in some of the most historic battles in the Star Wars universe from the frontline, the game is an absolute beast brimming with excitement and variation. A smorgasbord of ships and Star Wars vehicles littered its vast battlefields, and despite some dubious and repetitivefeeling level designs the game on the whole is pretty good. However, it does suffer from the same issues that plagued the X-Wing Vs. TIE Fighter game, in that it’s essentially polarised around multiplayer gaming, so the single-player experience is a little flat. The sequel simply upped the ante, and as a result is a far better game, feeling a lot more refined and taking the battlefields into space.

LUCAS LEARNING SERIES MADE UP OF: STAR WARS: YODA’S CHALLENGE (WINDOWS; 1999) / STAR WARS: GUNGAN FRONTIER (WINDOWS; 1999) / STAR WARS: DROID WORKS (WINDOWS, MAC; 1998) / STAR WARS: PIT DROIDS (WINDOWS, MAC; 1999) / STAR WARS MATHS: JABBA’S GAME GALAXY (WINDOWS; 2000) / STAR WARS: JAR JAR’S JOURNEY ADVENTURE BOOK (WINDOWS, MAC; 1999) LucasArts would release a number of educational titles that leaned on the Star Wars universe. We haven’t played any of the games so it would be unfair and childish for us to poke fun at them, though they do sound quite novel. With tasks varying from building droids to constructing your own podrace, as far as learning games go, and given that Bombad Racing wasn’t a total waste of a kart game based on the characters from Star Wars, the Lucas Learning Series is probably not all that bad.