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The Force has long been with fans of the Star Wars movies. To celebrate the launch of the series’ second massively multiplayer online game, we’re recapping the top ten titles that had the biggest impact on the Star Wars genre at large. And, no, you don’t have to let the Wookiee win in these if you don’t want to.
Many who have come before us have dubbed Star Wars: TIE Fighter – the space sim that puts you right in the cockpit for everyone’s favorite Galactic Empire – as one of the greatest Star Wars games in existence, if not one of the greatest games of all time. Why’s that? It’s simultaneously challenging and geektastic to fly alongside star destroyers (and even Darth Vader himself) in a variety of the Empire’s best and worst ships, set to a soundtrack that shifts based on combat actions. Toss in a great plot, a host of secret bonus goals, and the sheer joy of chasing down Y-Wings in a TIE Defender, and you have one of the defining games of the Star Wars franchise. Can has brand-new sequel?
While Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter lacked a definitive storyline until the game’s expansion pack, Balance of Power, the original title introduced the big feature that fans had been anticipating since their first joyride in a TIE Fighter: multiplayer. No longer were you constrained to blowing up legions of the Empire’s (or Alliance’s) dumbest computer-controlled pilots. You could now exact your revenge on your friends via customized space deathmatches or objective-driven missions. And we also love that this was the first of the Star Wars space sims to introduce a destroyable Super Star Destroyer. Those things must cost a fortune.
Don’t judge this game based on modern-day standards. Time travel back to November of 1993, a time when owning an optical drive (let alone a game designed for its use) was much more of a rare occurrence than it is now. Star Wars: Rebel Assault was LucasArts’ first such title, and it allowed a player to perform a crude, movie-enhanced run through of most of the major events of Star Wars: A New Hope – complete with a canon-breaking save of Luke Skywalker right before he blew that thing and went home.
This one’s a toughie. We give massive historical points to Star Wars: Dark Forces, the very beginning of the Star Wars first-person-shooter landscape. However, it wasn’t until the game’s sequel, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, that players were finally given the option to swing a lightsaber around and ruin the careers of many of the Empire’s finest stormtroopers. The game also included the addition of Force powers, which left plenty of geeks cackling with glee as they Force-choked everything they could get their hands on.
A quasi-customizable plot line? First person combat? New Force powers? Double-bladed lightsabers? Crazy multiplayer, saber-swinging slugfests? If Dark Forces invented the Star Wars FPS genre, then Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy was the grand finale. Although the AI in the game was weak even for a Star Wars title – poor stormtroopers – the lightsaber combat (split across three different “stances” for single-blade fighters) did a great job of breaking the hack-and-slash stereotypes of previous titles.
Star Wars Galaxies had a tumultuous existence, including its great gameplay shift from “Jedi are rare and sacred” to “Everyone’s a Jedi!” – otherwise known as the “New Game Enhancement” update. But we’ll give the game credit in its attempt to throw everything and the kitchen sink into the first massively multiplayer Star Wars universe. You could be a dancer; You could be a space pilot; You could hang out with Admiral Ackbar. Heck, you could even create and manage your own city, or even play a Star Wars-themed card game within the MMO itself.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was BioWare’s first big RPG title that had no connection whatsoever to the Dungeons and Dragons universe. And, to gamers’ delight, the company knocked this one out of the park. To say the story is simply “epic” would be doing it a disservice, but to say anything more would spoil a series of twists that you owe it to yourself to experience. Whether you run light side or dark side in this sprawling title, you at least owe it to yourself to enjoy every single word that your companion droid, HK-47, has to say. Meatbag.
You got your Battlefield in my Star Wars -- specifically, Star Wars: Battlefront II, an action-packed title that delivered heavy on the “multiplayer war” angle by supporting up to 64 concurrent players in a single map. But the gameplay was similar in both multiplayer and Battlefront II’s single-player campaign: You picked from one of four classes to wage war in objective (or deathmatch-based) battlegrounds. The better you did, the closer you got to unlocking two special “hero” classes to play as – typically of the lightsaber-swinging variety, we note. Space combat and a Risk-like “Galactic Conquest” mode made this shooter just that much sweeter.
It’s cute, okay? But more than that, the Lego Star Wars titles – and Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, particularly – are chock-full of little geeky head-nods and plenty of fun unlockables for Star Wars aficionados of all ages. Ever wonder what would happen if, say, the Emperor himself was chasing Jawas through the Tatooine deserts? With more than 50 playable characters to choose from across the game’s many levels, Lego Star Wars II delivered hours of simple fun (and thousands of destroyed Lego blocks).
Many Star Wars-themed real-time strategy games have come, and many have fallen (Rebellion, anyone?) But Star Wars: Empire at War was perhaps the least-flawed of them all. The galaxy-spanning Galactic Conquest mode was fun without being needlessly complex, allowing you to play through scenarios like “Destroy the Death Star” via both ground- and space-based combat. We confess; blowing up AT-AT Walkers or Republic landspeeders wasn’t nearly as fun as using Interdictor cruisers and Star Destroyers to spring epic traps on your enemies.
Comments are closed on this article
pcbuilder8556
January 29, 2012 at 3:56am
both of the battle front games were awesome!! and i hear BF3 is in the making or at least is trying to be made but i guess they are having licensing issues... maybe that is article worthy
Supall
January 12, 2012 at 7:35am
The ground battles of Empire at War were, "Meh", probably because I kept getting destroyed by the Rebels on that front. But the Space battles made me giddy for hours. Setting up 2 huge fleets to duke it out? Hells yeah!
mysterymantis
January 11, 2012 at 12:46pm
Nice to see SWG on this list. I know people have a lot of negative things to say about the game, but it is a game I thoroughly enjoyed for the 7 or so years I played it. I was a pilot and a crafter, which in my opinion were the two best parts of that game (also 2 of the least explored parts). There likely will never be another MMO with those two elements at the level they were at for SWG.
avenger48
January 11, 2012 at 9:15am
i actually think Battlefront 1 was better than 2. BF2's battles were smaller, with less on the map, and they balanced it, which made it less fun. Sure, BF1 lacked space battles and jedis, but it really was a better fps.
Also, they need to make BF3 and Empire at War 2.
h e x e n
January 11, 2012 at 5:53am
If Lucas licensed a remake of the Tie Fighter game, using todays technology, I would totally forgive him for Star Wars 1, 2 and 3.
I have been wating for that game to come out on steam since I got Dark Forces. I absolutely LOVED Tie Fighter. I played it until my fingers were numb and I had to wear gloves to keep my hands warm.
TheMurph
January 11, 2012 at 12:32pm
I'd forgive him for Star Wars 2 and 3, at least.
One would require Lucas to release an updated TIE Fighter *and* a kind of augmented reality-delivering TIE Fighter helmet add-on. That, or allow you to pilot the Executor.
firefox91
January 10, 2012 at 8:44pm
Lucasarts so needs to bring back the X-Wing series. How bad ass could it be with modern graphics to support it. I would buy this in a heartbeat... even for FULL PRICE!
seinjunkie
January 10, 2012 at 8:29pm
It makes me sad to not see Rogue Squadron on this list. I played the crap out of that game.
But then, I'd be ashamed to admit that I played the crap out of Ep 1 Pod Racer, too. :/ The gameplay felt something like Wipeout, and was therefore "fun."
TheMurph
January 11, 2012 at 12:33pm
"It makes me sad to not see Rogue Squadron on this list. I played the crap out of that game."
Spoiler: I did too. :D
flash739
January 10, 2012 at 8:21pm
How about the original vector graphics Star Wars Arcade game? I think that showed people what kind of legs Star Wars has in the video game genre.
syderwarp
January 10, 2012 at 7:12pm
Rebellion, and the other RTS were great games for the time! Star Wars Empire at War is a great series! Your magazine need better editors of these games. I would rate them much higher in RTS series!!
TheMurph
January 10, 2012 at 8:05pm
Rebellion? Really? That game was ungodly complicated for what it was trying to deliver. But even if we can agree to disagree on that one, I would hope that we can both be on the same page for this one: The space combat looked and played like ass. Absolute ass.
syderwarp
January 10, 2012 at 10:29pm
Complicated it was point click?! I ask what were you playing that was so good in 98 then that beats it on PC/RTS? So give a good Star Wars Space RTS prior to 98 then that was better. Graphics soso. But giant map,story,kool ships, detailed stats of Star Wars Officers,heros,etc. It was good until better stuff came in 00's.
TheMurph
January 11, 2012 at 12:36pm
I'm not talking about a complicated input. The game itself was exceedingly complex and damn near impossible to manage if you were playing a lots-o-planets galaxy. The interface was quite lacking.
p47riot
January 11, 2012 at 9:29am
@Spyder: A little game called Starcraft came out in 98...I dunno, maybe you heard about it? A few million Koreans are still playing it today.
Corfy
January 10, 2012 at 6:43pm
I had the whole X-Wing series of games (X-Wing, TIE Fighter, X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter and X-Wing Alliance). I actually think my favorite was X-Wing Alliance. It had the most ships available (like the Millenium Falcon itself). Still, the fact that half of the X-Wing series made it to the top 10 is impressive.
The only other game I played that isn't on your list (well, not counting Dark Forces, which seems to be an honorable mention) is Star Wars Episode I: Racer. I rather enjoyed becoming a pod racer. Although the opening course was supposedly the same as the one from the movie, even though it had almost no resemblence, the rest of the courses were fun to tackle. Is it worthy enough of being a top 10 Star Wars game? It is in my book, but I understand it wasn't for everyone.
Ghok
January 10, 2012 at 8:00pm
X-Wing Alliance was really good. It is probably the last Star Wars game I've actually bought and finished (well, I guess besides the KOTOR games, which I thought were good, but not too special). I seem to remember it had a pretty damn good story too.
Lucasarts has to know just how much the X-Wing series is loved. It'll be revisited again... but I doubt it'll be a PC exclusive title, which'll likely kill it.
TheMurph
January 10, 2012 at 8:07pm
I really enjoyed Alliance as well. In fact, one of the only reasons I didn't put it on the list was because I didn't want to just jam this one up with space games, and credit should be given to the games with more memorable "firsts." For example, first to fly as a bad guy, or first multiplayer.
tornato7
January 10, 2012 at 6:39pm
Star Wars videogames always seem to be exceptonally good. SWKOTOR is my favorite game of all time, and I still play SWBF2 every week.
jaxsteven
January 10, 2012 at 5:30pm
Rebel Assault was terrible, particularly the mission where you flew the Falcon through an insanely difficult area of pipes (Might have been the Death Star).
TheMurph
January 10, 2012 at 8:10pm
Remember the time period! If I recall correctly, this was one of the earlier big-name CD-ROM titles one *could* purchase, let alone LucasArts' first. Plus, a star wars game with realstic movies in it? Big deal!
hammeredtoast
January 10, 2012 at 4:50pm
I really think that Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast was heads and tales better than the original Jedi Academy. But both were radical, in my opinion.
Republic Commando was amazing at the time, and I have no idea why there hasn't been a sequel, or another SW FPS release since, either playing as the Republic, Empire, Seperatists, or whatever else.
And you kids spelled "Wookiee" wrong in the first paragraph. Two E's.
I threw that in just to be THAT GUY.
Sorry...
Ogrepuppy
January 10, 2012 at 10:29pm
You're going to be so pedantic as to criticise the spelling of "Wookiee" but you don't know that the expression is heads and TAILS...?!?
Really?!?
ಠ_ಠ
kiaghi7
January 10, 2012 at 6:34pm
I totally agree, Republic Commando is the unloved step-child of Star Wars games it seems...
And while it is despised by many, I actually quite liked Star Wars Rebellion... It had plenty of flaws, no doubt about that, but if a re-make were talked about where they fixed the clumsy bits, it would be perfect!
It was like Empire at War but with a more strategic feel than a tactical feel.
