Saturday, May 4, 2024

May the 4th Be With You - A Star Wars Videogame ranking

I've been a Star Wars fan since I can remember. 

My parents taped Return of the Jedi off of network TV around 1990, and I wore the tape out.

I rented a New Hope from the library. By the time I saw Empire, I was already buying books with schematics of the ships and Timothy Zahn books.

I play almost every Star Wars game that comes out, so over 40 years, I've played a lot of games. 

I feel like I'm missing something from this list, but I can't figure out what it is, so with that caveat here's my definitive list



27. Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace (PS1): I was super hyped, listening to Dual of the Fates constantly. This game was advertised everywhere forever. I could not wait to be Obiwan in a new adventure. And then it came out and looked and played like absolute crap. 

26. Star Wars: Rebel Assault (DOS): Very difficult. They hadn't quite gotten the FMV gameplay down yet. Contols felt really mushy. 

25. Super Star Wars (SNES): I played Super Empire first and I didn't like it. So playing the less exciting movie version of that was not something I was into. 

24. Super Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back (SNES): One of the most frustratingly hard games I've ever played. 

23. Star Wars: Rebel Assault 2 (DOS): This was like playing a movie. It was the first time I played a game where FMV was extensively used. The Millennium Falcon level can kick rocks though. 

22. Masters of Teras Kasi (PS1): What a shit show of a game. I played it a ton though. I had all the secret characters, knew everyone's special moves, and beat the game with every one. 

21. Star Wars: Episode 1 Jedi Power Battles (PS1): This game felt fast when so many Star Wars games felt slow. It was awesome to be able to play co-op slashing through hundreds of droids. 

20. Star Wars Battlefront (PS4): I don't have time as an adult to get good at online only games. I desperately wanted to have time to get good at this one, but alas, I was just there to get murdered.

19. The Force Unleashed (PS3): The game was a bit boring after you used the force powers a few dozen times, but it's still a nice drop in game, play for 30 minutes, cut down a bunch of stormtroopers, turn game off. 

18. Star Wars Trilogy Arcade (Arcade): This was the last game I remember being a big deal when it showed up at the local arcade. There was actually a line to play it. And when you sit in the cockpit and do the Death Star trench run, you quickly grab more coins to keep playing.

17. Star Wars Episode 1: Racer (N64): Now this is podracing! The rare times where we got bored of Goldeneye and WCW/NWO, we would pop in racer and slam Mountain Dew while we sped across the map. 

16. Star Wars: Battlefront 2 (PS4): The graphics in Battlefront 2 were astounding. The blasters exploding on surfaces look incredible. It's one of those small things that other Star Wars games lack that make it seem so much more real. The maps were well designed. The weapons felt great. 

15. Star Wars Shadows of the Empire (N64): I didn't necessarily want an N64, but when I was handed that cursed controller and got to fly the Hoth battle for the first time, I wanted an N64.

14. Star Wars Bounty Hunter (Gamecube): Bounty Hunter was a pretty good concept that was too early to properly do. Today, the maps feel so empty. We're supposed to be in these lived in places, cashing down the enemies, but it's just empty of life. We all want to be Boba Fett, not Jango. 

13. Star Wars Squadrons (PSVR): I was sitting in a cockpit of an X-wing. I could look around, see all the buttons, see everyone in the hanger moving equipment around. I could see other parked vehicles. Yes, it was a little blurry around the edges of the screen, but it was also blurry because I was crying a little bit. 

12. Star Wars: Jedi Outcast (PC): I don't have much to say about Jedi Outcast. It's great. 

11. Star Wars: Battlefront (PS2): I didn't even know this game was coming out. I was at Wal Mart at midnight to pick up the Star Wars DVDs and saw Battlefront and sort of  shrugged and impulse bought it. I didn't understand what the game was. It sat for months, where I'd pick it up, trying to get into it, and just not understand the loop. And then it hit. It hit hard. My roommate and I would spend hours a week just playing each other. 

10. Star Wars: Dark Forces (PC): Dark Forces was showing it's age a little by the time it came out, but I wasn't wise to it. I couldn't afford many games, so Doom was still the peak of FPS. Dark Forces felt like a dream. Having "3D" firefights with stormtroopers felt like magic. 

9. Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (PC): This was one of the last games I remember my dad bringing home and installing on our shared home computer. This was also the last game I used a joystick for. And then when Episode 1 came out, this became the first game I downloaded a mod for a game. Still an excellent time. 

8. Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 (PC): I didn't get to play this until much later. My PC couldn't run it. It wasn't until Call of Duty was the blueprint for all first person shooters that I went back to Dark Forces 2 and it was weirdly quaint. I've now bought it three different times and enjoy it every time I boot it up.

7. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 (PC): I know a lot of people have issues with KOTOR2. We all know it was rushed and a bunch of content was cut, but this game is still fun as hell. Took all the best things from KOTOR1, and told a new story of amnesia. 

6. Star Wars: Battlefront 2 (PS2): This and MarioKart Double Dash were the two constant games I played with my college roommates. We wore out the PS2 controllers we were playing this so much. We'd spend hours completing a galactic battlegrounds mode. 

5. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (PS4): I love the Souls games, but sometime I'd like that gameplay without the difficulty. That's where Fallen Order comes in, a Souls style Star Wars adventure game with well thought out maps.

4. Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds (PC): I had two obsessions around this time, Age of Empires 2 and Star Wars. When they made a Star Wars game in the AGE2 engine, it was the greatest combination of fandom anyone could've accomplished. I played this non-stop until I went to college. 


3. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (PC):
Like everyone, I fell in love with KOTOR. It was so different. So large. When I was homesick in Japan, playing this on my phone saved me. It's a little rough nowadays, but still a blast. 

2. Star Wars: Tie Fighter (DOS): Before this, it didn't occur to me that there could be games that didn't just follow the original trilogy. It also never occurred to me that you would ever play as the Empire. Great story of intrigue and double crosses.

1. Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 2 Rogue Leader (GameCube): To this day, Rogue Squadron is the best it's ever felt to fly the classic Star Wars crafts. The missions are challenging and showy. You feel like a hero. I never played the third one, but dammit, let's get a 4th one.

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