Star Wars computer and video games
Star Wars has spawned over one hundred
computer and video games, which comes of no surprise since the theatrical release of the original trilogy nearly coincided with the advent of
home consoles. While only a few are based on movie material, the remaining games are heavily influenced by the
expanded universe and occasionally linked to the movies.
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The Empire Strikes Back was the first Star Wars game released |
The first games based on the franchise were released on the
Atari 2600, the very first,
The Empire Strikes Back (
1982), the player drove a
snowspeeder during the
Battle of Hoth, destroying
AT-AT walkers. While simplistic, the game captured the essence of the movie as well as technology allowed. Several other games appeared, like
Return of the Jedi: Death Star Battle (1982), where the player controlled the
Millennium Falcon in a mission to destroy the second
Death Star, and
Jedi Arena (1983), the first game to attempt to simulate a
lightsaber battle (in this case, clearly inspired by the
A New Hope scene, where
Luke Skywalker trains with a seeker). More significantly in 1983,
Star Wars the arcade game was released by Atari based on
A New Hope. In this game, featuring magnificent color vector graphics and the first ever digitized speech from a film, the player enters the seat of Luke's Red Five X-Wing fighter and battles waves of TIE fighters led by Darth Vader, weaves through towers across the surface of the Death Star and plummets through the Battle Station's trench in an attempt to destroy it.
Due to the
video game crash of 1983, which temporarily killed the home console market, no further games based on the franchise were released until 1987 when UK software publisher
Domark released several 8-bit versions of the Star Wars vector arcade game, followed by similar conversions in 1988 of The Empire Strikes Back machine.
In
1991, the
platformer Star Wars was released for both the
NES and
Game Boy, and one year later,
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back reused the engine with the plotline of the fifth episode of the saga. It would be still in
1992 that
Super Star Wars was released for the
SNES (the
Super prefix was often used to denote remakes of 8-bit games for the 16-bit "Super" Nintendo system.), followed by the remaining games in the trilogy:
Super Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back (
1993) and
Super Star Wars: Return of Jedi (
1994).
At the start of the
1990s, the
Star Wars franchise began to move away from the official films and began to focus more on the expanded universe. The first,
X-Wing, released in 1992, started the
X-wing computer game series, which would prove itself to be one of the most popular space flight/combat simulators series ever.
X-Wing was followed by several sequels and expansions. Other titles such as
Software Toolworks'
Star Wars Chess were published or licensed by
LucasArts, who also used the first "multimedia explosion" to release
Rebel Assault (1993), which used
FMV and photos extensively.
However, the first step towards modern games was done with
Dark Forces, a
1995 first-person shooter that put the player in the role of
Kyle Katarn. The
1996 Nintendo 64 title
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire was part of a LucasArts attempt to create a story between
The Empire Strikes Back and
Return of Jedi, putting the player in control of mercenary
Dash Rendar.
Shadows of the Empire featured fan-favorite parts from the
Super Star Wars line, such as another reanactment of the Battle of Hoth, driving a snowspeeder and tying a cable around AT-ATs legs. After the Special Edition original trilogy re-release in
1997, LucasArts published two other novelty titles,
Yoda Stories and
Star Wars Monopoly, sequels
Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II and
X-Wing vs TIE Fighter, and a beat'em up Star Wars themed game,
Star Wars: Masters of Teräs Käsi.
As
The Phantom Menace release approached, dozens of licensed titles appeared, from the praised expansion to Jedi Knight,
Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith and the first game in the
Rogue Squadron series and even educational titles, the market was flooded with several games, most of them of questionable quality.
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The Clone Wars was one of many games released based on the prequel trilogy |
After the release of
Episode I in theaters in
1999, an onslaught of games from the prequel trilogy began to be released for most major platforms. The first,
Star Wars: Episode I Racer, based on the
podracing sequence in movie, managed to sell well due to the hype surrounding the return of one of the most popular movie series ever. Others, including
Battle for Naboo and
Jedi Power Battles, were released, but with little success. The first strategic game in the
expanded universe was titled
Star Wars: Rebellion and broke new ground in that it incorporated ships and planets not found in the original canon, such as the Rebel Assult Frigate and the Bulwack Cruiser. But for all its ground-breaking new looks, it was not as successful as would have been hoped. The second strategic title,
Star Wars: Force Commander was also released, but failed to keep up with other
RTS games, since it was more focused on battling (no resource-gathering) and used a primitive 3D engine.
In
2002,
Attack of the Clones premiered in theaters, and another wave of
Star Wars based games, including
The Clone Wars,
Star Wars: Racer Revenge, and
Bounty Hunter were released, this time focusing on events and characters from
Attack of the Clones such as bounty hunter
Jango Fett and the
Clone Wars.
[[Image:Kotorbox.jpg|right|185px|thumb|right|
{{Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic|Knights of the Old Republic}} is one of the most critically acclaimed
Star Wars games, winning top "game of the year" honors in 2003.]]Also in 2002,
Jedi Outcast was released and gave players the first chance to experience advanced lightsaber duels, and it also detached itself from the usual idea of movie tie-ins, however with very limited quality. A third RTS game with a much more conventional approach to the genre's norms and using the
Age of Kings engine,
Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, offered a better alternative to those seeking strategy in the Star Wars universe. One year later, the last game in the
Jedi Knight series,
Jedi Academy, was released, as well as
Knights of the Old Republic, a
BioWare RPG that debuted on the
Microsoft Xbox and PC.
Knights (also known as KotOR among fans) was critically acclaimed, even winning "Game of the Year" at the
Game Developers Choice Awards, (along with
many other critics) in 2003. The first
MMORPG, titled
Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided, was also released in 2003 and was subsequently followed in 2004 by its first expansion
Jump to Lightspeed.
Adjoining the release of the final
Star Wars movie,
Revenge of the Sith,
Star Wars: Battlefront,
Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (both in
2004),
Star Wars: Republic Commando,
Star Wars Battlefront II, and
Lego Star Wars (
2005) were released. Three more games,
Star Wars Galaxies: Episode III: Rage of the Wookiees (a second expansion to
Galaxies), and
Episode III: The video game (action) were also released close to the premiere of the third movie, with various degrees of success.
Empire at War (another RTS), was released on the PC February 16, 2006. A sequel to
Lego Star Wars,
Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, is also in production.
Star Wars 2007 (Working Title) is a concept (which is being produced as a game) from LucasArts, using next-gen technology to let a Jedi really use his powers, for instance, by using Force Push to push dozens of Stormtroopers. More information on this can be found at
this page.
*
List of LucasArts Star Wars games*
Star Warped*
LucasArts*
Star Wars group in MobyGames*
UGO article on the history of SW games*
Star Wars Games*
GAME CHAMBER: Argentine Star Wars Video Games related site (in Spanish)
