Editorial | Star Wars games you should play.

By Sam Coles:

Ah May The 4^th a day that fans of the Star Wars franchise took full advantage of with their play on words, a funny pun but it shows how much passion within the community there is. Star Wars since its beginning in 1977 exploded into a phenomenon, with several films up to 2019 and of course in the subject of this article, video games. There have been many video games based on the series, from the Atari 2600 to the questionable games from EA (not counting Fallen Order). I just want to recommend some games from the past couple decades. Oh these are in no particular order, and remember if I don’t recommend a game that probably means I haven’t played it.

Rogue Squadron:

With the popularity of flight simulators as well as arcade dog fighting games such as Star Fox, you would think there would be a Star Wars game within the same vein. And you would be correct, but this wasn’t the first as X-Wing and Tie Fighter came out a few years prior, however Rogue Squadron on the N64 was the more notable.  It took all the popular set pieces with the air and space battles from the first three films and put them into video games form, from the Battle of Hoth to the battle Tie Fighters in an asteroid field. It is truly and excellent game, plus I remember my mind being blown with the teaser for the Phantom Menace with the Naboo Starfighter being a secret unlock via cheats.

Star Wars Bounty Hunter:

Now the prequels often get a lot of flak and for good reason, as the writing can come across of what a 10 year old thinks what romance and anger is but they had interesting worlds and characters but the execution can be like me trying to pour coffee in the morning, spotty at best. What we did get was a bit more background on Boba Fett in the form of Jango, which he got his own game and wouldn’t you know it was amazing. Released on the GameCube and PlayStation 2 (sorry Xbox) in 2002, it was an open ended third person action game. So far so standard, but what is amazing is that you get to utilise Jango’s full arsenal of weapons and gadgets to takedown enemies. From his wrist mounted flame throwers, jetpack, duel blasters and my favourite the wrist firing lasso which stops enemies in their path. If you are looking for a good representation of being a bounty hunter in the Star Wars universe, then you can’t go wrong with this title. Plus if you have a PS4 you can play it via the PS Store.

The Force Unleashed:

Now here is a game that is often forgotten, which I think mostly stems from the year it was released back in 2008. The game is set in between the events of Episode III and IV, where you play as Star Killer a secret apprentice of Darth Vader where you are hunting the last of the Jedi. What transpires is a tale of realisation, as Star Killer has a revelation that the Jedi aren’t as evil as the empire portrays them to be (shocker) and betrays Vader and joins the rebellion. In terms of gameplay and I know this is a very by the numbers thing for a video game critic to say, but it makes you feel like a Jedi where you can use the force to manipulate physics in the environments. Which can lead for some great moments, or knee slapping scenarios when the physics have a bit of wobble as you have to bear in mind this was 2008 and games were still a bit clunky. Anyway a great game, highly recommend it and it is backwards compatible on Xbox One if you have a 360 copy.

Jedi Fallen Order:

Finally we come to the most recent Star Wars game Jedi: Fallen Order, made by Respawn Entertainment something I wasn’t expecting from a collective of ex Call of Duty developers. Anyway Jedi Fallen Order is a superb game, where takes inspiration with its gameplay from Dark Souls, where the combat is more methodical as oppose to the more over the top nature that we are used to. Enemies require timing, whether it is attacks, blocking and dodging but without the ball busting difficulty that From Software’s Souls series is notorious for. Anyway it is a mixture of Dark Souls combat, Metroid Prime exploration and Uncharted style platforming that forms this cocktail in video game form for an extremely entertaining experience.

Those are few Star Wars game I recommend for you to dig your teeth into, Happy Star Wars day everybody and May The Force Be with you!