Are Star Wars games any good?

[phart010 | 1,705]

I have always skipped Star Wars games. This is because I have always had this impression that Star Wars games are just there to milk the Star Wars fanbase, but they lack any real solid gameplay.

Id like someone to enlighten me. Are there any Star Wars games that are really worth playing if you don’t have a particularly strong connection with the series?

 

[croagunk | 798]

The LEGO Star Wars games are really good. I especially recommend the Complete Saga game. I played it on the Wii. It’s available in lots of other formats, including the Xbox 360 and PS3. Gameplay can vary in difficulty, but is generally easy. Cutscenes are re-enacted with animated LEGO figures, sometimes comically. I love playing through the movies.

As for not having a huge connection, I find LEGO games are still enjoyable without knowing much about the subject matter. I’m not too familiar with some of the other movies they release games for, but still have fun playing.

Edited June 9, 2021 by croagunk

[ifightdragons | 234]

Short answer: Yes.

Medium answer: A lot of them are damn good. Some of them are superb. Most of them are "meh".

Actually helpful answer: Here is a list of some Star Wars games I would consider good, great or even superb. I recommend you check reviews of these out on YouTube:

LEGO Star Wars
Star Wars Episode 1: Racer
Star Wars: Racer Revenge
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (GBA)
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader
Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike
Star Wars: Battlefront
Star Wars: Battlefront II
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords
Star Wars: Republic Commando
Super Star Wars Trilogy (SNES) <-- P.S. these games are way too hard for their own good, but still a really cool experience if you have the grit to get through them.

None of these require a strong connection to the series. A select few of them will be much better if you enjoy the universe, namely the KOTOR games and the SNES trilogy. But KOTOR is still fantastic, nonetheless.

Edited July 31, 2021 by ifightdragons
Typo

[RH | 4,895]

Let me list the games I'm aware of that are "good" or better that I've played. Semi-chronological order of their release.

• Super Star Wars
• Super Empire Strikes Back
• Super Return of the Jedi (My favorite of the trilogy)
• Dark Forces (Doom clone, but it's one of the best in that genre)
• X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter (For it's time, an amazing space flight sim)
• Star Wars (Game Gear) (One of my favorite Game Gear games.  Tough as nails, but still quite fun.)
• Shadows of the Empire (Possibly my favorite SW game of all time.)
• Rogue Squadron (Stage 1 of Shadows of the Empire is so good, they made a whole game based off of it.)
• Rogue Squadron 2 (The same, but now on the Gamecube.)
• Episode 1 Pod Racer (An actually pretty solid, fast racing game.)
• Knights of the Old Republic (A hack-and-slash FPS RPG. I enjoyed it)
• LEGO Star Wars: The Original Trilogy (If you like the LEGO games, you'll love this.  However, I do feel when you've played one, you've played them all.  This was my first LEGO game, though, and I loved it.)

I'd add Rebel Assault II which is mostly an FMV game, but I might be biased to that one.  All of the above games are pretty solid games.  Skipping these is like saying "I never played GoldenEye because I thought it was just cashing in on the Bond franchise".  Sure, I get it.  Slapping a movie license on a game does get the attention of fans, but that doesn't mean gaming studios didn't take the time to make really solid games.  Lucas Arts also made a lot of non-IP branded games from movies and they were considered classics in the 90s.  So, seeing Star Wars slapped on a game from that era was more like a bonus than a sign that some studio was phoning in on a cash grab.

And there are other, really good Star Wars games.  I've just never played them.

Edited June 9, 2021 by RH

[Rocketship Evan | 55]

I will second Dark Forces. Very well done and my favorite of the Doom style games. The sound always really stuck out to me compared to other Star Wars games for some reason.

[TDIRunner | 2,727]

Even though it's already been mentioned, I will still say that Dark Forces is an amazing game.  The fact that it uses it's own storyline along with original characters is a big part of why it's the opposite of "milking the Star Wars fanbase."  Amazing gameplay, fantastic level design, awesome story, and kickass music all hold up well today.  It's one of my favorite games of all time

[WhyNotZoidberg | 585]

Sure. Most SW game I played were good.

Super Star Wars / Empire Strikes Back / Return of the Jedi on SNES are good action platformer that follow the story of the original trilogy quite well

Shadow of the Empire has aged terribly but it was really cool when it came out

The Tie-Fighter games on PC from the old days were great shooters/sims

Episode 1 Pod Racer is an absolute classic

Knights of the Old Republic 1&2 are awesome

The Force Unleashed 1&2 are very competent games that are like most 3rd person action game from the PS3/X360 era.

Rebel Assault on Sega CD and 3DO was...uh, yeah...a "decent" FMV shooter and it had great old school Star Wars music. I mean, I like it on 3DO.

LEGO Star Wars The Complete Saga is as good as any LEGO games, if not better because it's Star Wars.

Now hear me out: Episode III Revenge of the Sith on DS, and I think the GBA version is the same, is a very solid title mixing sidecrolling beat 'em up with "mode 7 like" shooting sequences

Star Wars the Arcade Game

Star Wars Rogue Squadron on N64 was good. Its GameCube sequels Rogue Leader and Rebel Strike were also good games.

Star Wars Battlefront 1&2 on PS2/XBOX are very good shooters.

With the prequels and their spinoff series came a slew of GBA/PS2 shovelware, but for the most part Star Wars game are good.

Edited June 9, 2021 by WhyNotZoidberg

[phart010 | 1,705]

13 minutes ago, TDIRunner said:

Even though it's already been mentioned, I will still say that Dark Forces is an amazing game.  The fact that it uses it's own storyline along with original characters is a big part of why it's the opposite of "milking the Star Wars fanbase."  Amazing gameplay, fantastic level design, awesome story, and kickass music all hold up well today.  It's one of my favorite games of all time

Cool. I just googled Dark Forces. It appears to be the prequel of Jedi Knight. Jedi Knight on PC is actually the only Star Wars game that I really played back in the day. It Was a fun game but I mostly played online deathmatches.
 

i don’t really play pc games anymore, so I guess I’ll check it out on PS1

[MegaMan52 | 2,441]

I recommend these two games: 

Rebel Strike sounds amazing in 7.1 Dolby Pro Logic IIx, and even Rogue Leader has regular 5.1 Pro Logic II despite being a launch title.

Of course, Super Star Wars and Shadows of the Empire are pretty good as well.

Edited June 9, 2021 by MegaMan52

[mbd39 | 2,017]

The original Star Wars arcade game from the early 80s is incredible for the time and has a really cool cabinet.

The NES Star Wars games are supposed to be not so good. Maybe they're okay. I've never played them.

SNES Star Wars games are good but quite hard. Modern gamers might lose patience with them right away.

Anyone remember Rebel Assault the CD-ROM FMV game? It was kind of neat at the time, probably hasn't aged well.

Dark Forces frustrated me. You could only save between missions.

I haven't played any of the more modern SW games but it looks like there are a lot of good ones.

 

 

[RH | 4,895]

4 minutes ago, WhyNotZoidberg said:

Shadow of the Empire has aged terribly but it was really cool when it came out

I don't think SW:SotE has aged poorly.  I mean, if you're in the camp that thinks the N64 hasn't aged well and therefore sucks, then yes, you are correct.  But as an N64 titles, I still think it holds up well.

And if you are into PC games (I know @phart010 you just said you weren't) there is also a PC port which is probably easier to control and is a better experience, though I've not played it and can vouch for that.

[Tanooki | 4,930]

Mixed bag you're right and wrong.  It depends on who did the work, platform almost too which is strange.  A good many of the 8bit ones are borderline trash, an acquired taste even would be a nice comment.

But if you get into some genres like the flight combat (TIE, XW, Rebel Assault series) they're excellent.  The third person experience/adventure RPG stuff like Knights of the Old Republic are also excellent as are the first/third person shooters too like the Dark Forces titles, Shadows of the Empire, Republic Commandos.  Also the one good racer is the Pod Racer game, so so well done.

The others around it, not so much, filler for a genre.  Typically the platformer side scroller ones range from terrible to average.

[WhyNotZoidberg | 585]

9 minutes ago, mbd39 said:

Anyone remember Rebel Assault the CD-ROM FMV game? It was kind of neat at the time, probably hasn't aged well.

I do! I mentionned it as Sega CD/3DO but it did come out for DOS/Windows you're right. I find it's an okay game, but of course the compression rate of the video makes everything look like it was animated in MS Paint.

8 minutes ago, RH said:

I don't think SW:SotE has aged poorly.  I mean, if you're in the camp that thinks the N64 hasn't aged well and therefore sucks, then yes, you are correct.  But as an N64 titles, I still think it holds up well.

I played a ton of N64 in my life time and this includes Shadows of the Empire. I 100%'d that game more than once. 

I agree that some N64 games haven't aged well but in this case it's more that the genre of 3rd person action shooters has evolved to much better stuff, think Resident Evil 4 for example.

[TDIRunner | 2,727]

50 minutes ago, phart010 said:

Cool. I just googled Dark Forces. It appears to be the prequel of Jedi Knight. Jedi Knight on PC is actually the only Star Wars game that I really played back in the day. It Was a fun game but I mostly played online deathmatches.
 

i don’t really play pc games anymore, so I guess I’ll check it out on PS1

While I consider the PS1 to be my favorite system of all time, I still recommend playing Dark Forces on PC before you play the PS1 version.  You might need DOSBox, but it should play just fine.  

[Reed Rothchild | 9,510]

KoToR if you like Bioware games ala Mass Effect.

Rogue Squadron and Rogue Leader are great.

TIE Fighter was once rated the greatest PC game of all time by PC Gamer.

Ditto for Jedi Knight.

Force Unleashed was fun.  FU2 was okay.

The SNES trilogy is merely okay.  Take out the license and fan service and you have 3 very troubled games.

[MiamiSlice | 3,089]

Most Star Wars games are good. It's a surprisingly consistent franchise. To call out a few: 

Star Wars Battlefront 2 on PS2 is one of the greatest games ever made. If you can play multiplayer it is an experience. Even playing skirmishes against AI players is fun. 

Star Wars Rogue Squadron series on N64 and GameCube is pretty much perfect. 

LEGO Star Wars series is the best of the LEGO tie-in adventure games. 

Star Wars Pinball on Switch is excellent for any virtual pinball fans. 

[MiamiSlice | 3,089]

Also forgot to mention, the original Star Wars arcade game from 1983 was a mega hit, I'm still impressed by it. 

[TDIRunner | 2,727]

Without sitting down and going over each individual game, I'm still willing to wager that there are more good Star Wars game out there compared to bad.  

[Webhead123 | 675]

There are lots of great Star Wars games across the decades. Unfortunately, there are also many, many garbage Star Wars games. I haven't played anywhere near all of them but here are the stand-out experiences for me:

Super Star Wars Trilogy (SNES) - Yes, these games are pretty tough, especially for newcomers but they are so incredibly well-made, with lots of charm, excitement, variety and solid graphics, music and controls. I've played them so much that I can mostly breeze through them today (ESB is probably the longest and most challenging) and yet I still find myself regularly replaying them because they were kind of the pinnacle of Star Wars action games of the time.

Dark Forces/Dark Forces II/Jedi Knight II (PC) - Dated today, for sure, but again, they were kind of defining games for Star Wars action at the time. Incredibly satisfying controls and level design. Great, story-driven action. Just wonderful Star Wars fan-service.

Episode I: Racer (PC/N64) - A surprisingly fun racing game. Once you've learned the game's tricks, you can pretty easily cheese the system and crank out a monster vehicle...but it's still a fun game.

TIE Fighter (PC) - Flight sims aren't for everyone (and even I can only take so much of them) but if you let yourself get immersed in it, there's nothing quite like the experience of TIE Fighter. It demands some practice and memorization to get good at the game but your reward is an incredibly memorable campaign that feels like it gives the player an immense amount of control over how *you* want to play the game.

Rogue Squadron I/II/III (PC/N64/GC) - If you like flying Star Wars ships but don't want to bother with all the simulation fuss of TIE Fighter, the Rogue Squadron games are fantastic. Tons of missions, ships and secrets to unlock. Action-packed, accessible.

Star Wars: Squadrons (PC/PS4/XB1) - A half-step between the more arcade-y complexity of Rogue Squadron and the more robust depth of TIE Fighter. It has a short single-player campaign but the real intent of the game is the online multiplayer modes. I don't know if/how much longer the game will have a player base but I will say this...I am incredibly happy that I got to experience the game at launch and during the peak of it's player base. As a guy who loves the idea of getting to pilot X-Wings and TIE fighters in battle, this game really delivered something fun and challenging while it lasted.

Edited June 9, 2021 by Webhead123

[Webhead123 | 675]

44 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Force Unleashed was fun.  FU2 was okay.

Yeah, I forgot to mention these but I actually quite enjoyed the first Force Unleashed and completed it multiple times. The sequel started off promising but quickly revealed itself to be (ironically enough) an uninspired clone of it's predecessor with all the baggage and none of the charm. All the changes from the original were for the worse and all the jank was left intact.

Force Unleashed = B+
Force Unleashed 2 = C-

[cj_robot | 540]

Every game I can think of has already been listed, but I will add that the Star Wars games really do an amazing job of truly expanding the universe (moreso than any other franchises I can think of), as opposed to just being video game versions of each of the movies.

That being said, you would definitely get more enjoyment out of the games if you were a fan of the lore, but there is still certainly plenty of solid gameplay to be found. A lot of variety as well.

Edited June 9, 2021 by cj_robot

[JamesRobot | 5,786]

I always liked the Atari games.  Some of my favorites. In particular Jedi Arena paddle game.

 

Star Wars Arcade 2600

 

Empire Strikes Back

[elprincipe | 142]

Definitely X-Wing and its sequel TIE Fighter on the PC. Rogue Squadron II on GameCube is more arcadey but amazingly good. Those are the cream of the crop for me, definitely all among the greatest games ever made. Empire Strikes Back on the Atari VCS is a really great game if you are OK with Atari-type gameplay.

[Tanooki | 4,930]

5 hours ago, TDIRunner said:

While I consider the PS1 to be my favorite system of all time, I still recommend playing Dark Forces on PC before you play the PS1 version.  You might need DOSBox, but it should play just fine.  

I've tried the PS1 version, it sucks.

I have the PC version originally when it popped up on GoG some years ago, it works perfect.  THen about a year ago I came across a complete in box copy, it works perfect too using standard settings (which I run through the D-Fend Reloaded GUI.)  So there's no issue running the game correctly as intended.

[Hammerfestus | 3,824]

Im not a big Star Wars guy.  I don’t think I’ve seen all the movies.

 I liked the SNES ones.  I thought the N64 one with the snowspeeder bit was cool.  Battlefront 2 on ps4 is my current mindless time game where sometimes I get to be Luke Skywalker.