What began as a robot-on-robot smackdown over differences of opinion on Star Wars games became an all out rumble – one so epic we couldn’t stand to keep it to ourselves. So we did our best to put into a cohesive roundtable to talk about the relative merits of all games based on Star Wars, call each other names, and generally be asses to each other. You know, like a text-based version of the TV weekly stream on Twitch, last week’s episode of which was what inspired this whole fight after a discussion about their favorite Star Wars games.
And with that, we present. . . What are your five favorite Star Wars games?
Kill-Tacular-Tron: Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2
Senador Kooch:
Shadows of the Empire
Rogue Squadron
Knights of the Old Republic
Force Unleashed
Star Wars Episode I: Racer
Vagabond Prime: Shadows of the Empire was a travesty. Everything about it: Comics, book, game, you name it. In my opinion, of course.
Scarlett Robotica: I liked the Hildebrandt artwork that accompanied Shadows.
Vagabond Prime: That in itself was good. And I liked aspects of Dash Rendar, but what a shitty, lazy name. Dash? Oh, cause he’s fast! And Rendar! Yeah! He’s RENDERED! Oh god, we’re clever! His name should have been San Holo.
Kill-Tacular-Tron: Oh man, I loved shadows. I even have that art book. I read the novel in Jr High and it blew my mind. I think it was my first venture into the EU.
Scarlett Robotica: I have the soundtrack. It’s pretty cool. By Joel McNeely of Young Indy fame
Vagabond Prime: Perspective is a funny thing! I was in my early 20’s, and it was the first time I felt like a cash grab was coming. There was a lot of development stuff that I loved; let’s just say I couldn’t stand the execution. Xizor felt like an also-ran as opposed to someone who could challenge Vader. If Dave Filoni had been in charge, you wouldn’t be hearing a peep in complaint from me. There was a ton of potential that felt kinda rushed. Seriously, if it had been in better hands I would have been cheering!
It was also the first time I was challenged by what “I would have done” vs what was actually done. I had painted a different picture of those events in my mind, and the whole dealio taught me a valuable lesson. If not for Shadows and my nerd-rage over it, and learning to deal with that, I would have probably hated the prequels instead of just letting go and enjoying them.
Scarlett Robotica: I didn’t encounter the “what I would have done” until I read Crystal Star. Then, I decided to write a 50,000 word fanfic where I killed off Anakin Solo long before he died in the books.
Kill-Tacular-Tron: Ah I see. Perspective can change a lot. Shadows of the Empire is still one of the games I’ll pop in when I dust of the N64 every couple years.
Senador Kooch: I’d love to play Shadows again. I wonder if there is a way to play dual stick.
Kill-Tacular-Tron: Pussy. We should stream some vintage replays.
Senador Kooch: The controls for Shadows were terrible.
Citizen-Bot: First, I wanna read that fanfic. Second:
KOTOR 1 (not necessarily 2)
SW:TOR (still loving it)
Super Empire Strikes Back
Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (esp adding the Raven/Soldier of Fortune cheat where you can chop people’s limbs off with your lightsaber)
X-Wing vs TIE Fighter or the TIE Fighter game itself
hon mention: Rogue Squadron, the Star Wars Trilogy arcade game, and the original wireframe Star Wars arcade game (still might be my favorite arcade game)
Scarlett Robotica: The only games I played were the trilogy ones for the Super Nintendo. <—-not a gamer.
Senador Kooch: I played those a bit Kelly, they were awesome weren’t they?
Scarlett Robotica: oh I loved them. Though I wanted to throw my controller at the asteroid field level in SESB
Citizen-Bot: Agreed. And I still could never beat the escape from the Death Star level. (In Super ROTJ– I could never even make it out of the Cantina in Super Star Wars)
Vagabond Prime: Here’s mine:
1: SW:TOR (love!), Rogue Squadron, Battlefront 2 (modded), KoTOR 1 and 2, and I have a soft spot for Rebellion.
Arse-bot: My faves were those old Tie Fighter and X-Wing pilot games on PC.
Kill-Tacular-Tron: Derek and I talked a bit about this yesterday. Those old games were awesome because they were so hard. Kids these days (I know how I sound) are handed tutorials and upgrades so easily.
Mario as a kid was run right and don’t die. Oh did you die? Do it again and do it better. Those old Super games were great for that.
Senador Kooch: They also caused gaming to be very niche. Niche doesn’t do well for mass market. I see both sides. Meh. As long as they are still fun.
Triscut of Doom: Here is the proper list from someone who doesn’t like star wars and rates the games based on technical merit for the time they were released
1) tie fighter pc
2) rebel assault pc
3) rouge leader gcube
4) kotor 1 xbox
5) republic commando Xbox/pc
As a side note this week went really well
Kill-Tacular-Tron: I always wanted to play Republic Commando.
Senador Kooch: Republic Commando! I only played that one for a bit but it had potential. I wish I had gone back and finished it.
Arse-bot: DickBot has a pretty strong list there
Senador Kooch: Now I feel like I should have cashed in on the Steam Star Wars sale.
Triscut of Doom: Summer sale is coming
Senador Kooch: http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/3/4298826/steams-star-wars-weekend-sale-includes-14-games-for-49-99
Most are Windows only so oh well.
Triscut of Doom: Honorable mentions that didn’t make the list go to The old republic for the huge undertaking it was, Lego star wars for tapping into something everyone thought was going to be stupid, and star wars trilogy arcade which could have made the list if they hadn’t only put it on 32x as the home console release.
Kill-Tacular-Tron: This list of domain names is interesting: http://fusible.com/2013/05/lucasfilm-registers-slew-of-domains-for-star-wars-alliance-bothan-spies-order-67-star-wars-rebels-many-more/
Lucasfilm registers slew of domains for Star Wars Alliance, Bothan Spies, Order 67, Star Wars Rebels
Citizen-Bot: many bothans died to bring you that information. Anyway, if those are the games we’re going to get in the future from EA, I’m sold.