Star Wars Game Review

There have been many incursions of star war games based on the star war franchise. It is unarguably one of the largest franchises with more than a hundred games based on the storyline. While some are based on the different star war films, many are fashioned after the star war expanded universe.

Having to review more than 100-star war games will be atypical to waste of time and sheer misappropriation of thoughts.

Star Wars Game has gone through three developmental eras viz the early licensed games, games developed after the creation of the LucasArts, and games created after the closure of the LucasArts.

The storyline of star wars game progression from inception till date is that of a company or an idea developing and learning from earlier mistakes while fine-tuning the fantasy till it becomes the very cynosure of all.

The Early Licensed Game

This time see from 1982 – 1991 as the earliest stage of the Star Wars game. The first game to replicate the franchise came two years after the release of the film is The Empire Strikes Back. In the game, we saw players piloting a snow speeder during the Battle of Hoth to destroy AT-AT walkers.

Then we have The Return of the Jedi: Death Star Battle that saw the player control the Millennium Falcon in a bid to destroy the second Death Star and Jedi Arena. In this game, we see the first successful replication and stimulation of the lightsaber. Later on, the Star Wars arcade game was released with features such as color vector graphics. Also, during this period some notable Star Wars games were released such as Star War: Jedi Arena and numerous Star War Arcade games.

Games Developed After The Creation of LucasArts

This period is in two stages which are the period between 1991 – 1999 and the period between 1999 – 2013.

The Period of 1991 - 1999

From 1991 to 1999, by this time George Lucas began to realize how much he was losing outsourcing the Star Wars franchises to bit players in the gaming industry. So, he decided to incorporate Star Wars into his already existing LucasArts brand. This period is alleged to be the golden age for the Star Wars video game. Super Star Wars was released with a terrain of fight in the galaxy and some various adaptations of the original trilogy of /empire and Return of Jedi.

X-Wing came into being later on with a player sitting behind a throttle of a starfighter buzzing around the deep space. Two other expansions were added to it viz B-Wing, Imperial Pursuit, and TIE Fighter which saw players fighting alongside the Empire in 13 duty tours trying to cut off a coup aiming for the head of Emperor Palpatine.

Star Wars also undergoes many improvements as seen with the introduction of 3D home consoles. Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, Star Wars: Rebellion, Star Wars: Yoda’s Challenge, and lots more.

The Period of 1999 – 2013

During this period, LucasArts was charting an unfamiliar path and as such came up with many mistakes and misses but all in all, the games developed then still in fervor. Star Wars: Episode 1 Racer, Star Wars Episode I: Jedi Power Battles, and Star Wars: Force Commander were developed during this time and are all racing games. Also, many games were developed during this time such as the series Attack on the Clones, Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter, Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds and need to mention Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series.

The Closure of LucasArts

This is from 2014 to date. This period sees the end of LucasArts, after the closure of LucasArts, and was subsequently acquired by Disney. Disney announced an exclusive partnership with Electron Arts for 10 years. With EA, there is a resurrection of Star Wars: Battlefront. This series of Star Wars witnessed story mode and the presence of locales and weapons. Jedi: Fallen Order was released in 2019 with a good single-player narrative. While Star Wars: Squadron was released in 2020 with a tribute to old Star Wars games like X-Wing.