Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (1996)

Shadows of the Empire, which was a fully fledged Star Wars marketing cycle minus the movie, is unjustly overlooked nowadays. This would-be Episode 5.5 is absolutely SICK for a number of reasons. It goes deep into the criminal underbelly elements of the original trilogy and features characters like Boba Fett, IG-88 and some freaky green dude named Prince Xizor. Since Han is down for the count in between Empire and Jedi, we get a different renegade gunslinger type named Dash Rendar, a guy so cool he had to be disappeared immediately after the events of Shadows so as not to distract too much from the main event. This game has everything you could want in a Star Wars game in '96: OG trilogy vibes, jet packs, a Hoth stage, a Boba Fett boss battle, space battles, blowing up a Death Star type thing. Yes it's on the N64, so everything looks like garbo by today's standards but man what a time.

I played this game a ton as a kid on N64, but I could never beat it. Each boss was scarier than the last, and I don't think I ever got past that giant dionaga in the sewer level. I'm glad to have finally beaten it. Aside from the first phase of the last level, there's some pretty fun and rewarding gameplay late in the game. It's definitely clunky and doesn't feel like it's designed for a mouse and keyboard. Still, I was impressed at how vast and open some of these levels are, especially once you get the jetpack. It's a pretty short game, only took me a few hours. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for some good old-school Star Wars action.

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire is one of those games that I'm fairly sure holds a warm, fuzzy place in my heart only out of nostalgia and misplaced fondness for the Nintendo 64. One of the better N64 launch titles, SW:SotE is primarily a clunky 3rd person shooter with occasional forays into clunky 3rd person flight simulator or clunky swoop bike racer. You control Dash Rendar, a Han Solo knock-off whose actions were critical to the success of the heroes of the original trilogy, but who never actually showed up in any of the movies, such a pity. Over the course of the game, you get to take down AT-ATs, race over sarlaccs, go toe-to-toe with wampas, and gun down imperial storm troopers by the bowlful. All told, for fans of the Star Wars universe, it's a well thought out jaunt through some of the extended universe, a rarity for Star Wars video games.

Unfortunately, it was also an N64 launch title. The graphics, though impressive back in 1996, are blocky, muddy, choppy, and just plain unplayably dated. The controls are an even bigger obstacle; given the bizarre N64 trident controller to play with, LucasArts made some questionable controller layout choices, especially with regards to those dumb yellow arrow buttons that most N64 titles wisely decided to ignore. All told, I had a fun time with it, but that was a different age and this malformed prototype gem can probably be retired without anyone missing out on very much at all.