Star Wars video games
This article gives an overview of the numerous published since 1982 video and computer games within the Star Wars -Universums, whose history with the 1977 released movie Star Wars (original title: Star Wars ) began. Creator of Star Wars is the writer, producer and director George Lucas . Although Lucas himself entered the video game market with the establishment of Lucasfilm Games in 1982, until 1992 Star Wars games were developed exclusively by outside companies who acquired the rights for them in the form of exclusive licenses. So published Parker Bros. in 1982, the first Star Wars video game, the Rex Bradford for the Atari 2600 developed The Empire Strikes Back . From 1988 to 1992 the license was awarded to Broderbund , but they only published implementations of the arcade games. In 1992 the license reverted to LucasArts and Lawrence Holland . In the years that followed, games were largely developed by LucasArts. From around 2000, LucasArts limited itself again increasingly to the role of a licensor.
The term Advanced universe (Engl. Expanded Universe ) be in Star Wars all licensed -Context Star Wars passed materials outside the movies. The expanded universe includes books, comic books, games, and other media that expand the stories told in the films. The expansion of the Star Wars universe began in 1978. With the takeover of the Star Wars brand by Disney in 2012, the Expanded Universe changed fundamentally. At the end of April 2014, Disney announced that the former expanded universe was no longer part of the official canon and would continue to exist independently under the collective name of Legends . The Star Wars canon now includes the movies, the series Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels as well as all (with a few exceptions) all other Star Wars media that have been released and newly published since April 2014 . Star Wars new releases are developed in cooperation with the so-called Lucasfilm Story Group in order to maintain continuity between the individual works.
Only officially licensed games are listed.
Game series
Star Wars: X-Wing (1993-1999)
The X-Wing series was a game series that ran from 1993 to 1999 and comprised a total of four flight simulations.
In the first title, X-Wing , the player takes on the role of a pilot of the Rebel Alliance, on whose behalf he fulfills several loosely connected missions with his star hunter.
TIE Fighter was released in 1994 as the successor to Star Wars: X-Wing . Here the player takes on the role of a pilot in the Imperial fleet. Again he takes part in various missions, which, however, have little contact with the films.
1997 appeared with X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter is a third part, which is playfully different from its predecessors. The game is primarily designed as a multiplayer title and takes up the content of the missions from the two predecessors in loose order. It does not have its own storyline. It was only with the expansion Balance of Power replenished .
X-Wing Alliance was published in 1999 as the final part of the X-Wing series by LucasArts. The concept is similar to the first two parts of the series. The player begins a career as a member of a dealer family and receives his own spaceship in the first mission. In contrast to the previous games, this is a cargo ship instead of a star hunter. Only after the player has joined the rebel alliance will the spaceship types known from the films be adopted.
X-Wing received a positive response from the critics. Testers praised the authentic behavior of the spaceships, even if it was very demanding. The game received multiple awards, including the Origin Award . X-Wing was also successful from a commercial point of view . It quickly became one of the most successful games of 1993. TIE Fighter was also praised by the press. Testers sometimes called it the best flight simulation of all time. The ratings for Alliance were similar. Only the third part was criticized more strongly. Testers complained about confusing menus and stability problems.
Rebel Assault (1993-1996)
The Rebel Assault franchise includes two games and began with the release of Star Wars: Rebel Assault in 1993 . In 1996 the second and last part was Rebel Assault II - The Hidden Empire . Both games belong to the rail shooter genre . This means that the player usually has very limited freedom of movement and only concentrates on shooting down enemy units.
The plot of the first part represents an alternative narrative of Episode IV, the second fits into the trilogy. The player takes on the role of the young rebel pilot Rookie 1 and completes various missions in the fight against the empire.
Dark Forces / Jedi Knight (1995-2003)
The first commercial first-person shooter with a Star Wars theme appeared in 1995 under the title Dark Forces . The main character of the game is the mercenary Kyle Katarn, who sabotages an imperial weapons project on behalf of the rebellion. The game received praise for its high level of difficulty and its varied game mechanics. However, it was indexed by the Federal Testing Office for writings harmful to minors because of its depiction of violence .
Due to positive reviews and high sales figures, four successors appeared between 1997 and 2003. In order to avoid negative associations with the depiction of violence in the predecessor, the name Dark Forces was dropped and replaced by Jedi Knight . They thematically deal with the development of Katarn from a mercenary to a Jedi. Testers praised the spacious game worlds and the associated great freedom of action of the player in these titles.
Rogue Squadron (1998-2003)
The games in the Rogue Squadron series were designed as shoot-'em-up games. They deal with a similar topic as the X-Wing series, but have more of an action than a simulation character. The series includes three titles developed by Factor 5. The first game, Rogue Squadron , was released in December 1998 for Nintendo 64 and Windows. The game was positively received by the audience, and the number of sequences set to music was particularly praised, which was extraordinarily high for the conditions at the time. Rogue Squadron achieved sales of over 1.5 million and received an Origins Award for Best Action Game in 1998.
Two successors followed by 2003, which were only released for the Nintendo GameCube console due to the weaker sales of the Windows version of Rogue Squadron .
Knights of the Old Republic (2003-2004)
Knights of the Old Republic is an RPG that takes place around 4,000 years before the movies. It deals with a war between the Republic and the Sith.
After it was released, the game was very well received by gamers and testers. The latter rated the narrative style of the game in dialogue form, the staging of the characters and the plot as groundbreaking. It has received numerous awards, including the Game Developers Choice Award for Game of the Year 2003 and a BAFTA Award . It was also the basis for some novels and comics.
The sequel Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith-Lords takes place five years after the original. This game also received several awards, including that of “Best RPG of 2005”.
Star Wars: The Old Republic is an MMORPG and was released on December 20, 2011. It is not part of the Knights-of-the-Old-Republic series, but is based on this in terms of plot.
Battlefront (since 2004)
The Games of the Battlefront- series are as ego and third-person shooter designed and resemble especially Battlefield -Titeln. The series was originally started by the Pandemic studio , which developed the first two parts. In addition to loosely related campaign missions, the titles on all platforms had a distinct multiplayer mode in which up to 64 players could play against each other.
The Battlefront titles were received positively. Critics praised the use of the Star Wars license, which gives Battlefront a special position among shooters. However, they often criticized the fact that the game mechanics themselves were outdated in some areas, such as artificial intelligence .
After several developers changing the Swedish studio was DICE after the purchase of LucasArts by Disney to develop a new Battlefront commissioned.
Lego Star Wars (since 2005)
The games in the Lego Star Wars series represent the plot of the films and the animated series Clone Wars in Lego style. They were developed by Traveller's Tales and published by Eidos .
The games follow a similar structure to platformers Run is based games. The player controls well-known characters from the films in Lego-typical building block form and crosses numerous levels with them by fighting and solving puzzles. In addition to crossing levels, exploring them is a central element of the game. Numerous Lego bricks, special components or valuable containers are hidden in the play worlds. The player is always only part of a team consisting of several figures, a second of which can be controlled by another player or, alternatively, by the computer. While this in the "Story" mode, in which the player primarily re-enacts the story, can consist of several characters, but these are limited to the characters of the original plot, in the "Free Game" there are only a maximum of two characters (one for each player ), which can be exchanged for other unlocked characters at any time, regardless of the level, in order to use their special abilities, which cannot be accessed in story mode, to reach new areas and thus find all collectibles.
The first title, Lego Star Wars , was released for multiple platforms in 2005. It covers the Star Wars films I - III . In 2006 Lego Star Wars II was released , which covers films IV to VI . In 2007 Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga was released , which essentially combines the first two games. On March 25, 2011, the next title appeared under the name Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars . On June 28, 2016, Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens another part was released. On June 10, 2019, a new 2020 game in the series titled Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga was announced that will cover all nine films released to date. As part of Gamescom, it was announced on August 27, 2020 that the game would not be released until spring 2021.
The Force Unleashed (2008-2010)
The Force Unleashed is an action video game released in 2008 that revolves around a previously unknown student Darth Vader who carries out secret assignments for him. Particular attention was paid to the lightsaber fight and power capabilities set, represented by imposing effects. Through found objects distributed in the levels, the player can unlock additional lightsabers and costumes with which he can contest the levels again.
In 2010 the sequel The Force Unleashed II was released , but it was consistently rated worse than its predecessor.
Similar to Shadows of the Empire , The Force Unleashed was designed as a multimedia project with novels and comics that support and expand the plot of the games.
Vader Immortal (2019)
The Vader Immortal trilogy is a virtual reality based action adventure that is played from a first person perspective . The game was developed by ILMxLAB, Lucasfilm's VR studio , in collaboration with Oculus. The three episodes were published in May, August and November 2019, initially for the self-sufficient VR headset Oculus Quest , and later also for the PC-based Oculus Rift .
The plot of the game is assigned to the official canon and is set between the films Revenge of the Sith and Rogue One . The player takes on the role of a power-sensitive smuggler who is forced to land his ship Windfall on the planet Mustafar , where he is recruited by Darth Vader for a special task, which however leads him to a conflict of interests with the natives of the planet. The setting is predominantly Vader's fortress on Mustafar as well as underground facilities and caves below the surface. The player is most of the time in the company of his co-pilot, the droid ZO-E3. In the course of the game, various tools and weapons are found, including a lightsaber that can be used in combat. In addition, the player learns to use certain abilities of power , for example to move boulders. The playing time per episode is around 45 to 60 minutes.
In addition to the main storyline, each episode also contains a level-based, time-unlimited training game called "Vader's Dojo". Here you can fight against different types of training and battle droids, aggressive animals and stormtroopers. Initially, a normal lightsaber is available, later other weapons are available, including blasters, thermal detonators and lightning bolts. By collecting points, you can acquire certain things at higher levels, such as crystals for your lightsaber to change the color of your blade.
Complete overview
The following table gives an overview of the Star Wars titles that have appeared so far . The table is broken down by title, developer, year of first publication and the platforms for which the titles were published. The last column indicates whether the games and their plot, locations and characters are an official part of the canon. The Star Wars canon includes the movies, the series The Clone Wars and Rebels as well as all other Star Wars media that have been released and newly published since April 2014 (with a few exceptions) . Star Wars new releases are developed in cooperation with the so-called Lucasfilm Story Group in order to maintain continuity between the individual works. With the takeover of the Star Wars brand by Disney in 2012, Disney announced that the formerly expanded universe was no longer part of the official canon and would continue to exist independently under the collective name of Legends .
Did not show up
The games Star Wars 1313, originally under development at LucasArts, and a successor to Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II were initially discontinued after the takeover by Disney in 2013.
role playing game
→ Main article: Star Wars role-playing games
In 1987 the American RPG publisher West End Games published a pen & paper RPG based on the Star Wars films. Over 100 RPG books were published before the West End Games closed in 1999 for financial reasons. Then the publishing house Wizards of the Coast took over the license and began to publish a new Star Wars role -playing system based on the in-house d20 system . In 2010 , however, the license was not extended by mutual agreement.
Board games
There are Star Wars variants for well-known board games such as chess , Monopoly , Risk or Carcassonne . Since the board game boom in the early 2010s, the range of card and board games based on the Star Wars universe has been growing . The largest offshoots are Star Wars: Das Kartenspiel and Star Wars: Das Imperium Attacks from Fantasy Flight Games and the Heidelberger Spieleverlag . There are also older board games such as Escape from the Death Star (Parker) or games from West End Games.
See also
- Starwars
- List of all Wikipedia articles whose title begins with Star Wars
Web links
- Rus McLaughlin: The History of Star Wars Games . IGN Entertainment, September 10, 2008. (English)
- LucasArts home page with list of games (English)
- Games in the Star Wars universe at MobyGames (English)
- List of computer and video games in Jedipedia.net
Individual evidence
- ^ Rus McLaughlin: The History of Star Wars Games. IGN Entertainment, September 10, 2008. (English)
- ↑ DeMaria, Wilson: Game Over. The Illustrated History of Electronic Games. 2nd edition, McGraw-Hill 2004. page 203.
- ↑ X-Wing. GameSpot, archived from the original on March 8, 2005 ; accessed on October 11, 2014 (English).
- ^ History - Part Two: The Classics, 1990-1994. LucasArts, archived from the original on June 23, 2006 ; accessed on October 11, 2014 (English).
- ↑ Tim McDonald: TIE Fighter: Collector's CD-ROM Review. GameSpot, May 1, 1996, accessed October 11, 2014 .
- ↑ Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance Review. May 1, 1999, accessed October 12, 2014 .
- ↑ Tim McDonald: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter Review. GameSpot, May 12, 1997, accessed October 12, 2014 .
- ↑ Best Sound of 1998. In: IGN Entertainment . Ziff Davis , February 5, 1999, accessed November 15, 2015 .
- ↑ US platinum charts. In: The Magic Box. Retrieved November 15, 2015 .
- ↑ 1998 - List of Winners. In: Origins Award . Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design , archived from the original on July 10, 2008 ; accessed on November 15, 2015 .
- ↑ Aaron Boulding: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Review. In: IGN Entertainment . Ziff Davis , accessed August 14, 2014 .
- ↑ Ivan Sulic: Star Wars Battlefront II. IGN Entertainment, November 2, 2005, accessed October 30, 2013 .
- ↑ Wesley Yin-Poole: Star Wars: Battlefront is "DICE's interpretation of what Battlefront should be". eurogamer.net, June 13, 2013, accessed October 9, 2014 (English).
- ↑ Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga lets you replay all episodes. June 10, 2018, accessed November 9, 2019 .
- ↑ LEGO Star Wars is getting "different": 24 open worlds, 500 characters & more. August 27, 2020, accessed on August 28, 2020 .
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tag; no text given for itemization with the name : 0 . - ^ Anthony Breznican: First look inside the Star Wars virtual reality experience Vader Immortal. Entertainment Weekly , May 7, 2019, accessed January 16, 2020 .
- ↑ A Guide to Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series - Episode I. ILMxLab, May 21, 2019, accessed on January 16, 2020 .
- ↑ Ben Lang: 'Star Wars Vader Immortal' Review on Quest - Come for the Story, Stay for the Lightsabers. Road to VR, May 9, 2019, accessed on January 16, 2020 .
- ↑ Nick Montfort, Ian Bogost: Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System . MIT Press , Cambridge 2009, ISBN 978-0-262-26152-4 , pp. 128 .
- ↑ Retro Gamer , issue 82, p. 74.
- ^ Greg Kasavin: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Review. In: GameSpot . CBS Corporation , accessed November 16, 2015 .
- ↑ Ivan Sulic: Test "Star Wars: Battlefront". In: IGN Entertainment . Ziff Davis .com, September 17, 2004, accessed October 30, 2013 .
- ↑ Steve Butts: Star Wars: Empire at War. In: IGN Entertainment . Ziff Davis , February 15, 2006, accessed November 16, 2015 .
- ↑ Sal Romano: Disney shutters LucasArts, Star Wars 1313 canceled [Update ] . Gematsu. Retrieved April 3, 2013.
- ^ Disney closing down LucasArts . In: 3 News NZ , April 4, 2013.
- ↑ Official statement from January 28, 2010 by WotC by Greg Yahn
- ↑ Announcement of January 28, 2010 by Lucas Online / Lucasfilm on starwars.com ( memento of the original from March 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.