The Chewbacca Awards

1up.com is doing a comprehensive run-down of Star Wars video gaming. From the reprehensible Masters of Teras Kasi fighting game to the sublime story of the original Knights of the Old Republic, they have it all. From the article: "Whatever the case, nothing puts us quite in the mood for a pre-movie celebration like diving in and playing some good Star Wars videogames. With roughly 80 such games having come and gone over the past 20-some years, we figured now would be the perfect time to single out the best and worst that this beloved franchise has to offer."

Comments

X-Wing/TIE Fighter best SW games I've played

[dancingmad]

There should be a whole article on X-Wing and TIE Fighter. The only thing pulling me back into the Star Wars universe are those games - they were very engaging and really brought the player into the universe. And unlike most Star Wars games, they were good!

X-Wing Alliance was a pretty good entry in the series (and the last). I wish they would come out with a game for modern hardware, but it doesn't seem likely.

Re:X-Wing/TIE Fighter best SW games I've played

[SB5]

They did, you just have to pay monthly fees to play. $15 US dollars to play XvT with modern hardware. + the cost of buying Galaxies and Jump to Lightspeed

Re:X-Wing/TIE Fighter best SW games I've played

[kahuna720]

For modern hardware, there's always the X-Wing Alliance Upgrade Project

Re:X-Wing/TIE Fighter best SW games I've played

[RolandGunslinger]

I agree with you about Tie Fighter. For the time it came out it was a very engaging, fun game to play. Also, I agree with your sig...Linux as your desktop is like having a cat for loyalty...I know...

Gurk

[schild]

That was a terribly uninteresting roundup. But then, the best Star Wars movie came out over 20 years ago - so I'm not sure what I was supposed to expect by clicking the article link.

Burning Questions

[NBarnes]

The only really competative question to be addressed by the article was... not addressed by the article. Which is to say, they failed to answer the burning question, 'Which was worse, Force Commander or Rebellion?'

Re:Burning Questions

[kniLnamiJ-neB]

Yeah, I remember when Force Commander was about to be released... I was SOOO excited 'cause this was "the game I'd been waiting for!"... one of my buddies got it before I did and saved me the money. That could have been an amazing game... Personally my favorite so far is Jedi Academy. While its story was a little weak as far as I was concerned, the amount of control you have over a duel is *really* impressive.

Re:Burning Questions

[JExtine]

I was dissapointed they didn't discuss Rebellion. For some sadistic reason I can't remember, I actually liked the game. Though I was a youngin and just getting started. Shucks. Anyone else play Rebellion?

Re:Burning Questions

[varco]

I love Rebellion, and I still play it often. I didn't think it was bad at all.

Re:Burning Questions

[NBarnes]

I actually found Rebellion to be rather entertaining for a few hours. The space fleet battle sequences were really kinda nifty. Fight attrition was AWFUL, though, discouraging use of TIEs and foo-Wing fighters in favor of anti-fighter corvettes and captial ships, which didn't seem very Star Warsy to me.

Re:Burning Questions

[jayhawk88]

My best friend and old roommate were still living together when both of these games came out. I can still remember the conversations:

Me: Dude, we need to get this game Star Wars: Rebellion.
Friend: Why?
Me: It's basically Star Wars: Master of Orion. Supposed to be pretty good.
Friend: Yeah? OK, cool.

Later...

Me: Dude, we need to get this game Star Wars: Force Commander.
Friend: Why?
Me: It's basically Star Wars: StarCraft. Supposed to be pretty good.
Friend: That's what you said about Rebellion, and it sucked balls.
Me: Yeah, but this is like StarCraft! It'll be awesome!
Friend: OK, cool!

He still won't let me live those down.

Re:Burning Questions

[TychoCelchuuu]

Yeah, I'm right there with you. Rebellion is actually one of my favorite games of all time; it seemed to me like it struck the balance between a deep game and something with way too much stuff pretty well. People hated the interface but really it was just basically, like, Windows.

Overrated

[superpulpsicle]

I have yet to enjoy one starwar games in any console generation. They always seem to just take a successful formula that's popular at the time... apply the Starwars theme to it. So I am amazed there is no Grand Theft Auto type Starwar games thus far.

Re:Overrated

[Anonymous Coward]

SHHH!
DON'T SAY THAT!
LucasArts might hear you....

Re:Overrated

[Rallion]

Did you just not play Shadows of the Empire, or either of the first two Rogue Squadron games?

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Shadows of the Empire

[DamienNightbane]

I'd say they were spot on with their placement of Shadows of the Empire as the best action game. I loved that game so much. I wish I still had my N64.

Re:Shadows of the Empire

[FidelCatsro]

It was always underated ,but i really loved playing it . Especially the Battle of hoth at the start(the scene which gave rise to rouge squadron 3d).
The cheats were alot of fun aswell i had a great time running around as a droid or storm trooper .
I think its only problems were that it was really really unbalanced , on the hardest settings some parts were stupidly simple ,whilst others requierd nerves of steel and 4-leaf clover.
Also alot of people really disliked one part or another and since the game was such a mix of styles it got a few peoples ire(not me i loved flying around then jumping out the ship and blasting away at storm troopers)

Galaxies Sucked?

[kunwon1]

In short, Galaxies was a tepid, soulless experience that failed to live up to the hype.

I don't think it's quite fair for them to name best and worst in categories that only have two games in them. I mean, usually, one of those games is going to be clearly the better of the two, but that doesn't mean the second one is bad. They remembered to include that caveat in the RPG category, but they resorted to bashing and ridiculous exaggerations in the MMO category.

Re:Galaxies Sucked?

[Anonymous Coward]

So you never played Galaxies? In a word: Don't.

It makes no sense for it to win both best and worse game - but unfortunately I think the "best" award is pushing it given that the game really is as abysmal as they say it is under the "worst" category. It is undeniably the worst $50 I've ever spent on games, a mess of Daikatana proportions. I've not played a worse MMO, or a worse RPG. Ever.

It is a level grind from the very start. Just getting through the tutorial is a hassle - then the first 10 minutes of gameplay suck. Getting lost, confused and starting to hate the user interface. Then you start to figure out how to do things - and the game gets *worse* - not better. I wanted to like it. I really did. But it takes all the things that an MMO should do - and goes through the motions like a robot that simply doesn't get it. It's like they forgot to ask the most important question: "Is this fun?". The answer being: "No, it isn't".

The only thing that I would have to add is that the Jump To Lightspeed expansion also sucked. I bought it thinking that "oh, it'll be just like X-Wing". Nope. Very quickly (and through no fault of my own) I found myself in a situation where the cost to repair my own Tie-Fighter was vastly more than the money I was making on missions. Result: Limping around failing missions because I couldn't afford to repair my spaceship. Game over. The best course of action would have been to delete my character and start again.

So instead I stopped playing and cancelled my subscription.

I'm fed up

[rsilvergun]

with people dumping on Masters of Teras Kasi. It wasn't that bad a game. People act like it's the PS1's equivalent of E.T. or something. There were plenty of worse fighters in that generation. Any one who thinks Masters of Teras Kasi is bad needs to dig up a copy of Criticom to see how truly awful a game can be.

Re:I'm fed up

[jayhawk88]

Yeah, considering it was a first-gen PS1 title, I never thought it really looked that bad. I mean holy crap, as if this is the only early PS1 game with choppy graphics?

Teras Kasi?

[msmikkol]

Master of Teras Kasi? Any relation to Teräs Käsi? ("hand of steel" in Finnish) ä = ä

Re:Teras Kasi?

[rylin]

From memory, the name of the game was actually Teräs Käsi. I remember thinking about the game about a week ago, and how it was strange that it had a Finnish-sounding name. Maybe i was just under the alcofluence of too much incahol.

Re:Teras Kasi?

[Phil Resch]

This page has some information about it. You're pretty much on the money.

http://www.teraskasi.net/about_tk.html

Re:RPG Amendment

[Mishura]

Yes. KoToR II was a great game.. until the endgame. Man I was disapointed. KoToR I is considered on of my favorite RPGs next to Planescape, BG, and Final Fantasy VI, VII, and X.

There is a mod project going on right now to sort of "finish" the ending using assets that were "deleted" yet not implemented or finished in the final game. I look forward to their completion so I can play KoToR II and not feel .. empty.

As far as that mod project, I forget the URL.. google it or scan the Obsidian forums for it.

Jedi Outcast...

[aztektum]

was way better than Dark Forces II. I've played both multiple times and I just think JO offers a better experience as a whole (it was the first SW game I *wanted* to finish, prior to KotOR, to see how it all worked out) And even for its time, DF II's graphics were piss poor.

I wish SWG would just die. Their complaint about there not being Jedi accessible to players is exactly how it should be based upon the time period. Now, from how it sounds, I guess just running through Mos Eisley on the right server you can see/hear numerous lightsabers being used. Launch bugs still exist, performance is abysmal and the run back and forth to get the same kill lair but in a diff. location mission is a joke.

The SNES platformers also were really weak when compared to really good games of the same genre (Super Metroid being the most obvious).

Of *ALL* the Star Wars games, the only above average ones are *both* KotOR games, JO, the X-Wing/TIE games and the first couple Rogue Squadron games. Yea KotOR II's story dies before the end but the game mechanics are still excellent.

I played a lot of Galactic Battlegrounds back in the day, but it's just Age of Empires II in a Star Wars theme. Not terribly unique. Empire at War so far has potential to be something special.

Re:Jedi Outcast...

[SparksMcGee]

I could not possibly disagree more with this post. The story development in JO was pablum to nonexistent, the level design was for the most part shot (and don't get me started on level design in Jedi Academy...), the graphics were significantly worse for their time than was Jedi Knight for its (I remember looking at JK and thinking "Wow")

Additionally, JK was the first innovation in real character-controlled force powers and one of the first first-person shooters with freelook. And the level design was amazing. The levels were completely epic in scope, the puzzles were better developed and more involving, (though JO, to be fair, had its level design high points. but so much of it was running from large room a to large room b, shoot, repeat. You played against the level as much as the opponents in JK) and you weren't half so invincible as you are in JO.

The story arc was interesting and involving and the cutscenes actually used real actors (what a concept!)

Everyone of course is entitled to their opinion but I found JK one of my favorite FPSes, period, whereas JO tends towards the tedious and boring. Additionally, there's not a weapon worth its salt in JO except for the lightsaber (granted, they did a good job with it) whereas it was much less uber and much less abused in JK. Frankly I've allways considered JK something of a standard by which to measure other Star Wars games (and, of course, TIE Fighter, which was absolutely brilliant) and JO demonstrative of the compromises developers are increasingly willing to make with the franchises. JO wasn't abysmal, but I think that JK was easily better.

Re:Jedi Outcast...

[alanmusician]

Well said, I agree. I was a huge fan of JK1 both single and multiplayer and didn't find JO able to live up to it's legacy in either area.

The other interesting thing about JK1 is the massive modding community. I got life out of that game for years because of mods like Saber Battles X, Spork, and JKRPG, not to mention hundreds of inventive multiplayer and singleplayer maps. You could find people who played JK1 in any gaming community for years after its release. JO lost attraction much sooner, even from its fans.

I totally agree about the JO level design. The Nar Shaddaa level was particularly horrible. It was terribly irritating how the snipers could hit you instantly if you showed your head and there was nothing you could really do but load your quicksave and hope to be luckier next time.

Star Wars Rebellion Was A Great Concept

[SirBruce]

I'm surprised they haven't tried remaking this game. It was a turn-based strategy 3x game with battles played out in 3D -- isn't that all the rage now? The concept was solid, and it had a lot of cool elements -- not only did you build a variety of rebel fleets, ships, ground forces, etc. to fight the empire from planet to planet, but the game also had all the special characters you could send on missions and such. Some could even become force sensitive!

It was a great idea that was sadly completely buried behind a horribly designed, low-res graphical interface that made it almost impossible to do anything. Had the game come out two years earlier minus a couple of features, it would have been great. And if they remade it today with modern graphics, a slick UI, and updated gameplay, it could be awesome.

Bruce

Re:Star Wars Rebellion Was A Great Concept

[Gleng]

I loved Rebellion. It was the game that finally made me give up on my Amiga gear and buy a PC. Yeah, the UI was a bit ropey, but once you stuck with it for a while, it became second nature.

The only problem I found with it was the lack of knowing what you were supposed to do when you first install and play it. It seemed to be a case of "here's the galaxy, do what you have to do." Without any indication of how you're supposed to go about it. It took a LOT of trial and error to get to grips with it.

I remember a friend of mine calling me, excitedly saying "I sent a probe droid to Hoth!" :)

Once I got used to it though, I played that game until my eyes bled. I'll never forget the first time I won. I bore down on the last remaining Rebel planet with a fleet of: 6 Interdictors, 30 Star Destroyers, 14 Super Star Destroyers, and a Death Star. All completely decked out with a full compliment of TIE Interceptors and Stormtroopers.

I'm getting all nostalgic now. I wonder if it runs under Wine? :)

PS: Empire at War looks like it might be a suitable Rebellion replacement, but we'll have to wait and see.

Re:Star Wars Rebellion Was A Great Concept

[Maserati]

Yeah, Rebellion had such promise. Playing it several times got the rough edges knocked off and you learned the interface and what you had to do - the economy took a LONG time to learn. Once learned it was a pretty good strategy game. I'm holding out high hopes for Empire at War, it can't be worse than MOO3.

Then we need Birth of the Federation 2 - a sequel for another game that was almost great.

Re:Star Wars Rebellion Was A Great Concept

[PurplePhase]

Bump! For both!!

8-PP

Re:Star Wars Rebellion Was A Great Concept

[Rallion]

Yeah, I never knew what people were talking about when they bashed Rebellion so much. I'm not saying it was great, or even good, but I never thought it was terrible.

But sometimes the amount of patience I'm willing to put into a game is pretty incredible, and I guess that was one of those times.

The combat sucked, though, I thought. To make a decent 3D realtime space combat engine, dealing with fleet-sized groups, requires a game in itself, really. Like Homeworld. Or, actually, like Nexus...with combat like Nexus has Rebellion would have kept me up for weeks. That said, it did a better job than, say, Master of Orion 3 on that front.

Atari Star Wars

[bVork]

Yet more proof that 1Up is dominated by 'snes kiddies.' (People who have never played a console before the 16-bit generation.) The oldest game they list is from 1992.

The Star Wars arcade game by Atari was absolutely incredible. It is, by far, the best Star Wars action game ever. Heck, its one of the best action games ever.

They could've also mentioned The Empire Strikes Back on Atari 2600. That was a fun defender-type game on a system that couldn't handle defender that well.

Some of the categories seem stupid, too. Whats the point of an RPG category when there are two RPGs? A fighting category when there's one fighter? A better system would have been to group the games into three categories: Action (including platformers, the action-oriented flight combat games, FPS, fighting, and racing), Simulation (since there are a pile of Star Wars space sims, this deserves a seperate category from action), and Thinking (the RPGs, strategy games, board games, and that godawful Episode 1 adventure game).

And for the record, the best Star Wars game of all time is TIE Fighter. Somehow X-Wing VS TIE Fighter just didn't do it for me. But Atari Star Wars is the a close second. KOTOR1 is in third.

Re:Atari Star Wars

[Fjornir]

If by the atari arcade game you mean the old old old old one with the flight yoke and you're shooting sparks as you make the run through the deathstar I cannot agree more. I still love that game. Every time I see it (less and less frequently) I will take the time out to pump $5 into it.

TIE Fighter, too, was awesome, except for some serious problems in the flight environment. As I recall there was no real way to use the throttle on my joystick in it, which was a bummer. Trying to line up perfectly for the long-distance torpedo missions was a bitch with the joysticks of the era -- some control to increase/decrease joystick sensitivity on the fly would have helped a lot... But the absolute worst was the shield. There was no way to keep them auto-balanced so periodically (even in a dog fight) you'd need to tap the shield key three time to run through the fore-aft-neutral sequence to get them balanced.

Re:Atari Star Wars

[Megane]

I once played one of those that was set to its hardest level or something. The controller lag was incredible. It was like 300ms behind your movements.

The Atari 2600 game with the walkers was pretty good too.

Re:Atari Star Wars

[pnice]

I was thinking the same thing. They didn't actually do the best/worst of all time since they left off about 10 or so years from the Star Wars games they chose from. Even if the majority of their readers weren't alive in the 80's you would think they would have at least a little interest in the games from the classic systems. If anything they are funny to look at because the abilities of the machines were so limited.

I was hoping to see an Atari game on the list or maybe the arcade version of Return of the Jedi http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=R&game_ id=9305. I thought it was a fun game and I loved playing it in the arcades. The control felt right with the game play and the keyboard/emulator combo doesn't do it justice.

Comprehensive?

[Anonymous Coward]

I find their definition of "comprehensive" disturbing.

Re:RPG Amendment

[Danse]

Out of curiosity, did Obsidian ever comment on the ending? What the hell were they thinking?

Re:RPG Amendment

[hyfe]

Halfway through this game, I was ready to call it a brilliant successor, a game which I had no doubt would ultimately prove even better than the original.

Posting just to say I agree.

That game and Trojka going under(I want another Vampire: Bloodlines!) top my list of disasters in the gaming world.

Best Fighting Game

[Pluvius]

Their excuse for not picking a best fighting game is weak, since in any group of games, there's always a "best" game even if the whole group of games is horrible. Apparently they acknowledge this, since shortly afterwards they give the Best MMORPG award to Jump to Lightspeed.

Of course, it was pretty obvious that this list was crap when they picked X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter as the best space sim.

Rob

Doesn't anyone else remember Star Wars Chess?

[Rob T Firefly]

It was a battlechess-type game for DOS or early Windows, which I loved unconditionally. When one piece took another, a short cutscene portraying the characters fighting to the death played. The various animations made it all worthwile. I especially loved R2D2 or C3PO killing the Emperor or Vader. Great stuff.

X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter was the WORST

[BTWR]

X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter was the WORSTY of the series. It is clearly:

1. TIE Fighter 2. TIE: X-Wing/X-Wing Alliance 4. X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter

Are they kidding me???

[sammaffei]

I love Battlefront. Ya it's more of the same, but that shouldn't discredit it. In fact, I play it more than Halo 2.

Any Star Wars fan (or fanatic) should love it because of the ability to play any character or use any vehicle. It's what I've always wanted in a Star Wars game since playing ESB on the Atari 2600 (the first Star Wars game).

The Hoth battle is worth the price of admission alone. The most underrated game of 2004 IMO.

they were thinking

[jbellis]

"We're contractually obligated to get this game out the door so LucasArts can have it on shelves by December."

Hopefully they'll have time to do the next one right. One year is NOT a lot of time to develop a full RPG, even if you use BioWare's engine.

You'd think people'd learn that it's "rogue" not

[jx100]

*Rouge* Leader

Re:RPG Amendment

[Anonymous Coward]

Final Fantasy isn't an RPG. Please remember that before sounding link an idiot in front of everyone again.