Our Favorite Star Wars Games | GameSided Roundtable

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Fraser Gilbert (Twitter)

Star Wars Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast.

I have played a lot of Star Wars games in my time. In-fact, as long as Star Wars is in the game title, I am always curious and eager to try the game out, and there have been some fantastic ones, ranging from Battlefront to KOTOR. However, as a kid, my favorite aspect of the films were the epic lightsaber battles. I was besotted by the weapon, I really did see it as such a beautiful, elegant design, and I searched for the perfect re-creation of this in video game format, to no avail. Yes, plenty of Star Wars games allowed you to use a lightsaber, but none of them were able to make it feel quite right.

When Jedi Outcast came along, the Jedi Knight series was already very popular and critically acclaimed. However, the break of four years since the last game meant huge changes, and thanks to the inclusion of the Quake 3 arena engine, the game felt great. Finally, the game managed to nail the feeling of a lightsaber, I loved the feeling of floating the saber through the air with such destruction, slicing stormtroopers in half, and creating amazing duels with Sith enemies. Force powers were also included, and the sheer variety of these were fantastic, from Force Heal, to Force Lightning. Finally, I felt like that kid who used to run around his bedroom, toy lightsaber in hand, making battle noises and having visions of amazing saber fights, although now I was actually able to experience this within the game.

Aside from nostalgia reasons though, Jedi Outcast incorporated a superb single player campaign, which featured a great story and varied level design. I spent countless hours on the multi-player section of the game, which not only featured online play for up to 32 players on many (well-designed) maps and game modes, but also included the option of bots for offline games. The game became the new standard bearer for future Star Wars games, and I will always remember it for allowing me to live out my saber swinging desires.

Erik Sugay

(Does Soulcalibur IV count with its odd inclusion of Yoda, Darth Vader and Galen Marek as playable fighters?)

Having seen all the Star Wars films, I’m familiar with the series, but I don’t have any real, vested interest in its characters or lore. So, while my experience with games related to the extensive franchise is incredibly thin, I have a wealth of appreciation for the one game I can remember that fulfilled my simple desire to just fly around in a starfighter without bogging me down with heavy narrative: Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader (that’s a mouthful).

This impressive GameCube launch title let players select from a variety of futuristic spacecraft, speed around familiar settings without being tied to on-rails gameplay, and even recreate some of the series’ most iconic battles. I haven’t played the game in well over a decade and I can still clearly remember taking down AT-AT walkers in the Battle of Hoth, mimicking the method used in The Empire Strikes Back.

Factor 5’s simple take on the Star Wars universe is one that I haven’t really seen since. Having the game broken up into fairly lengthy, but manageable missions meant that Rogue Leader was focused purely on entertaining combat. I surely don’t expect the upcoming Battlefront game to limit itself to that arcade space-simulation gameplay approach, but as long as some epic space battles are in play, I’ll be paying attention.

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