6. Knights of the Old Republic (video game)
This role-playing video game was released in 2003. It is set thousands of years before the events of the movies, during a war between the Republic and the Sith. Your character is caught up in this struggle, eventually joins the Jedi order and is sent off on a crucial mission to defeat the Sith Lord. The game is a lot of fun, and makes for good repeat-play. It has a great story, that is both personally-compelling and grand in scope. Its also relatively open-ended. You can visit various planets in whatever order you want and pick from an assortment of potential companions for your party. You even veer down the light or dark path depending on your behavior and conversation choices. And its pretty diverse gameplay, with melee combat, puzzles, and even space battles. Aspects of the game will be familiar to fans of the movies. You visit familiar planets. And you get to act out some familiar force exploits, like long jumps, bursts of speed, and (for Dark-side characters) force choking and force lightning. But it also opens a window onto the EU. You visit some new planets. You interact with aliens glimpsed but never really discussed in the movies. The Old Republic, which Palpatine dismisses in Episode IV and whose fall we witness in Episode III, is brought to life as you adventure. And the events of this game influence later novels and other games. This would be a good place to move to after finishing The Thrawn Trilogy, as it both introduces fans to the Old Republic and allows them to become a part of it through the gameplay.