10 Awesome Moments That Defined The N64

Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire outperformed all expectations, selling over a million copies worldwide despite its relatively premature release in 1997.

That said, the opening sequence overshadowed everything else about the game, arresting critical attention almost completely. After all, the rest of the game was utterly unremarkable – a generic corridor shooter complete with awkward controls – but the opening sequence was something completely different.

For the first time, players were able to pilot themselves around an open environment, dogfighting with enemy pilots, incapacitating all terrain armoured transports, and generally having the time of their lives.

In fact, this one segment was probably replayed countless times as players quoted their favourite lines from the movies, spinning (that’s a good trick) around the battlefield, resetting and repeating the same sequence again and again.

At the time, it was the closest thing to the genuine article – and while it has since been surpassed by the Rogue Squadron series– nothing can replace that original sensation of flying around like Luke Skywalker himself.