10 Video Games You Didn't Know Were Based On Books

Based on: Star Wars: Shadows Of The Empire

This one is just bizarre, and should have been an early indication that George Lucas was perhaps not the same man when he wrote the Star Wars prequels as he was when he was writing the originals.

Shadows Of The Empire dropped in 1996, simultaneous to the book upon which its narrative is based, and a supporting comic, junior novelisation, toys, posters, trading cards, models... you name, they made it.

The idea was to build a multimedia release, essentially producing all the commercial revenue streams that a movie would make without having to bother making a movie. It was a fairly successful idea, and ended up reigniting interest in Star Wars prior to the special editions of the original trilogy being given a theatrical release.

The game was quite average, starting out with a great battle on Hoth before quickly declining. There were a mishmash of mechanics which didn’t particularly gel well together, nor did they offer anything new, but being Star Wars and being decent combined to make some healthy sales figures.

Most people were unaware that this was essentially a marketing experiment though, so didn’t realise the game’s narrative was based off the book.