The Problem Nobody Wants To Admit About Star Wars Games

A Long Time Ago...

As stated previously, Star Wars games have been around for nearly 40 years at this point, and even in the early days when gaming itself was still seen as something of a fad, there were actually a surprising number of Star Wars games released for home consoles. The late eighties and early nineties alone saw titles such as The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi: Death Star Battle, the vector-based space combat sim simply named Star Wars, as well as the beloved Super Star Wars titles on SNES in the hands of fans everywhere.

While these early titles were obviously limited by the capabilities of their parent systems, and sought to basically recreate the action of the movies as best they could on consoles, the trend toward all-out action was very much in evidence here. Side-scrolling shooters, space combat sims, and lightsaber-swinging adventure titles all laid the blueprint for the future of games based in that famous galaxy far, far away.

Punching the hyperdrive and flying through the years, fans were given new, more complex Star Wars games to play as PC and console hardware evolved, and George Lucas set his Sith-like plans in motion behind the scenes to take over the galaxy with a new trilogy of movies.

The Prequel-era was arguably the most vibrant period in Star Wars gaming, with an abundance of titles released between 1998 and the mid-to-late 2000s, whether based directly on the movies or not. Jedi Power Battles, Masters of Teras Kasi, Mysteries of the Sith, Force Commander, Obi-Wan, The Clone Wars, Bounty Hunter... The list goes on and on. Jumping ahead to the modern day, and the most memorable Star Wars titles in recent years have been games like Jedi: Fallen Order, the EA/Dice Battlefront I & II 'reboots', and now Squadrons.

And what do these titles, too, all have in common? Exactly - they are all shooting, fighting, or action-adventure games.