Star wars : shadows of the empire

Format : N64, PC

Review by : Sxe_sk8

Players : 1

Type : Action

"Use the force Luke, and pass on this game." The first licensed game for the N64. Was it a hit? Well, people did like it, sort of. It plays kind of weird. You can play either from a first person or third person perspective. I found the third person perspective better. Star Wars SOTE is an action/platformer/space-shoot-em-up kind of game. You play on foot, on hoverbikes, in your space ship. 3 games in one, with no one side really succeeding. If anything, the on foot levels are the best, perhaps only because there are more variety to them and there are more of these levels.

In Star Wars SOTE you play Dash Rendar, a gun for hire like Han Solo. This game takes place between The Empire Strikes Back and Revenge of the Jedi storylines, which is convenient from a licensing point of view.

As this was one of the first games available for the N64, it did well due to the big name license attached, but reviewers slagged it pretty heavily. And rightfully so. This game should have been so much more. If this was released today, nobody would touch it with a ten foot inter-galactic pole. But back in the very lean times of N64, people overlooked the fact that it looked rushed, didn’t play all that well, had jerky animation, shitty textures and lackluster game play. Personally, in a perverse way, I kind of liked it. I pretended it was a PlayStation game that loaded quickly and I was able to enjoy it with that in mind.

If you are a Star Wars fan, then I bet you’ll like this game even today. Most of the kids I talked to said that they enjoyed it a lot. Not one kid mentioned the bad points. So, hey, whatever! Of course, once you’ve played Goldeneye, you’re pickiness level has been raised about 400 million percentage points, so I don’t know if Star Wars would succeed today. I doubt it, but hey, whatever!

Graphically, this game does look like a PlayStation game, thanks to the stock textures! Wait till you see the sewage level, with the one texture that is supposed to look like brown water. It’s really laughable. I bet the Wave Race team pissed themselves when they saw that nightmare. The animation is jerky thanks to the framerate. It almost makes you sick. Musically, this game shines, thanks to the implied works of John Williams. But again, and I stress, who buys a game for the music?

The first level of this game is decent. You fly your spaceship thingy and blow away AT At’s, you know those dinosuar-ish metal walkers. However, your flight, although in 3D is very limited. You can go up and down and right and left but you are never left with a feeling of complete freedom. The other space ship levels are a joke. Your ship is in the center of the screen and you blast away at oncoming traffic. Whoopee. Your ship doesn’t move. It’s parked in space. They have managed to defy the laws of space travel for this game, so that should say something. The other levels are decent enough, but are not imaginable either in design or gameplay. Basic corridor shooting with some jumping and door opening. Nothing new here, Mom.

As I said, I did like Star Wars. It gave me a few hours of fun, until I really was honest with myself and said that ‘Yes, it is a new game for N64, but it really is sub-par." This game should have been so much more, but thanks to the pressures of having to release this game probably months before it should have been, it has suffered. It won’t stand the test of time. In fact, it’s already gone. R.I.P. S.O.T.E.

Sound         : Theatrically delicious

8.5/10

Gameplay    : This game is tierd

3.5/10

Difficulty     : Better controls would make it less frustrating

6/10

Graphics      : Think first generation playstation

5/10

5.5/10

Overall         :

Review by : Lord Grey