It's quite possible that there hasn't been a truly great Star Wars game since BioWare's fantastically involving 2003 role-playing adventure, Knights of the Old Republic. Sure, Lego Star Wars was cute, clever and funny; it also revived interest in plastic building bricks and spawned a whole new genre of co-op family-friendly platformers. But its repetitive structure and lolloping camera annoyed some critics. Lego Star Wars III: Clone Wars has attracted even more scorn.
As with the movies, most veteran gamers agree that the Star Wars heyday is both long ago and far, far away – though there are different periods that they pine for. Some remember the old school arcade cabinets, specifically Atari's beautiful sit-in Star Wars game with its sparse vector graphics and memorable sound samples. Others loved the robust Super Star Wars action titles of the SNES era; while PC owners will recall the flood of space combat sims in the mid-nineties, peaking with X-wing versus TIE Fighter and its awesome multiplayer mode.
All of those titles, perhaps due to their more abstract nature and adherence to the tropes of the original trilogy, seemed to me to capture more of the essence of the movies than anything since. So what needs to be done to bring Star Wars back to the top of the gaming agenda? Obviously BioWare may turn things around again with its long-awaited massively-multiplayer epic, Old Republic. But until then, here are five suggestions for the decision makers at Skywalker Ranch...
1. Make a Han Solo game
Come on, this is obvious isn't it? The charismatic bright spark of the entire fiction has never figured significantly in a Star Wars action adventure. Instead, we've had anonymous chancers like Kyle Katarn and Galen Marek, identikit protagonists whose own parents would have trouble picking them out of a line-up. Okay, I know LucasArts are never going to get Harrison Ford to agree on a likeness, or to provide voice acting, but as long as we have the black waistcoat, Corellian Bloodstripes and rakish charm we're fine.
2. Stick to the original trilogy timeline
The pre-Episode IV timeline is a yawning gulf of endless over-complex machinations and mystifying subterfuges; this is what happens when narrative is decided on by a community of canonical accountants rather than a singular vision. From A New Hope onwards we have an evocative, empathetic story of brave individuals fighting against a cruel impersonal empire; it is – as Lucas always intended – the stuff of Joseph Campbell and Akira Kurosawa. Everything before it is trade union politics and one good battle.
3. Be Rockstar
GTA, Red Dead, LA Noire... say what you like about Rockstar, those guys know how to craft an epic narrative experience that sits within a palpable, engaging and explorable world. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed provided some beautiful-looking environments but kept them at lightsaber's length, forcing us down a corridor of repetitive action. Between missions, I want to engage with the world; most of all, I want to burst into the Moss Eisley cantina, smash walrus face in his horrible gob, then spend loads of cash on customisable power converters.
4. Be funny
Who decided that Star Wars games had to be so po-faced? Samuel Witwer, bless him, does his best to lend some boyish wit to The Force Unleashed, but it all falls flat amid the incessant (dilusions of) grandeur. Let's face it, Star Wars is ludicrous, LucasArts needs to just go with that. Maybe Seth Green and Matthew Senreich should be brought in as consultant designers.
5. Re-discover 1977
Everything we love about Star Wars comes from the excitement surrounding the original movie. Instead of slavishly adhering to the bloated encyclopaedia that the series has become, the developers of the next title need to be sat in a room with some behind the scenes footage of George in his flares and fright beard, loafing about in the Tunisian desert like some dopish acid casualty on a gap year odyssey. They need to see the kids with big hair queuing all day outside single-screen cinemas; they need to handle the original toys (not stare at them in their mint condition boxes); they need to understand the hippyish iconography of the early Ralph McQuarrie art. Before Star Wars was a franchise, it was a fantasy film about galactic adventures and space monsters and how nothing could replace a good blaster by your side, kid. Bring that back, and you're sorted.
As with the movies, most veteran gamers agree that the Star Wars heyday is both long ago and far, far away – though there are different periods that they pine for. Some remember the old school arcade cabinets, specifically Atari's beautiful sit-in Star Wars game with its sparse vector graphics and memorable sound samples. Others loved the robust Super Star Wars action titles of the SNES era; while PC owners will recall the flood of space combat sims in the mid-nineties, peaking with X-wing versus TIE Fighter and its awesome multiplayer mode.
All of those titles, perhaps due to their more abstract nature and adherence to the tropes of the original trilogy, seemed to me to capture more of the essence of the movies than anything since. So what needs to be done to bring Star Wars back to the top of the gaming agenda? Obviously BioWare may turn things around again with its long-awaited massively-multiplayer epic, Old Republic. But until then, here are five suggestions for the decision makers at Skywalker Ranch...
1. Make a Han Solo game
Come on, this is obvious isn't it? The charismatic bright spark of the entire fiction has never figured significantly in a Star Wars action adventure. Instead, we've had anonymous chancers like Kyle Katarn and Galen Marek, identikit protagonists whose own parents would have trouble picking them out of a line-up. Okay, I know LucasArts are never going to get Harrison Ford to agree on a likeness, or to provide voice acting, but as long as we have the black waistcoat, Corellian Bloodstripes and rakish charm we're fine.
2. Stick to the original trilogy timeline
The pre-Episode IV timeline is a yawning gulf of endless over-complex machinations and mystifying subterfuges; this is what happens when narrative is decided on by a community of canonical accountants rather than a singular vision. From A New Hope onwards we have an evocative, empathetic story of brave individuals fighting against a cruel impersonal empire; it is – as Lucas always intended – the stuff of Joseph Campbell and Akira Kurosawa. Everything before it is trade union politics and one good battle.
3. Be Rockstar
GTA, Red Dead, LA Noire... say what you like about Rockstar, those guys know how to craft an epic narrative experience that sits within a palpable, engaging and explorable world. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed provided some beautiful-looking environments but kept them at lightsaber's length, forcing us down a corridor of repetitive action. Between missions, I want to engage with the world; most of all, I want to burst into the Moss Eisley cantina, smash walrus face in his horrible gob, then spend loads of cash on customisable power converters.
4. Be funny
Who decided that Star Wars games had to be so po-faced? Samuel Witwer, bless him, does his best to lend some boyish wit to The Force Unleashed, but it all falls flat amid the incessant (dilusions of) grandeur. Let's face it, Star Wars is ludicrous, LucasArts needs to just go with that. Maybe Seth Green and Matthew Senreich should be brought in as consultant designers.
Everything we love about Star Wars comes from the excitement surrounding the original movie. Instead of slavishly adhering to the bloated encyclopaedia that the series has become, the developers of the next title need to be sat in a room with some behind the scenes footage of George in his flares and fright beard, loafing about in the Tunisian desert like some dopish acid casualty on a gap year odyssey. They need to see the kids with big hair queuing all day outside single-screen cinemas; they need to handle the original toys (not stare at them in their mint condition boxes); they need to understand the hippyish iconography of the early Ralph McQuarrie art. Before Star Wars was a franchise, it was a fantasy film about galactic adventures and space monsters and how nothing could replace a good blaster by your side, kid. Bring that back, and you're sorted.
