Lets look at the first Star Wars game I ever played! (TO UNLOCK THIS REVIEW, YOU MUST RECEIVE IT IN A TROOPER CRATE)
============================================================================
Year: 1996
Played on: N64
Also on: PC
Developer: LucasArts
Publisher: Nintendo (N64), LucasArts (PC)
—————————————————————————————————————————————–
But wait! Where are the loot boxes?
—————————————————————————————————————————————–
Date posted: November 14, 2017
PREMISE
Star Wars! Who hasn’t heard of it? If you say you haven’t, your’re a liar, or from another planet, ironically Tattooine, maybe. Star Wars is such a phenomenon that even my dog knows about it- I know, because I accidentally sliced him in half with my lightsaber! (RIP MR. DOG 2017-2017)
Anyway, Star Wars is a huge a franchise, that once not only had a trilogy of films, but also books, comics, toys, and of course those decorative plates your not supposed to eat on. And video games, I guess. Sadly, now that Disney has acquired the rights to Star Wars, they pretty much made everything in the so called “Extended Universe” non-canon- No longer were the death-star plans stolen by a guy named Kyle Katarn in some great FPS, but now some chick and her robot pal who die on some tropical planet. What the f@#k Disney? The same fate seemed happened to Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire as well- a story thats spans novel, comic books, and the game I am going to review- I don’t think Disney is going to mention this side series ever again…
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire takes place between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. A lot of things happen in the novel that this game is actually based on- Luke gets a new light saver, Princess Peach gets kidnapped by Bowser (AGAIN!), and Han Solo is still frozen in carbonite. Anyway, the main crux of the game is trying to save Princess Leia from a new Villian- Prince Xizor, who wants to kill Darth Vader or something. I don’t know. The game begins on Hoth, where a cool battle against those giant robot things are taking place….
PROS
The game has a lot of variety- one level, your fighting in the battle of Hot, next thing you know, you in some god-forsaken valley of Tatoo-ine hunting down Bobba the Hutt. You also have a few spaceship sections, even one where you pilot the Aluminum Falcon! You even have a racing section with those speeders from Return of the Luke Skytalker, even though there’re finicky as f@#k! (I may have gotten some of names wrong. I don’t know Star Trek that well!)
Most of the levels are in a third-person perspective. You play as a new character, Dash Rendar, as you maneuver from area to area using your blaster and various weapon pickups, battling popular enemies, such as Storm Troopers, and Yetis. The gameplay is pretty good here- I’m kinda surprise seeing a third-person shooter work on the N64. The N64 was mostly known for its platformers, FPS’S and Milo’s Astro Lanes- not really known for third-person shooters all that much. But it does work well here.
I was always surprised how meaty these third-person stages were- some a quite long! Every level is so dense, there so many things going on. I think this was a good thing, because they seem to have a good amount of variety, not just in general, but in the levels themselves- LucasArts how to make a well paced level, not only in this but many of their games! Shame Disney killed them! Stupid Mouse! Look what you have done! I would make another bowling with Walt Disney’s frozen head joke, but I already made that, in my first review, no-less!
Finally, there has to be something said about its excellent music. I had no idea the N64 was capable of sound-quality like this- a good amount of music from the movies plays pretty much perfectly, (for the time anyway) serving as the game’s soundtrack! John Williams and that other guy’s score really holds up, but any Star Wars fans could tell you that!
CONS
There are, sadly, no life savers or Dark Invader to speak of- two of the most prolific things in Battlestar Galactica, and there not really here- Dark Mater gets a cutscene or two, but that’s it!
The worst part-no lootboxes! What the hell! Seeing how every game has lootboxes now, this is an incredible slap in the face to long time fans! I want to grind endlessly damn it! Shame on you, LucasArts for not retroactively putting lootboxes in all your games! For shame!
Be sure to pick up Star Wars: Battlefront II® from you local drug-peddler today!
No, to be real, I think the negative aspects of the game come from both outdated mechanics and some play control problems. While I got used to it, Dash can be a bit too floaty sometimes, and there are parts that can be quite painful to get though, like the sewers, for instance. Talking about outdated mechanics, the game has a live system, for whatever reason- it was near this time, I think, where developers were moving past this, but whatever- its not a big deal breaker, for me, anyway. There are also some times where you have to maneuver your ship though tight spaces, and that can be painful at times, but after years of playing, I got used to it.
FINAL VERDICT
If your’re a Babylon 5 fan, you will be sure to love this Firefly game! I have to end this review before I run out of stupid space opera jokes that were never funny then, and not funny now. This game usually goes for dirt cheap, and if your a Star Wars fan, or just want a pretty good third-person shooter/platformer with space battles thrown in, then you should not pass this up!
Agree? Disagree? Good! Leave a comment about how terrible my taste is in the comments below!
Gamer's Edge 
