Star Wars video games

Star Wars spawned a large number of computer and videogames (over one hundred), which comes of no surprise since the theatrical release of the original trilogy nearly coincided with the advent of home consoles. While only a few are based on movie material, the remaining games are heavily influenced by the expanded universe and occasionally linked to the movies.
The first games based on the franchise were released on the Atari 2600, the very first, The Empire Strikes Back, where the player drove a Snowspeeder during the Battle of Hoth, destroying AT-AT walkers. While simplistic, the game captured the essence of the movie as well as techonology allowed. Several other games appeared, like The Return of the Jedi: Death Star Attack, where the player controlled the Millennium Falcon in a mission to destroy the Death Star, and Jedi Arena, the first game attempting to simulate a lightsaber battle (in this case, clearly inspired by the A New Hope scene, where Luke Skywalker trains with a seeker). As the video game crash of 1983 killed the home console market, no further games based on the franchise were released until 1991, when the platformer Star Wars (video game) was released for both NES and Gameboy, and one year later, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back reused the engine with the plotline of the (then) second episode of the saga. It would be still in 1992 that Super Star Wars was released to the SNES (the Super prefix was often used in remakes of 8-bit games), followed by the remaining games in the trilogy: Empire Strikes Back (1993) and Return of Jedi (1994). While these games followed the trilogy story, in Personal Computers the non-canonical X-Wing (1993) started what turned to be one of the most popular space flight/combat simulators series ever - the X-wing computer game series, composed of several titles and expansions. Other titles such as Software Toolworks' Star Wars Chess were published or licensed by LucasArts, who also used the first "multimedia explosion" to release Rebel Assault (1993), which used FMV and photos extensively.
However, the first step towards modern games was done with Dark Forces, a 1995 first person shooter that put the player as Kyle Katarn, perhaps the most important character in Star Wars video games. The 1996 Nintendo 64 title Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire was part of a LucasArts attempt to create a story between Empire Strikes Back and Return of Jedi, putting the player in control of mercenary Dash Rendar, featuring fan-favourite parts of the Super Star Wars line, such as dropping a cable around AT-ATs legs. After the original trilogy re-release in 1997, LucasArts published two other novelty titles, Yoda Stories and Star Wars Monopoly, sequels Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II and X-Wing vs TIE Fighter, and a beat'em up Star Wars themed game, Star Wars: Masters of Teräs Käsi. 
As The Phantom Menace release approached, dozens of licensed titles appeared, from the praised expansion to Jedi Knight, Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith and the first game in the Rogue Squadron series and even educational titles, the market was flooded with several games, most of them of questionable quality such as Star Wars: Episode I: Racer, based on the pod racing sequence in movie that managed to sell well due to the hype surrounding the return of one of the most popular movie series ever. The first strategic title, Star Wars: Force Commander was also released, but failed to keep up with other RTS games. 
In 2002, year Attack of the Clones premiered, Jedi Outcast was released, and gave the players the first chance to experience advanced lightsaber fights, and dettached itself from the usual mediocracy of movie tie-ins. A second RTS game, much more conventional and using the Age of Kings engine, Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds offered a better alternative to those seeking strategy in the Star Wars universe. One year later, Knights of the Old Republic, a Bioware RPG debuted on the Xbox, and the last release (as of 2004) in the Jedi Knight series, Jedi Academy released, and both were praised on their own merits. A MMORPG titled Star Wars: Galaxies was also released.
With Revenge of the Sith approaching, Star Wars: Battlefront, KOTOR 2 (both in 2004), Star Wars: Republic Commando and the unique Lego Star Wars (2005) were released. Three more games, Star Wars: Episode III: Rage of the Wookies (expansion to Galaxies), Empires at War (another RTS) and Episode III: The video game (action) are expected to be released close to the premiere of the third movie.
==External links==
*Star Wars group in MobyGames
*UGO article on the history of SW games
Category:Star Wars computer games