Star Wars: Hunters launched this week, so we have added it and we’re republishing this reader-ranked record of all Star Wars video games on Nintendo techniques. Get pleasure from!
Bear in mind, this record is just not set in stone however is ruled by every recreation’s Person Score in our database. Add your personal rating (out of 10) to any entry to exert your affect on the order.
The discharge of Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker again in 2019 might have ‘ended’ Star Wars as we would identified it for the earlier four-and-a-bit a long time, however all it actually did was tie a bow on the cinematic tales of the Skywalker clan and the nine-film saga which started in 1977. In spite of everything, Star Wars isn’t actually gone.
Streaming platform Disney+ has all the flicks in 4K, plus reveals like The Mandalorian, The E-book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, The Acolyte, and a deluge of different TV initiatives, not forgetting new trilogies, spin-off motion pictures, video games, and way more within the pipeline. Yep, that galaxy far, far-off might be coming at you throughout all media for a very long time to return.
The franchise has a storied historical past with video video games, too, with loads of Star Wars video games to play on Swap. Under we have a look again at nigh-on each Star Wars recreation on Nintendo techniques within the West, ranked from worst to greatest by you, expensive readers.
To maintain issues tidier, in cases the place the identical recreation was launched on a number of platforms, we have opted to say the lesser of the 2 — invariably the moveable model — within the different’s entry. Bear in mind, the ranked record beneath is ruled by every recreation’s Person Score in our database, which means that the order is dynamic and topic to real-time change, even after publication. So as to price any of the video games on the record beneath out of 10, logged-in Nintendo Life customers can merely faucet the ‘star’, assign it a private ranking, and refresh the web page to see any modifications mirrored.
So, include us on a journey to a galaxy fa—oh you realize the remainder. We start on the backside, so beware that the Drive is just not robust with many of those…
Writer: THQ / Developer: Helixe
An isometric platformer that takes place between Assault of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, you management the petulant younger Skywalker on this stodgy motion recreation. Contemplating the platform it is on, the sport seems to be and sounds okay. Past that, although, it is boring, repetitive and so s-l-o-w. Anakin, you are breaking our coronary heart.
Writer: THQ / Developer: HotGen
With satisfactory animation and audio (particularly contemplating the system) and boring, finicky platforming, Star Wars: Jedi Energy Battles falls right into a regretfully acquainted sample of moveable Star Wars video games. It is not as hateful as some, and it is a little bit faster-paced than New Droid Military, however it’s the same story. Maybe developer HotGen was attempting to faithfully seize the thrill of The Phantom Menace’s commerce disputes, wherein case job executed. Some may name the non-canon blue lightsaber wielded by Mace Windu on the quilt unforgivable, however we had been too bored to care.
Writer: LucasArts / Developer: THQ
Anybody who’s solely ever performed Star Wars video games on a Sport Boy deserves your pity. Retro Nintendo portables had plenty of issues going for them, however a excessive midi-chlorian rely wasn’t certainly one of them.
Flight of the Falcon is without doubt one of the very worst Star Wars video games ever as a result of it is received Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon on the quilt — the 2 coolest issues within the Star Wars universe — and it sullies their good names. As with all horrible Star Wars video games, the iconography fools you into pondering ‘ah, it might probably’t be that unhealthy!’, however our evaluation conclusion sums this up completely: “Flight of the Falcon is a really unhealthy recreation. As such, you shouldn’t play it. Nevertheless cool the screenshots look, nonetheless promising the premise sounds, simply keep in mind that the Drive is just not with this one in any manner, form or type.”
Han, mah boogie, you deserved higher.
Writer: THQ / Developer: LucasArts
You need to keep in mind that whereas Yoda is a beloved character, this recreation got here earlier than we would ever seen him wield a lightsaber in what is well the most effective scene in Assault of the Clones. Regardless of the identify, in Yoda Tales you management Luke Skywalker in a top-down journey as he chops snakes in two along with his laser sword. How unhealthy can that be?…
Actually fairly unhealthy, it seems. ‘Sedate’ is just too beneficiant a phrase, and the entire recreation is a technical embarrassment. It is tempting in charge the {hardware}, however then you definitely have a look at Hyperlink’s Awakening and see what may need been. Hyperlink’s Awakening this ain’t. Poodoo, plain and easy.
Writer: THQ / Developer: David A. Palmer Productions
Fittingly, maybe, the weakest film within the saga received one of many weakest Star Wars video games ever. Usually we would caveat an announcement like that with ‘arguably’, however Episode II is inescapably pants in elements (apart from Mace Windu’s common badassery and that Yoda bit on the finish — we keep in mind fairly liking that).
The tie-in GBA recreation is a turgid side-scrolling beat ’em up that lacks the inventive polish even the dullest Star Wars video games convey to the desk. Coarse, tough, and worsening, certainly.
Writer: THQ / Developer: HotGen
One other one fast to tick the ‘boring’ and ‘repetitive’ containers, if you happen to assume the isometric adventures on the GBA had been powerful happening the eyes, Obi-Wan’s Adventures takes that fashion of recreation again a console technology in an ‘journey’ set concurrently in opposition to the occasions of Episode 1. It is not terrible, simply ugly and fully pedestrian.
Writer: JVC / Developer: Lucasfilm Video games
A comparatively ho-hum 8-bit platformer the place you play as younger Skywalker battling via variations of the places from the film, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Again couldn’t be extra common. For teenagers determined to play as hero Luke, it was satisfactory filler however no extra.
A Sport Boy model additionally exists, however if you happen to’re gagging to play via the most effective movie of the saga in online game type, you are a lot better off going with the 16-bit ‘Tremendous’ iteration. Certainly, LucasArts did not even trouble with an 8-bit Return of the Jedi — the developer merely jumped generations and began afresh with Tremendous Star Wars on the SNES.
Writer: Aspyr / Developer: Pandemic Studios
It is a actual disgrace. The irony is that Aspyr has executed a pleasant job with remastering the visuals in each video games right here, and we loved seeing the outcomes. However the actuality is that these video games usually really feel previous, they’re extraordinarily buggy, and the net play is hit-and-miss. This could have been a slam dunk. As a substitute, enjoying Star Wars: Battlefront Traditional Assortment made us really feel unhappy. If Aspyr can repair the slew of technical points (and the updates are coming, slowly), this may sooner or later be price choosing up on Swap. Till that occurs, although, enjoying this makes you need to go dwelling and rethink your life.
Writer: JVC / Developer: Beam Software program
One other platformer. To be honest, it did a good job of offering some selection and relating the principle characters and places of the film, however it’s fairly unmemorable (and unforgiving).
The token Sport Boy model upped the problem because it diminished display actual property, however presumably probably the most attention-grabbing of the 8-bit variations is the fully totally different and earlier Famicom recreation developed by Namco in 1987. ‘Attention-grabbing’ as a result of it is not afraid of deviating considerably from the supply materials and having Darth Vader flip right into a scorpion. Not ‘attention-grabbing’ as a result of it is any good, sadly.
Writer: Ubisoft / Developer: Ubisoft
A Ubisoft side-scroller, Star Wars Trilogy: Apprentice of the Drive positive seemed spectacular. It used the identical engine because the console’s port of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, with easy animation and 3D-style character fashions. Providing you with the possibility to relive the unique trilogy anew in 2004, bland gameplay was as soon as once more its undoing. Completely vanilla, totally underwhelming, however may’ve been worse.
Writer: Ubisoft / Developer: Ubisoft
One other Ubisoft entry, Star Wars: Deadly Alliance put a Twi’lek named Rianna on the quilt, which is about probably the most thrilling factor this third-person shooter has going for it. Ditching lightsabers for blasters, the story options characters new and previous (Kyle Katarn’s in it) and consists of the theft of the Dying Star plans earlier than Rogue One arrived to wipe the canon clear. With compulsory touchscreen shenanigans as a result of DS, it is not terrible by any means, simply generic.
Star Wars deserves higher, no?
Up Subsequent: Tremendous Monkey Ball
Gavin first wrote for Nintendo Life in 2018 earlier than becoming a member of the location full-time the next yr, rising via the ranks to grow to be Editor. He can presently be discovered working from a Swap backlog the scale of Normandy.
