Your favorite Star Wars games?

[Sweatlord_STG]

Can be any genre, from any year, on any system.

I'd say many were good at the time, but from nowaday's point of view my favorite one is easily SEGA's Star Wars Trilogy Arcade from 1998. Unfortunately I never got the clear, I always die near the very end and have to continue or start over.



SW games I liked back then that are presumably still good today: (but not sure)
Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader (GC)
Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike (GC)
Star Wars: Dark Forces (PC, etc.) (was ok last time I played it, didn't finish it)

Star Wars Battle Pod (2014, Bandai Namco, Arcade) - this one is a weird case because I like the game, but what I hate about it is that I'm always Game Over after any mission I choose, even if I survive and all objectives were achieved. Can this be changed at all in the settings? I've played it at a few different locations and it was always as I said.
Unfortunately this is not the only newer arcade game where I'm always Game Over after only one level. I've also played many racing games where I was always Game Over after one race or one track, although I finished 1st. This breaks any game and goes entirely against what makes arcade games so appealing to me, because this way it doesn't even matter if you win or lose, survive or die, finish first or last, because it's just a short "ride" anyway, literally just a ride like in a theme park.

SW games I liked back then that presumably don't hold up today: (but not sure)
The three SW games for the SNES
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (I loved this one on the N64) (N64, PC)
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (N64, PC)
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II (PC, etc.) (was hype back then but didn't age well iirc)
Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (PC, etc.)
Star Wars: Rebel Assault (PC, etc.)
Star Wars: Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire (PC, etc.)
Star Wars Episode I: Racer (PC, etc.)
Star Wars: X-Wing series (X-Wing, TIE Fighter, X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, and X-Wing Alliance) (PC)

SW games that never appealed to me:
Star Wars: Battlefront series
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic series

Haven't played these much yet or not at all, but I think they are probably great:
Star Wars (1987, Namcot, Famicom)
Star Wars Arcade (1993, SEGA, Arcade)
Star Wars Arcade (1994, SEGA, 32X)
Star Wars: Racer Arcade (2000, SEGA, Arcade)

What about you? And which ones are worth checking?

[Gamer707b]

Nice topic. Don't see Star Wars talked much about here. Grew up with the movies as an 80s kid but strangely haven't played many of the games. I played an arcade game way back in the day, KOTOR on the original Xbox, Star Wars Rouge Leader on the Cube, years after I played the N64 Rouge Squadron and only in the last couple years, Super Star Wars on Snes.
For me, I'd go with the Rouge Leader and Squadron then the Snes game. Super Star Wars can be a bit janky at times, but believe me or not, I like some jank. IMO, SSW isn't as hard as people make it out to be. These kinds of platformers are what my generation grew up playing. I think it holds up very well for me. I want to eventually get the other 2 Star Wars games on the Snes. They look even better than the first game.

[TransatlanticFoe]

There's a ridiculous amount of Star Wars games, generally they were good... until the prequels! I have a few I picked up on the cheap but am yet to play. And yet still have played loads of the damn things:

Star Wars (arcade 1983)
Fun arcade game even though it was technically dated by the time I played it - that arcades kept them in service speaks volumes. Did see it game over another player by simply presenting them with a wall in the Death Star trench - presumably they'd been playing too long!

Return of the Jedi (arcade)
Stupid isometric game that throws you straight in halfway through the film, for some reason, with a ridiculously difficult speeder bike segment. Never did see what came after that, never did really want to either after burning through 20p in record time

Star Wars (8 bit - SMS)
Very cool adventure platformer, with a bit of genre swapping, a sort-of inventory and mini-tasks required to get the full ending (like a classic home computer game but all grown up and off to university). Unbelievably, done by Tiertex - who seem to be completely incompetent except when making something for the Master System

Super Empire/Jedi (SNES)
Never bothered with the first one because I had the SMS game above. Empire was much more challenging than Jedi. The latter just started you off with a baptism of fire via a difficult Mode 7 showoff speeder bit, then a gigantic level full of enemies where it's easy to get lost - but then was generally a cakewalk. Empire could be brutal and if you lost your gun powerups, it got impossible

X-Wing/TIE Fighter
These were great space battle simulators which suffered from the dreaded escort mission. These stopped the game dead and often felt like an exercise in plugging away until you got lucky - friendly AI was useless, you had to be superhuman but also hope the enemy AI didn't simply kill your objective before you got a fair chance at defending it

Jedi Knight
Jedi FPS! Does suffer a bit from some frustrating platform segments and obtuse progression. And lightsaber combat is little more than flailing around. But it's 1997, it's impressive - and the FMV is the first live action Star Wars since Return of the Jedi, even if the acting is frequently hilarious.

Star Wars Trilogy Arcade
Shallow showoff but incredibly good fun to play. Basically picked the best bits of the film for a single stage, then a final Death Star II run after doing the other three. Death Star attack, Hoth battle, Endor forest. Played enough of this that I could clear it - it's pure memory

Star Wars Racer (arcade)
Cracking arcade racing game with tank-style steering, they had this at my student union. Seriously impressive, very disappointing this didn't get a home port

X-Wing Alliance
The culmination of X-Wing/TIE Fighter, a full story with multi-part missions and the ability to fly a Millenium Falcon-style freighter, gun turrets and all. Annnnd it throws it all in the bin at the end by sticking you in the Falcon, throwing you into a couple of frustrating "kill all this stuff on your own, against the clock" missions that are ridiculously difficult because yep, friendlies are useless and everything gets so spread out you can't beat the timer.

Flight of the Falcon (GBA)
Absolutely unplayable garbage! Starts with a frustrating speeder section (Flight and Falcon absent), terrible collision detection and a tight time limit. Doesn't get any better, simplistic and looks horrible - like it's running on a SNES but without a SuperFX chip

Rogue Squadron (PC)
A very difficult time having previous played the X-Wing titles, your ships feel slow and sluggish. Trying to bring down an AT-AT can be boring and confusing. There's a first person view but it's largely unplayable.

Jedi Knight II
Good lord this is a frustrating game. It has a weird physics engine that makes it impossible to hit anything without auto-aim, as blaster bolts travel slowly and don't line up with the targeting reticle. Very tedious opening level with frustrating platforming puzzles and obtuse progression. And then there's the sniper level, where whenever you step outside you have seconds to find where the snipers are before you get killed

The Force Unleashed I+II (Wii)
Two perfectly fine third person action games. I gather the Wii got the better of the ports, with the second game being longer and having more story. They don't really fulfill their potential, as you largely just chuck enemies around and very quickly become a good guy. Boss fights were okay from what I remember, though the second one is very QTE heavy

Star Wars Squadrons
X-Wing is back! And the missions aren't dumb/impossible! Only, it's very very short. And Microsoft stripped unofficial controllers from xbox, so I haven't played it since - not really the same without a joystick and throttle.

Jedi Fallen Order/Survivor
The first is an excellent third person action/adventure. Great progression, not awkward backtracking, nice story. The second? Waaaay too much traversal. Combat is awkward with unresponsive controls (too much wind-up animation), dodgy camera, relentless and overwhelming enemies. Stuffed with pointless side stuff to do. The engine struggles under what it tries to render so bizarrely the later xbone port is considerably more playable. Story is completely stupid.

[it290]

I've always really liked the original arcade game. I can play it on my Vectrex now using a PiTrex which is pretty sweet, but just in general the vector graphics and voice samples are so nostalgic and appealing, and it was a super impressive game for its time.

Other than that, I've enjoyed Jedi Knight 2, LEGO Star Wars, and Star Wars Pinball. Tried getting into Squadrons which was sort of cool using the PSVR, but I just found the controls really unworkable unfortunately.

[BulletMagnet]

Don't see Star Wars talked much about here.

There will simply never be a way to top GaijinPunch's classic "That Bitch Lucas" thread.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I recall the very first time seeing that my local arcade hangout, Tilt!, had gotten in a brand new upright cab of Atari's vector-based Star Wars game back in 1983. People were lining up rows of quarters ala "the fine art of jamming" on the SW marquee itself to take their turns to try it out.

Fast forward to 1985, Atari had released an upgrade conversion pcb kit to convert an existing SW cab to allow arcade gamers the ability to play "The Empire Strikes Back" vector-based arcade game. And of course, Atari had released the newest arcade game cab of "Return of the Jedi" in 1984 with an isometrical sprite-based viewpoint (using the same stylized previously released Atari Laserdisc-based Firefox upright cab setup earlier in 1984 but to the tune of 50 cents per credit which was expensive back in those days of early '80s arcade lore).

----------
It's awesome to be able to play the 1983 vector classic Atari Star Wars on a Vectrex console nowadays with a PiTrex flashcart setup.
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PC Engine Fan X!

[1KMS]

Star Wars FC is good, it just gets bashed a lot by source nazis who default to the most superficial take when analyzing movie to game adaptations.

"Gametic beats cinematic, always." - Belt-Bark Swordbelt

It's better than the Beam Software NES game, though that one is still decent. I wonder if Lucas didn't want the Japanese game localized because of its "creative liberty", or so he could double-dip on the licensing fee. A plausible bitch move for him.

[Sweatlord_STG]

It's awesome to be able to play the 1983 vector classic Atari Star Wars on a Vectrex console nowadays with a PiTrex flashcart setup.

I need to ask my Vectrex expert friend about this!
I'll also try to play the Star Wars arcade games by Atari on Mame. These vector games are very appealing in their own way.

Star Wars FC is good, it just gets bashed a lot by source nazis who default to the most superficial take when analyzing movie to game adaptations.

I thought this game looked very promising when I glanced at it. I think I read it was inspired by Alex Kidd and I love the first Alex Kidd game.

I'm on my phone right now so I won't look for it but iirc there was a project recently where all three SW games for the SNES were heavily revised, which might turn three ok games into three good ones! I will post it here once I find it.

Edit: Ah nice, I found it https://www.timeextension.com/news/2025 ... lot-fairer

I just scanned the changes and they are not as significant as I wish they were. They just make it easier by reducing the amount of enemies, damage taken, etc, but I was hoping there would be changes like you can run and shoot at the same time in that one game of the three where you can't. I hope these hacks are still worth checking out.

[TransatlanticFoe]

Star Wars FC is good, it just gets bashed a lot by source nazis who default to the most superficial take when analyzing movie to game adaptations.

"Gametic beats cinematic, always." - Belt-Bark Swordbelt

It's better than the Beam Software NES game, though that one is still decent. I wonder if Lucas didn't want the Japanese game localized because of its "creative liberty", or so he could double-dip on the licensing fee. A plausible bitch move for him.

Licenced games are generally loose to the extent of "we have to make a playable game out of this", but they are expected to follow the plot or at least touch on it a couple of times. While it's not as WTF as Turrican 2 becoming Universal Soldier, Famicom Star Wars feels like a game that got the Star Wars licence slapped on it late in the day. At the end of it all, the most memorable thing about it is how nuts the plot is - but were it a generic sci-fi game stuck without a western localisation, it'd probably get limited hidden gem recognition. Hell it might even have had a localisation back in the day! As you say though, its JP-exclusivity is probably more about milking the licence than keeping the West from seeing a WTF adaptation. It was 1987, so Japan was a logical market - the Famicom was established, console gaming was in its infancy elsewhere.

You know how the modern retro crowd goes: it's shallow and has USA blinkers on. "Haha scorpion Darth Vader, must be shit, laters" isn't any more surprising than "fake, the Sega Master System was discontinued in 1991" responses to late SMS games. If anyone slating it on plot or difficulty has played it for more than 5 minutes, I'd be surprised.

[Sweatlord_STG]

USA blinkers

Triggers me all the time.

[Marc]

I am routinely mocked gor pointing out on YouTube and in Retro Gaming groups that the SNES games are trash.

[Sweatlord_STG]

I am routinely mocked gor pointing out on YouTube and in Retro Gaming groups that the SNES games are trash.

They are obviously not great imo, I've never known anybody who praised them. I didn't want to be too harsh on them when I called them "ok" above, but "trash" might be a lot more accurate. But I wasn't sure as I've never played them for long, because they were just not good, right from the start.

[Sumez]

I really love the first two Rogue Squadron games, as well as Jedi Knight and Mysteries of the Sith.
The first Dark Forces is interesting, but not that great, and the other Jedi Knight sequels didn't do anything for me. I didn't play Rogue Squadron 3

As someone who's generally not a big fan of racing games I also did really enjoy the PC version of Star Wars Pod Racer when it came out, mostly due to the insane speed which made it stand out.
Star Wars arcade is kinda cool
Knights of the Old Republic I guess I "sort of" enjoyed when I first played it. It has all the annoying aspects of every other Bioware game though, including the horrible writing and dialogue, so I never want to play it again.

Never got the X-Wing and Tie Fighter games, but people love those a lot, so I'll just let them have that.

Yoda Stories was kinda fun. For what it was. Not really objectively great, but a really cool concept (byte-sized roguelike adventure games)

I am routinely mocked gor pointing out on YouTube and in Retro Gaming groups that the SNES games are trash.

While they are super intriguing, especially to me as a kid at the time, they absolutely are trash lol. It's immediately visible. As far as adapting the material though, the approach is super cool.

[AGermanArtist]

It has to be the Sega Trilogy game, followed by Rogue Squadron 2 on GC and the Atari sit-in. I've never played the SNES games and I will give Atari's Return of The Jedi a mention, simply for how impressive the audio samples were at the time.

[Sweatlord_STG]

It has to be the Sega Trilogy game, followed by Rogue Squadron 2 on GC and the Atari sit-in.

<3

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I am routinely mocked for pointing out on YouTube and in Retro Gaming groups that the SNES games are trash.

You're not wrong. They're pretty mediocre due to really unusual feel on the physics, euroshmuppy type health balancing, and godawful bonus stages relying on Mode 7 (they're shit, the only one not totally irredeemable was the racing one at the start of Super RotJ).

They were actually my first encounter with Star Wars video games and as much as I wanted to like them (games are pricy when you're a kid) I never really clicked with them for reasons I could only articulate much later. The SNES Indiana Jones game is basically the same thing.

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (I loved this one on the N64)

Fun game, the controls for the on-foot sections took some getting used to but once you got a handle on it I think it was genuinely a solid experience. Works perhaps better in first person view, and its game design is very different from something like Doom or Quake, but it's charming enough.

I've actually read the novel it's based on and it's interesting how they managed to make Dash into a Han-like hero replacement when he wasn't terribly prominent in the novel, haha. A proper remake with twin-stick controls might be fun to see, too, the way the game was laid out was a fun excuse to have a bunch of varied environments, and none of the vehicle levels felt anywhere as bad as the SNES games (I actually 100% this as a kid, got all challenge points on 4 save files, one on each difficulty).

I didn't click as much with Rogue Squadron on the N64 actually; it always felt a bit weird that your shields don't recharge over time, given that you can't really dodge hits like you can in Wing Commander or Star Fox. That or my memory's really off on how it works. Despite being based on the godawful prequels, apparently the pod racing one is legitimately very good.

[Sumez]

They were actually my first encounter with Star Wars video games and as much as I wanted to like them (games are pricy when you're a kid) I never really clicked with them for reasons I could only articulate much later. The SNES Indiana Jones game is basically the same thing.

The Indiana Jones game has a lot in common with the SNES Super Star Wars games for sure, but I always thought it as basically the better version of what those games are and could/should have been.

Is it a great game? Not really, it's super Euro, frequently janky, and relies a lot on memorization. But the presentation is extremely well done, and for its time its ability to draw you into the world of the movies was remarkable - and I honestly think it still is. Unlike the Star Wars games, it was made by Factor 5 and is actually a completely capable game once you sit down to embrace it. It gets the job done.

Super Empire Strikes Back, by comparison, is one of the most hilariously unplayable games I've tried. It's ridiculous, feels completely untested. That STG stage on the second or third level where your ship takes up a third of the screen feels like a practical joke.

[1KMS]

really unusual feel on the physics

Spoiler

[BareKnuckleRoo]

The Indiana Jones game has a lot in common with the SNES Super Star Wars games for sure, but I always thought it as basically the better version of what those games are and could/should have been.

Explains why I put a lot more time into it than the Star Wars games, I remember getting quite far into it, not beating it but definitely remember enjoying it more and getting to the much later levels. I actually thought it was the same developer, never noticed it was a different developer from the Super Star Wars games!

gif

This is the worst picture I've ever seen in my life. ;w;

The thing that springs to mind on the physics too is how "slippery" everything is. Luke can block attacks with his lightsaber but it causes him to be pushed around like he's on ice. Same happens with simply getting hit by some attacks, you get knocked around really aggressively, I seem to remember getting hit into pits far more frequently and easily than your average Castlevania. The lightsaber also rather sucked compared to the gun when the gun was fully upgraded, but I think that only applies to the first two SNES Star Wars game, the character select thing in the third one was a nice touch.

(How many frames is SNES Indiana Jones out of curiosity?)

[Steven]

There is an Indiana Jones SNES game? Huh. That's interesting. I did play Super Star Wars (on Vita/PS4) and can confirm that outside of the decent music it is pure trash, and not of the so bad it's fun type. Avoid. Same with Flight of the Falcon. I did beat that game as a kid, though, mostly just out of stubbornness.

Fortunately, there are a lot of excellent Star Wars games. As I generally lacked and did not play consoles as a child, I am highly partial to the Mac and PC games; X-Wing, TIE Fighter, Galactic Battlegrounds, Jedi Outcast, Jedi Academy, Rogue Squadron 3D, Racer, Battlefront II, etc. are a hell of a lot of fun on PC. Galactic Battlegrounds looks like a reskin of Age of Empires II, but it's actually a slightly deeper game and therefore I greatly prefer Galactic Battlegrounds. Excellent RTS, and one that I spent far too much time playing as a little kid, and of course it's cheap on GOG now. Too bad the music on the GOG version doesn't function exactly how it's supposed to, but it's still good enough.

Squadrons is cool. Or, rather it WAS cool. Then everyone stopped playing it like a month and a half after it launched and it became impossible to find games. Maybe it's just my time zone, which itself is kind of strange because Japan ABSOLUTELY FUCKING LOVES Star Wars (latest example: go buy a can or bottle of Coca-Cola in Japan right now and you'll find that there is a Star Wars promo going on; it only started a few weeks ago) but that game died far earlier than it deserved to.

On consoles, Rogue Squadron II is effortlessly the best one. I still can't believe they rushed the hell out of this, going from nothing to being on store shelves in only about 9 months or whatever, and still managed to make the single best game on the Gamecube (and it was out on system's NA launch day, too!), probably the most technically impressive game on the Gamecube, one of the best Star Wars games, and also such an awesome game in general. That game is also the reason that I still think of Luke as Luke Skwalker or even just Skwalker most of the time. Let's forget that Rogue Squadron III exists, however, unless you can find someone to play multiplayer with, in which case you need to play it.

Even the super glitchy PS1 version of Jedi Power Battles is a lot of fun even though it's definitely not a great game. Never played the Dreamcast version or its modern rerelease, but all of those terrible glitches and oddities of the PS1 version are part of what makes it fun, so I don't know how I'd feel about the non-PS1 version. Don't play the GBA version, though...

One game that I had a really weird relationship with is The New Droid Army for GBA. I HATED this game when I got it for Christmas one year. Then a few years later I decided to play it and found that it's actually kind of good! It's not super amazing or anything, and maybe I'd hate it if I played it again now, but I did end up liking it. Kind of good means just that, though, kind of good. It's not great, but it's definitely good enough to be fun once you get past its initial awkwardness.

Definitely want to check out FC Star Wars eventually. Been meaning to for a while, but always forget about it.

[SuperDeadite]

TIE Fighter: Love this one, still great fun. Just play the DOS version only. The later "remake" on the Xwing VS TIE engine is awful, avoid it. I have a lot of nostalgia for Xwing too, but it hasn't aged as well, and it's unfairly hard at times.

Dark Forces: This game blew my mind as a kid, and still good today. The Imperial City stage still impresses me. Was this the first FPS with alternate fire modes for all weapons?

Star Wars: Attack on the Death Star (X68000). The X68000 doesn't do vector graphics, but this is a fantastic way to relive the arcade game. It's been altered to be more of a time attack style game. Best to play this one at 16mhz (XVI) for a smoother experience.

Star Wars (Famicom). This is not a good game, but I love it anyway. Very memorization heavy, but that's the era it's from. And while everyone laughs at Scorpion Vader, it isn't even the funniest boss...

Rebel Assault 2: Like the first game, this is an FMV rail shooter. But, unlike the first game, it's actually fun. The visuals were top notch for it's time, and this was the first time the actual movie props were used after Jedi hit theaters.

[Steven]

Was this the first FPS with alternate fire modes for all weapons?

Did the Stouker concussion rifle have an alt-fire? I can't remember because I have not played the game for a very long time, but I want to say that there is at least one weapon that doesn't have an alt-fire... aside from punching of course lol. Anyway, I think at least the concussion rifle is missing an alt-fire.

Also want to mention that the PS1 version sucks compared to the PC version. I forgot that I tried it on the PS3's downloadable games store thing until just now and it was not very good after growing up playing the PC version. FPS was not my thing as a kid (until Unreal and then UT99 came about, anyway), so I never finished it, but I want to eventually. There is that new weird version, but I have not played it.

[1KMS]

(How many frames is SNES Indiana Jones out of curiosity?)

Same as in Contra Spirits. Also, I checked the credits for the Sculptured Software and Factor 5 games, and they share a LucasArts artist named Jon Knoles. Presumably he did a lot of the main character sprites.

Edit: Ah nice, I found it https://www.timeextension.com/news/2025 ... lot-fairer

I just scanned the changes and they are not as significant as I wish they were. They just make it easier by reducing the amount of enemies, damage taken, etc, but I was hoping there would be changes like you can run and shoot at the same time in that one game of the three where you can't. I hope these hacks are still worth checking out.

Yeah, that just sounds like a lamer version of the base game, which already has a built-in nerf mechanic. The constant showering of HP was implemented as a cop-out from fine-tuning the controls, enemy placements, enemy timing, hitboxes, projectile properties, etc., to make sure nothing was unfair.

The first thing I would do to fix the game would be to take away all HP refills and extensions from defeated enemies. Then I'd take away the startup lag on your actions and adjust the player position to stay farther away from the edge of the screen you're scrolling toward. (Super Return of the Jedi actually fixed the camera issue.) After that I'd see what needed to be changed within the stages to weed out mandatory damage. HP items would be placed (and in some cases hidden) at preset locations based on the difficulty. You could end up with a solid game then, because the existing stage designs are already conceptually good.

[Steven]

Just played Dark Forces for the first time in a while. It's... different from how I remember it. Turns out that the DOS version that I just played is considered to be slightly inferior to the Mac version that I had as a kid, so it looks and sounds different from what I am used to. Not really too surprising, as Mac X-Wing is also considered to be the best version of that game.

Anyway, no, Dark Forces definitely doesn't have alt-fire for everything, as it doesn't have it on even the Bryar pistol, which got its charge shot later in the series. E-11 doesn't have alt-fire either either.

Did the DOS version always have WASD controls or is that something they did for the DOSBox/Steam version? I think arrow keys should have still been the standard when this was released. Of course, I played it with a joystick on Mac, so...

[SuperDeadite]

Just played Dark Forces for the first time in a while. It's... different from how I remember it. Turns out that the DOS version that I just played is considered to be slightly inferior to the Mac version that I had as a kid, so it looks and sounds different from what I am used to. Not really too surprising, as Mac X-Wing is also considered to be the best version of that game.

Anyway, no, Dark Forces definitely doesn't have alt-fire for everything, as it doesn't have it on even the Bryar pistol, which got its charge shot later in the series. E-11 doesn't have alt-fire either either.

Did the DOS version always have WASD controls or is that something they did for the DOSBox/Steam version? I think arrow keys should have still been the standard when this was released. Of course, I played it with a joystick on Mac, so...

Lol, forgot about the pistol. The Mac version will look better as it was 640x480 while DOS was 320x240. But, DOS came out years before the Mac version. Music wise, MAC used Quicktime which contains it's own soundfont. DOS is standard FM (OPL2) or GM MIDI. If you are using default emulation settings than you will be hearing the crappy Windows GS soundfont. Switch to a real module or high quality soundfont for decent music.

[Sweatlord_STG]

Just played Dark Forces for the first time in a while. It's... different from how I remember it. Turns out that the DOS version that I just played is considered to be slightly inferior to the Mac version that I had as a kid, so it looks and sounds different from what I am used to. Not really too surprising, as Mac X-Wing is also considered to be the best version of that game.

Anyway, no, Dark Forces definitely doesn't have alt-fire for everything, as it doesn't have it on even the Bryar pistol, which got its charge shot later in the series. E-11 doesn't have alt-fire either either.

Did the DOS version always have WASD controls or is that something they did for the DOSBox/Steam version? I think arrow keys should have still been the standard when this was released. Of course, I played it with a joystick on Mac, so...

Lol, forgot about the pistol. The Mac version will look better as it was 640x480 while DOS was 320x240. But, DOS came out years before the Mac version. Music wise, MAC used Quicktime which contains it's own soundfont. DOS is standard FM (OPL2) or GM MIDI. If you are using default emulation settings than you will be hearing the crappy Windows GS soundfont. Switch to a real module or high quality soundfont for decent music.

Last time I played it I think I used a source port (and by now there is also a remaster), so no need for DOS box.

[AGermanArtist]

I have Star Wars Squadrons on PS5. Is it any good?

Yes. Yes. I know, but I'd have to install it.

[Sima Tuna]

I love carpigs (crpgs,) so the Knights of the Old Republic were big for me. I played them when I was a teen and still heavily into star wars. They were my introduction to modified third edition D&D rules. Very simplified, obviously, as there are only three or four actual classes not counting prestige classes in the first KotoR. It may be the same with the 2nd game too, although the 2nd one added a lot more gear and character customization. For example, a finesse melee fighter (a fighter who uses dexterity to determine damage) wasn't possible in KotoR 1 iirc. Nor was an unarmed build viable in KotoR 1. So the second game made a ton of mechanical upgrades, which are mostly ignored or not talked about in favor of praising the story and characters.

I prefer the 2nd game to the first one, but there are advantages to the first knights of the old republic game. It was much less broken and buggy on launch. It tells a more star wars-ish story, by which I mean it's less morally grey and more of a star wars "feeling" story. KotoR 2 is fantastic, but it's really a case of a carpig that's directly challenging and sometimes even attacking the fundamental conceits of star wars. Which is excellent IF you are looking for that experience. The concept of a grey jedi is totally anathema to anything in the movies, even the first movies, so I think it was an example of Obsidian rebelling a little bit against the overly rigid, space opera structure of Star Wars. There's just a tad of Planescape in KotoR 2, "what is the measure of a man" and all that.

Oh yeah, and KotoR 2 greatly expanded romance options from the first game, and also allowed you to push your companions more towards darkness or light depending on your actions. All good stuff.

The KotoR games were important transitional titles for both Bioware and Obsidian. When you look at their carpigs, you can see them working out changes over a period of time, but especially in the transition to 3d. Neverwinter Nights, then KotoR, Jade Empire, moving on to games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age Origins. Bioware struggles to translate crpgs to a more console-friendly environment, and eventually (around mass effect 2) they just give up entirely and make console action games. But KotoR is part of the pantheon of greats, along with Baldur's Gate 2, Mass Effect 1, Neverwinter Nights: Underdark/tide and Dragon Age Origins.

I think Dragon Age Origins, for the record, was probably the closest Bioware came to combining pc-rpg depth with console accessibility without sacrificing anything. And they did so within an original "D&D with numbers filed off" IP, which is more impressive.

[guigui]

Got a 10 yo kid at home, and he is a Star Wars fan as any 10 yo kid can be.

Trying to get him a game set in the SW universe, but it is actually hard because it needs to be kid friendly (no blood/death everywhere) and have easy difficulty settings.
The Lego Star Wars game he enjoyed a lot of course. Maybe Jedi Knight Fallen Order might fit ? Any other recommendation ?

[Sima Tuna]

Got a 10 yo kid at home, and he is a Star Wars fan as any 10 yo kid can be.

Trying to get him a game set in the SW universe, but it is actually hard because it needs to be kid friendly (no blood/death everywhere) and have easy difficulty settings.
The Lego Star Wars game he enjoyed a lot of course. Maybe Jedi Knight Fallen Order might fit ? Any other recommendation ?

The rogue squadron games are clean and they're pretty solid if you like space combat.