It’s almost Star Wars day, which I’m not a super expert on but from what I’ve observed on the outside it’s a silly pun that turned into a merchandise preordering party? Anyway, It’s pretty cool that I got to see the rollercoaster known as Star Wars’ reputation shift and careen so wildly throughout my lifetime. Through all the discourse, disappointment, and occasional rallying point, there were some solid Star Wars videogames. So, if you’re not busy refreshing store tracker bots to secure your new novelty silverware preorder or whatever, here are some games you could play to celebrate instead.
Related: All unlock codes for Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
Jedi: Fallen Order
“Dark Souls Metroidvania with Stormtroopers” was not something I ever would’ve expected, but here we are. Published by EA of all outfits, Respawn’s third-person adventure did an incredible job blending the “Soulslike” language with AAA gaming’s more gentle hand. You could still crank the difficulty up if you want, though!
The main character is kind of a wet hunk of driftwood, but the premise is at least kind of interesting. The real appeal of this new world though, in my opinion, is the way it pokes around with Star Wars iconography without being super pandering. Anyway, it’s a cool game even if you’re a fake Star Wars fan like me.
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
Lego Star Wars games have been around since the GameCube, and everyone got sick of them a few decades later. Especially after Marvel got involved. But Traveler’s Tales took a multi-year break from Star Wars, let all the movie arguments die down, then made a massive Lego Star Wars comprising the whole series. Or at least all the movies.
Turns out waiting a while was the best choice, as people love this game. I haven’t personally played it yet, but everyone who has seems to love it. So try it out, maybe! It’s also the most recent Star Wars game, so it’ll be the most money you can give Mr. Star Wars on a single product. I’m pretty sure Jesse said it was good.
Star Wars Episode 1: Racer
This was probably a bad game, but I loved it when I was a kid and Limited Run Games did stuff with it, so that’s good for something. The Star Wars parts of this game are barely relevant, but the “trying to race well but everything kills you” parts were sick as hell. Your CGI Hot Wheels Wacky Racer takes damage based on where you hit it (or someone else hits you), and you can have classic movie experiences such as “angrily hold down the magic switch and maybe it fixes your vehicle.” Love that stuff. And the speed numbers are super high, and sometimes when you die you can watch the piece of your ship that hasn’t exploded yet sail down an empty track like a missile.
Final Fantasy IV
Seriously, zoom out a little bit and you can draw several big plot point comparisons from Star Wars to Final Fantasy IV. And that’s pretty deliberate, actually. From Cecil’s internal conflicts to, well, just about everything about Golbez, you can see the inspiration everywhere. And I don’t just mean the easy stuff like the ship names. But also consider the ship names.
Final Fantasy IV is effectively a Star Wars game for all intents and purposes, especially since it takes those beats and puts them on a game that’s way more interesting than anything else on the “List of Star Wars Games” page on Wikipedia. You already know how the actual movies went anyway if you played those Lego games. Plus, once you’ve finished Final Fantasy IV, you’re perfectly set up to enjoy the callbacks to that in Final Fantasy XIV, the critically-acclaimed JRPG. And with the expanded Free Trial, you can play through the entirety of A Realm Reborn and the award-winning Heavensward expansion up to level 60 for FREE with no restrictions on playtime!
