Star Wars

According to ESRB, this game contains: Animated Violence

What kind of strange hold does Star Wars and LucasArts have over this industry? With every Star Wars game release, the video game industry salivates. It doesn't even matter that we get stinkers like Shadows Of The Empire, Jedi Power Battles and many of the other forgettable releases, the next announcement always brings more cheers from the press as if it were the first. It's no more evident than with Star Wars: Starfighter.

While Starfighter succeeds in delivering accessible gameplay and superb technical elements, it ultimately lacks personality.

Game Description: Take back the Theed Royal Palace in this fast and furious lightsaber action game. You will have the power of the Force and your trusty Jedi saber to help you ward off legions of battle droids, destroyer droids, assassins, and other creatures from the Star Wars: Episode I worlds. Your connection to the Force grows with each battle, which adds much-needed power boosts, new moves, and enhanced Jedi abilities for your journeys within the various worlds. Choose to fight as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, or Jedi Council members Mace Windu, Plo Koon, or Adi Gallia.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Animated Violence

What's worse is that some of their best games were actually created by other companies: like the Star Wars series (developed by Capcom) on the Super Nintendo and Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (developed by Factor 5) for the Nintendo 64. It's likely that the potency of the Star Wars license is why this division continues to exist. Their latest is a side-scrolling fighting game called Star Wars Episode I: Jedi Power Battles and it's close to being a game that LucasArts finally got right.

Jedi Power Battles was a strangely difficult game to review. Dale and I on some level enjoyed the game, but you must wonder if our patience wouldn't have ran out a lot quicker if we weren't professionally obligated to play it. All the major problems that Dale mentioned in his review are very accurate and very serious.

You are familiar with the hype and whether it was generated by the media, George Lucas, or the fans themselves, it's helped to sell everything and anything Star Wars. Whether a product was any good was irrelevant, if it was graced with Star Wars, it was a must-have for any "true" fan. So as soon as Nintendo announced that they had a limited exclusivity deal with LucasArts, many in the media saw it as a coup for Nintendo. Others, however, doubted the game's significance because although it carried with it a big-license name, Pod Racer (as it was then called) was still merely a racing game.

I take exception to the comparison Chi made of The Phantom Menace to Super Mario 64 and the Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time. Being a fan of both games, I can say that The Phantom Menace has little to show in terms of inspiration from either masterpiece. What I do see is that LucasArts wanted to capitalize on the trend of third-person perspective titles and the Star Wars prequel license at the same time.