Star Warsfever has slowed down a bit from its heyday, but it’s still a hugely popular franchise with tons of fans. Movies and TV shows are just a small part of it though—if you’re a gamer and a Star Wars fan, these classic Star Wars games absolutely cannot be ignored.
Not only do they tell new tales and give you a chance to wield a lightsaber, use the Force, and pilot some of the franchise’s most iconic ships, they’re also some of the IP’s top highlights.
8Knights of the Old Republic IandII
We cannot talk about legendaryStar Warsgames without mentioningKOTOR. Widely regarded as some of Bioware’s best games of all time, as well as some of the bestStar Warsgames ever made,KOTORand its sequel hold a special place in the hearts of many, many fans. By now, the mechanics are a little dated, but there’s little else to complain about.
The characters are intriguing and excellently voice-acted. The narrative has one of the best foreshadowed twists in gaming. These games are some of the onlyStar Warstitles where you are actually allowed to choose your own path and make your own decisions, instead of being forced into whatever the narrative says you have to do. Plus, it nails all of theclassic RPGelements like quests, exploration, and character building.
Sure, spamming Force lightning five times is probably still the meta move, but any play style can carry you through these excellent titles. Ask anyStar Warsgamer their opinion of these games—you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone saying you shouldn’t play them at least once.
7Dark Forces
It’s “classicDOOMbutStar Wars” complete with the funky 2.5D presentation and an incessant need to go kill a bad guy with a key to open a door. Admittedly, mechanics and graphics that old aren’t for everyone, butDark Forceswas a historic entry inStar Warsgaming, as one of the first FPS titles for the franchise. A remastered version of the game was released somewhat recently, clearing up some of the admittedly ancient aspects of the title.
Old though it may be,Dark Forcesis worth a look for any avid gamer. The story is self-contained but engaging (the best types ofStar Warsstory), the level design is exceptional for the time, there are great cutscenes to go along with the narrative, and the lack of an in-level save system means there is enough challenge to keep things fun. Ultimately, you’re able to getDark Forcesfor fairly cheap these days, so it’s worth a try for all fans.
6Star Wars: Jedi Knight
TheJedi Knightseries of games stands out in the annals ofStar Warshistory for many reasons. Even today, it still has some of the most complex, engaging, and realistic depictions of lightsaber combat inStar Warsgaming. You will quickly and easily cut down most foes with a single hit from your lightsaber, but the same is true for you, making duels tense and exciting.
The games are actually tied toDark Forcesas well, as they continue to follow the story of Kyle Katarn, and they include both first and third-person shooting gameplay. Combine that with some excellent platforming, unique missions and level design, a wide array of Force powers that feel like an early rendition of how crazyThe Force Unleashedwould one day become, and a gripping narrative stretching across dozens of awesome planets, and theJedi Knightseries truly shines.
5Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Every Star Wars prequel movie got some tie-in games that launched around the same time. These games weren’t always amazing, but one of them, simply titledStar Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith,was phenomenal (at least on consoles like Xbox and PlayStation 2).
In this action title almost bordering on a fighting game, players take control of Anakin Skywalker or Obi-Wan Kenobi as they fight through various levels based on the movie.
A deep combo system allows players to mix and match different types of saber strikes, grapples, and Force powers as they fight against all sorts of enemies, including droids, clones, other Jedi, and ultimately, Anakin or Obi-Wan themselves. This is the closestStar Warshas ever gotten to a genuinely good fighting game, while also being a pretty solid hack-n-slash.
Personally, my favorite aspect of this game was the fact that it based many levels and cutscenes on deleted scenes from the film, giving the player a fresh experience rather than just going through the exact same story we’d already seen in the movie. What if Obi-Wan actually got a chance to fight back against the clones after Order 66? What was it like for Anakin and Obi-Wan to fight through General Griveous' capital ship to rescue Palpatine? This game gives the answers.
4X-WingandTIE Fighter
I can’t think of a singleStar Warsfan that hasn’t shared a fantasy about piloting an iconic starfighter from the franchise. Many people were dreaming about flying an X-Wing around after watchingA New Hope. Me, I was always more of a TIE fighter kind of guy. Thankfully, Star Wars gave fans the ability to do both in the 90s withStar Wars: X-Wingand Star Wars:TIE Fighter. These were the first flight simulator games that gave you a real taste of piloting those craft.
In other words, it’sStar Wars: Squadronsbut twenty years its senior. These games were surprisingly advanced for their time and included a lot of content as well. You could fly all sorts of craft, including B-Wings, TIE Defenders, and even missile gunboats. There are various campaigns that stretch across the originalStar Warstimeline, including the assault on the Death Star and you as an imperial pilot working under Admiral Thrawn.
Why play these instead of the newerSquadrons?Well, ideally you should play them all, but ifyou really want a flight simulator experience,X-WingandTIE Fighteroffer more genuine experiences. They were even designed to be played primarily with a joystick.
3The Force Unleashed IandII
The Force Unleashedis the Star Wars series that finally allowed players to live out their Jedi and Sith power fantasies. Every game prior to these, and even most titles after them, have made the Force a useful tool, but decently grounded.The Force Unleashedcranked the superpowers up to a hundred and owned the absurdity of it all. You can crush Imperial vehicles like tin cans, fling enemies thousands of feet to their doom, and pull a Star Destroyer out of orbit, plus a lot more.
Admittedly, that’s the real selling point of these games. The story is a decent take on the formation of the Rebellion, Sith apprentice shenanigans, and hunting down survivors of Order 66, but it’s not incredible. It’s a hack-n-slash game that doesn’t really have incredibly deep combat mechanics, certainly nothing close to theJedi Knight.But there is noStar Warsgame that provides such an amazing power fantasy.
For no other reason than that,The Force Unleashedand its sequel are games every fan should play at least once. Besides, there is a huge variety of enemies, tons of cool levels, and some epic set-pieces. The first game is even quite different among its many platform versions, meaning there’s a good argument to be made for playing it multiple times.
2Republic Commando
Don’t get me wrong, I loveHalo,but I’ll always be upset that it overshadowed this incredible gem of aStar Warsgame.Republic Commandowas one of the firstStar Warsgames to go for that grittier, more realistic take on war. You play as a special type of clone trooper with unique training and genetic enhancements and go on spec ops missions with the rest of your elite team, while contending with droids, Geonosians, and angry lizard people with knives.
It really was a more serious, war-like entry—most quips are limited to one of your more cheerful squad mates, while the enemies are relentless killing machines focused only on destroying you. The visual tone was darker, lots of your fellow soldiers died pretty horrifying deaths, and you even had a fun little helmet windshield wiper to get all the blood off of you after a fight.
For me, the main highlight ofRepublic Commandowas the squad mechanic. Somehow, this pretty old game has much better squad AI than many current titles, with teammates who can actually pathfind, fight, and help you out effectively. It felt even better because they were all truly unique and likable—it was easy to grow genuinely attached to your brothers-in-arms, giving you that real clone trooper experience.
1Bounty Hunter
Star Wars is a franchise known for giving an unusual amount of content to characters that weren’t really that important in the movies. It started back in the day with Boba Fett, and the same thing happened with his father, Jango Fett.Bounty Hunterreleased as a sort of tie-in withAttack of the Clones, following the nefarious adventures of Jango Fett before he gets wrapped up in all of the clone army stuff that happens in the movies.
This third-person shooter gives you access to all the fun tools you’d expect, including Jango’s jetpack and missiles, the wrist-mounted flamethrower, his whipcord thrower, and his iconic double-pistols. You also get a ton of interesting maneuverability options—I don’t know why it’s so odd to see Jango Fett pulling backflips, but somehow, it works.
Games like this are part ofStar Wars' golden era because they do a great job of telling a self-contained story that is interesting, but doesn’t create any problems with the greater continuity. Jango Fett wasn’t a huge character inEpisode II, but this game honestly gives you a lot of reasons to be invested in him, and maybe even wish he hadn’t gotten owned by Mace Windu in that arena.
Honestly, there are still a ton of other amazingStar Warsgames I could put on this list, but if I did that, we’d be here all day. Let me just put it this way—ninety percent of the Star Wars games that came out between 1995 and 2007 are worth playing if you are a mega-fan.
The best part is, most of these games are fairly cheap now since they are old, sogetting into these goldie oldiesis not even that big of an investment.
