With Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker around the corner, the whole world is experiencing Star Wars fever. For gamers, that means diving into the video games that helped bring this space opera to life.
However, you don’t have to play very long to realize something: there are some really bad Star Wars games out there. For every game that blows you away, there are two or three that feel like a terrible cash grab.
So, how can you enjoy your digital Star Wars adventures without wasting time and money on awful games? You don’t need to use The Force. This comprehensive guide to the best and worst Star Wars games ever made will do the trick!
Worst Star Wars Games Ever
These are the five worst offenses in a galaxy far, far way.
Star Wars: Masters of Teräs Käsi
What do you think of when you think of Star Wars? Most of us imagine fantastic Force powers, cool lightsaber battles, and sweet starship combat.
In Masters of Teräs Käsi, though, Star Wars is reimagined as a terrible 3D fighting game. There are no Force powers, unsatisfying special moves, and way more fisticuffs than you’d expect from the Star Wars universe.
Released in 1997 for PlayStation, this wasn’t just a bad game: it’s one of the worst fighting games ever made. Nonetheless, the Teräs Käsi fighting style got a shoutout in Solo: A Star Wars Story, making this game quasi-canonical!
Star Wars: Obi-Wan
Sometimes, a game isn’t just bad because of the final product. It can also be bad because of its squandered potential.
Released in 2001 for Xbox, Star Wars: Obi-Wan may not be the worst action platformer you’ll ever play. But it’s also the worst of its kind. It lacks the innovation of Jedi Knight, the multiplayer madness of Jedi Outcast, and the crazy Force powers of The Force Unleashed.
In short: if you want to play this kind of game (3D Jedi platformer), you’re better off playing almost anything else.
Star Wars: Super Bombad Racing
There are more Star Wars racing games than you might imagine. And some are surprisingly fun (shout out to Star Wars Episode 1: Racer).
However, Super Bombad Racing is barely a Star Wars game. Released for PlayStation 2 in 2001, this kart racer isn’t fit to lick Mario Kart’s boots. It simply has a Star Wars skin tacked on, and boy, that skin is ugly. Stare at these weird chibi heads long enough and you’ll be ready to have an Ewok eat you.
Star Wars: Yoda Stories
People love the narrative complexity of Star Wars. And people love Yoda (especially Baby Yoda). Sadly, Star Wars: Yoda Stories is a Yoda game with no story whatsoever.
Released in 1997 for PC and Game Boy, you play as Luke Skywalker and wander around procedurally-generated Dagobah levels. Yoda gives you increasingly random missions such as finding objects or rescuing some of the inexplicable visitors to the hidden planet.
And that’s the whole game! Bad graphics and non-existent story will make you long for classic LucasArts adventure games like Maniac Mansion.
Kinect Star Wars
When it comes to the Kinect, Microsoft gets a solid “E” for effort. They did their best to change how gamers explore virtual worlds. But games were typically lacking, and 2012’s Kinect Star Wars for the Xbox 360 is a great example of this.
There are several game modes here, and all of them are pretty bad. While controlling things like lightsabers and podracers with only your body sounds neat on paper, the bad motion recognition led to an unfulfilling experience.
To make things worse, this game features a “Galactic Dance-Off” that is the cringiest thing you will ever see. Each song was a Star Wars parody of a famous song, including “I’m Han Solo” (an infamous parody of Jason Derulo’s “Ridin’ Solo”).
Best Star Wars Games Ever
Now that we’ve covered the worst Star Wars games of all time, let’s move on to the all-time best!
Super Star Wars
The Super Nintendo had three different Star Wars games. However, the first one from 1992, known simply as Super Star Wars, remains the very best.
This game was Star Wars stripped down to its central elements. It’s a 2D action platformer with some Mode 7 vehicle levels thrown in. You spend your time blasting, slicing, and trying not to fall to your death in several colorful levels (including the monster-filled bowels of a Jawa Sandcrawler).
With multiple characters, cool weapons, and fiercely inventive design, this is one of the most memorable franchise games you will ever play.
Star Wars Trilogy Arcade
Many of the games on this list are available through modern console re-releases and digital platforms. But Star Wars Trilogy Arcade, as the name suggests, is an arcade-only title.
While Star Wars has enjoyed multiple arcade games, this 1998 game is the best of them. It’s a rail shooter that lets you play through the entire Original Trilogy. In-between levels, you engage in cool lightsaber battle with figures like Boba Fett and Darth Vader.
Long story short? This game does the best job of simulating the rush you first felt when Luke Skywalker blew up the Death Star. And like his “great shot,” this game is “one in a million.”
Star Wars: TIE Fighter
In most Star Wars games, starship combat is either simplified arcade action or simply nonexistent. But in the Star Wars: X-Wing series of computer games, your action is blended with a cool flight simulator.
Combat is about more than flying and shooting. You must reroute engine power, buff the shields, match targets’ speeds and keep your lasers energized. Oh, and don’t forget to give commands to wingmates and keep an eye on each objective.
Gameplay in the 1994 sequel TIE Fighter is more refined than in the original X-Wing game. The campaign creates an interesting overall narrative, and completing bonus objectives lets you rise up the ranks of a secret society led by Emperor Palpatine!
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
There are surprisingly few Star Wars: RPG games. Luckily, the most famous one also happened to knock things out of the park.
2003’s Knights of the Old Republic ditches the time period of Luke, Han, and Leia and sticks you in (you guessed it) The Old Republic. There, you must unravel mysteries regarding both a Sith plot and your own background.
In this BioWare title, combat and dialogue options are varied and exciting. Additionally, longtime readers of Star Wars Legends comics and novels will find many cool Easter eggs. And while there’s no Baby Yoda, you do get to control a really awesome Mandalorian!
Star Wars: The Old Republic
It may feel like cheating to have two different “Old Republic” BioWare games in the “Best” category. But while KOTOR helped perfect the Star Wars RPG, it was 2011’s TOR that redefined what an MMORPG can do.
Each character class gets its own sweet story, and every bit of dialogue has been recorded by professional voice actors. This creates impressive immersion while you play characters like Jedi warriors, shady smugglers, Imperial spies, and much more.
Hot take: The Old Republic really blows the original Star Wars MMORPG (2003’s Star Wars Galaxies) away.
Which Star Wars games are the all-time best and worst? Sound off in the comments below!
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