Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire

This was a game I rented multiple times back in the day, as it was pretty fun and quite frankly there were not all that many fun games for the Nintendo 64. It was this one and Turok, both rather fun games and both had a flaw to them that made them less than ideal. Extreme difficulty. Well to be fair, a person can easily win this game on the lowest difficulty selection. The problem? Well, you do not get much of an ending on this setting. "No problem," You are probably thinking to yourself, "I won the game easily enough on the easy level, I can probably handle the next one up". Well I do not know about anyone else, but neither my friend or me could handle it on the next difficulty level and I applaud anyone else who could. My friend could not make it past the first level, I got to the boss in the ice cavern stage where the boss took me out in like two shots and I pretty much sat there with my jaw opening wondering how in the world can anyone survive the game on such a insane degree of difficulty and there was at least one more degree of difficulty beyond the one up from easy, there may of been two! Still, it is a fun game on the easy mode as you play as some made up character that is buddies with Han Solo so unfortunately no light saber here. Still, some of the levels are a blast to play (unless on the aforementioned higher difficulty). I especially enjoyed the level where you were on the desert planet and you could see enemies far off and I used to blast them before they even saw me coming. I also liked the level where you had to fight that strange creature that was underwater in a sewer like stage. Of course, I made it all the way through, but I have no idea if Dash survived, because you had to be the best of the best to see beyond the shabby ending you get on the easiest section. I guess George Lucas wanted you to earn it!

This game was a childhood favorite of mine as both a gamer and a hardcore Star Wars fan. What makes it so revolutionary is not only that it's the very first fully 3D Star Wars game, but also one of the first fully 3D third person shooters ever created.

The music was amazing, from John Williams legendary soundtrack from the original trilogy to the new music by Joel McNeely. In fact, this was one of the few N64 games with a fully orchestrated soundtrack. The sound effects were superb, with classic sounds from the movies like blaster fire and creature sounds that sounded clear and intimidating.

Admittingly, though, the game hasn't aged too well. As typical for early 3D platformers, the controls for Dash were clumsy and frustrating with his floaty jumping. Many of the levels required well timed jumps over bottomless pits that made them tough to beat, especially when collecting certain challenge points. The levels look empty, have few details, and are as coarsely textured as the enemy models. But the combat still holds up fairly well as you fight enemies like Stormtroopers and probe droids with your blaster, seeker missiles, pulse rifle, and other weapons. The games generous auto aim really helped.

The vehicle-based missions, like the asteroid field and the final battle against Prince Xizors Skyhook were way more fun and less cumbersome. My favorite was the first level in which you pilot a Snowspeeder and toppled over AT-ATs during the Battle of Hoth, which was like a dream come true for me as a kid. It even set the stage for the Rouge Squadron series. The bosses were challenging, ranging from original Star Wars figures, such as Boba Fett and IG-88 to more original ones like Xizor's Gladiator droid and the terrifying Giant Dianoga that undoubtedly gave many gamers nightmares.

Flaws, aging, and difficulty aside, this game is still worth playing today if you're a Warsie who enjoys classic games. You can try it on the PC on Steam and experience the game that marked the Star Wars franchise successful leap into the realm of 3D games.

I liked Shadows of the Empire. The gameplay and storyline are very well used. The story came from Steve Perry's Star Wars novel released by Bantam Books. I liked to see a story explaining the events between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

This game couldn't be played by anyone other than Dash Rendar. Leia hired him to protect Luke. That was the goal. The graphics aren't that great in the N64, but the PC version is very good. The sound and music are excellent, but Rogue Squadron is already my new favorite Star Wars N64 title. Shadows got old quickly. That doesn't make the game bad. I like it. Getting all the Challenge points is a real challenge worth seeking.

And it's definitely a Star Wars worth playing, even with grand games like X-Wing vs Tie Fighter or Jedi Knight.

I loved how this was a multimedia release and had read the books, comics and had the tie ins years ago. But alas, nothing to play the game on! Well GOG finally released it and I just finished it on 'easy'. I did NOT find easy to be easy! But I enjoyed the way its story ties into the book and comic. The only thing really stopping me giving it 10 is 3 little details. 1. Some of the scenes were too dark. Whether it was an age thing or what, it made it hard to see to navigate. 2. auto aim was atrocious. Never worked if the robot shooting at me was beneath me.

3. Dash has an annoying habit of running off cliffs. Hitting back space, crouching, sometimes nothing stopped him. Finally I found a Logitech Gamepad worked better than the keyboard.

I did find the swoop riding fun when I got the hang of it and the space combat was great!

The graphics are dated. But that's okay because those dianoga monsters in the sewers are one thing I do not want greater detail on.

Given its age it was a great game and reminded me a lot of the Dark Forces series. I just wish it had let me do the aiming!

Shadows of the Empire was originally a PC game.But when Nintendo 64 appeared, Lucasarts launched this game in the new Nintendo console. The game does not have good graphics or a good gameplay, but is a Fun-Factor game, is very cool. You play as Dash Rendar, an old friend of Han Solo(He is a smuggler, too) and his loyal droid LE-BO729, or just Leebo.In this game you have to stop Prince Xizor's evil plans. For this, you can count with Dash's multifunctional Blaster, a Snowspeeder, a Speederbike and his starship, the Outrider, a ship that is strangely similar to the Millennium Falcon. Shadows of the Empire was the first Star Wars game in N64.And it is a very good game. My score for Star Wars Shadows of the Empire is 9/10