One book in particular stands out in the massive library of Star Wars fiction as being the best:  Shadows of the Empire – although I will throw in anything from Timothy Zahn up there in contention.

Shadows tells the story of all of your favorite Star Wars characters (minus Han who is busy hanging out in a block of frozen carbonite) in between the Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi movies.  The gang hatches a plan to save Han, but of course nothing is easy, and gets tied up in one of the galaxy’s most feared criminal organizations:  Black Sun.

You’ll be introduced to other side characters that aren’t in the movies, like the droid bodyguard assassin Guri; the head of Black Sun Prince Xizor; and one of my favorite characters, Dash Rendar, to play the gritty smuggler.  He’s almost a carbon copy of Han Solo (so I can see why they didn’t want to include him in the movies), but Dash is even more of an asshole.  I always loved that side of Han Solo, because he’s just a complete dick and he wins over the princess who is light years out of his league.

Shadows of the Empire features just enough of the main saga of Star Wars to care, but enough new fresh, content thrown in to play around with the characters and see them in new ways.  If you haven’t read the book, you might have already gotten everything by playing the N64 classic of the same name.  In the game, you took control of Dash with his trusty sidekick droid Leebo, and saw a companion piece to what happens in the book.

The book mostly follows Chewie, Lando, Leia, Luke, and the droids.  In the game, you follow Dash and will constantly go off on your own, but occasionally intersect with the main characters as you come back to help out.  It really is neat to look back and see how a video game beautifully intertwined with tie-in fiction. I  just finished reading Shadows of the Empire, and now that I look back on that game, I realize just how great it actually was.

Now I want a high definition remake.

The book illustrates a lot of flying and dog-fights in space.  It’s a little tough to read because you’re constantly trying to picture in your mind what’s going on during a large-scale battle, but the book fits perfectly into what a game should be:  action sequences.  There were a few third-person platforming and exploration levels thrown into the N64 classic for a junkyard sequence and hunting down Boba Fett (before he gets killed in the sarlacc pit in Jedi *spoiler*) but this would also be perfect as well.

Shadow’s story was masterfully told.  Every now and then in the book, you’ll find a connection to the Star Wars movies (which is what most fans want).  Want to know how many Bothans died to bring Mon Mothma the second Death Star plans? That’s in the book.  It’s little rewards like this that tie back into the main story and you get one of those, “Oh yeah!” moments.

Sadly, the story and the ending are Shadows’ downfall.  With all of these dog-fights, high-speed chases, and epic battles, the end of the book doesn’t really wrap up.  It just can’t.  It’s got to make room for the Return of the Jedi movie.  This could piss some gamers off.  They just sat there and battled for eight hours and they get to the end only to see that pretty much everything is exactly the same as in the beginning; Han is still in carbonite, people died, there were a few space battles, and Chewbacca growled a few times.  Maybe they should just have the plans fall into the Alliance’s hands and show the first couple of clips from Return of the Jedi, then cut it off, I think that would make a great ending.

The first Star Wars: Force Unleashed delivered a mediocre story at best and offered uninspired rinse and repeat gameplay (and also a Star Destroyer glitch to hamper the game). Shadows of the Empire could be a breath of fresh air that Star Wars gamers want and need.  Sure, playing as Luke Starkiller in the Force Unleashed series is nice and all, but being able to tie into the main movies is something every Star Wars fan wants to do.  That’s the reason the Rogue Squadron flight series did so well, and Dark Forces, and Dark Knight.  See where I’m going with this?  Who didn’t want to take down Imperial AT-AT walkers on Hoth in Roque Squadron? Anybody? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Everyone does.

So with those reasons right there:  renewed faith in the Star Wars franchise, fun engaging gameplay, action packed sequences, and little tie-backs and hints to the original trilogy, gamers would line up in droves to play a high-def remake of Shadows of the Empire.  I just hope Mr. Lucas ok’s it and forgoes the “special edition” treatment.  Believe me; he’s signed off on worse:  Jar Jar Binks and the reveal of midichlorians didn’t really do much for my faith in Uncle George. Let’s make up for that.

Justin “D-bag” McCullough can also be found ranting and rambling over on his personal blog at the Distorted Gamer Blog.

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To think of LucasArts (formerly Lucasfilm Games) is to think of George Lucas, the man who created it all. The pompadour sporting and flannel wearing visionary gave us Star Wars and Indiana Jones, for which he should be canonized. Some would be happy evolving just one form of media, but it appears that forever changing the face of cinema and inventing the Wookie wasn’t enough for Mr. Lucas. He still had to revitalize another form of entertainment– video games.

In 1982 the video game industry was on a precipice after some very tumultuous years. By the end of 1983, the video game crash was in full swing. Angry gamers were becoming frustrated by aging consoles and yearned for a breath of fresh air. It may not have been the best time to form a new software company, but many of Lucas’s undertakings were never considered financially viable by economic groupthink.

The company began by making low-key action games for the Atari 5200, but would soon find success with adventure games. The adventure genre was a huge market in the late 80′s and early 90′s, and LucasArts became one of the forerunners in developing memorable titles. They got their feet wet with the 1987 classic Maniac Mansion, a hilarious adventure that played off America’s love of B-grade horror films.

Maniac Mansion was the first game to utilize the SCUMM scripting language that would go on to create the company’s most memorable entries over the next 10 years. It also introduced something that would become a staple of LucasArts’ adventure games – humor. Games like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max and the beloved Monkey Island series would set the bar for the funniest and best 2D adventure games of the day. But LucasArts didn’t stop there.

George wasn’t going to let his lucrative franchises in the film industry go unused in this newly discovered market, and Star Wars became the basis of dozens of games for the developer. These games sent fans of the series running to their nearest software retailers faster than Han Solo making the Kessel Run. LucasArts used the Star Wars name to contribute to the flight-sim (X-wing Series), first person shooter (Dark Forces and Jedi Knight Series), role playing (Knights of the Old Republic Series by BioWare) and MMO genres (Star Wars Galaxies). If it was a genre, it had a LucasArts game.

LucasArts continues to make its mark in the gaming world today, with a level of quality that has remained consistent over the majority of the last two decades. While adventure games don’t tend to be a popular commodity and some licenses have failed to make a smooth jump to 3D (I’m looking at you, Dr. Jones), Lucasarts still offers plenty of promise for the future. From the recent collaboration with Industrial Light and Magic and the huge budget that pact provides, we can only hope that Lucasarts will continue to rocket the gaming community to a galaxy far, far away.

Must Haves:
Grim Fandango (PC),
The Monkey Island Series (PC),
Star Wars: X-wing (PC)

Have Nots:
Star Wars Obi-Wan (XBOX),
The Dig (PC)

Top Ten Developer List: 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1

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