Nintendo 64

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire                                                              Review made on: August 22, 2000

    Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire was the first Star Wars game to appear on the Nintendo 64 and was the first Star Wars 3-D adventure game to appear on any Nintendo console.  While this game doesn't entirely follow the events that transpired in any of the Star Wars movies, this game still has that Star Wars look and feel.  Even though you won't be able to control such Star Wars favourites such as Luke Skywalker or Han Solo, the characters in this game are still pretty cool.  Not even the one and only Darth Vader appears in this game, although he is mentioned several times and in this game. You'll be able to see a few areas that are present in the movie: The Empire Strikes Back like The Battle of Hoth and the asteroid field.  In this game there are a few characters that you'll might recognize like the bounty hunter Boba Fett and the imperial Stormtroopers.  Without further adieu, lets go onto our review.

    The gameplay in this game is quite complex for most novice gamers, although in some areas all you'll do is run and blast everything in sight.  Learning how to use the harpoon is especially difficult and learning how to jump over obstacles and avoiding them provides a steep learning curve as well.  In this game you will take on the role of Dash Rendar, Han Solo's friend and a member of the rebel alliance who struggles to help the rebel alliance defeat a new foe who has replaced Darth Vader as the emperor's right hand man.  Along the way Dash will encounter some old rivals and in this game, there are a few twists and turns that will change the complexion of the entire plot.

Not much to say, but all of these pictures are hard to see, so they were edited slightly.

    The graphics are above-average but however, they are very foggy and its hard to see what's going on in some places because it is very dark.  Therefore, you should try to brighten up your TV so you can see what's going on, instead of going around in circles and to most gamers, this is definitely frustrating.  So while the visuals may seem decent, they aren't that great and are quite blurry and the graphics seem to have some room for improvement.  The game's movie mode (a camera angle) is hard to master, but it is worthwhile as it looks like you are watching a movie.

    The game's sound is your usual Star Wars type of music and it sounds pretty good for the time.  The sound effects are nicely done with all the laser blasts and explosions being rendered almost flawlessly.  Sadly, this is one of the game's few high points as the graphics, gameplay and a lack of good Star Wars licensed characters (like no Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, etc.) really stand out in this game.

    The value is above-average, with some decent replay value and a decent plot to the game as well.  However, the learning curve is quite steep for this game and like most N64 games, this game is quite expensive and not entirely worth it.  Instead of wasting like $60 of your hard-earned cash, I suggest renting this game first before going out and buying it.

    There are no mentionable bugs in this game.  This game seems to play very well with no noticeable slowdown or glitches whatsoever.

    There are several modes of play in this game like easy, medium, hard and Jedi mode.  The ending of the game depends on what mode you beat the game with.  For the game's best ending, you'll have to beat the game in Jedi mode to see it.  When you defeat the game in easy mode, Dash seems to die in the explosion, but when you defeat the game in Jedi mode, you'll find out his fate and see what happens for yourself.  Also, there are plenty of secrets like collecting challenge points and finding secret items to keep people busy for a few hours but however, there isn't much other than this in terms of bonuses and extras.

    This game isn't really a classic due to the sub-par graphics, no Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader and a lack of replay value in the game.  So instead of it being a classic, I think this is an above-average game.

    This game is quite fun but after beating the game through once or twice, this game tends to get boring and the OK graphics don't seem to help either.  Besides from the challenge points and bonuses, there aren't anymore extras for replay value and the game gets kind of tiresome after a while.

    Overall, this game is not the best, but its decent and plays good.  But there are plenty of negative aspects of this game as well, like bad graphic effects, complex gameplay and not so many extras to keep gamers busy.  So I suggest you would rather rent this game to give it a try, but in my opinion this game is not a must buy, instead only real hardcore Star Wars fans would buy this game.

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