5 Best And 5 Worst Star Wars Games

Star Wars evokes strong feelings in its fans, and even stronger feelings — nostalgia, joy, outrage, disgust — in those who play the games based in that galaxy far, far away. There is a Star Wars game for every platform and player, a dozen games for every decade since the original trilogy hit theaters. Developers banked on the good name of Skywalker to sell copies, but sometimes, this investment didn't pay off. Among the myriad of Star Wars games, there are certainly some classic gems that are well-loved to this day, but also a pile of shovelware that would make any decent gamer shiver with revulsion. They're bad, really bad.

George Lucas and the writers that came after crafted a massive universe filled with exciting possibilities: spaceflight and space fights and space wizards. There's a lot of fun to be had as a Jedi and plenty of room for memorable stories to be told. That's what the best of this list did, the games that made a respected name for themselves by giving fans an experience that holds up through the decades. The worst of this list certainly contained experiences ... with bad graphics, confusing controls, and ill-conceived concepts. But first, let's celebrate the games that weren't a total waste of money.

Diehard fans of the films can always find games set within all the big screen action, and one of the best of the best games to do so is Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II. Like lasers? Want a first person view of the Battle of Yavin? Rogue Squadron II is part flight simulator, all excitement. Players have cited that the GameCube controls, a marked improvement from the N64, handle like a dream. The graphics that developer Factor 5 packed into the game were cutting edge at the time of its 2001 release, during what has been called the LucasArts golden age of gaming, and aren't too shabby even today.

Players can fighter pilot their way through the pivotal battles from the movies as they lead the Rogue Squadron as either Wedge Antilles or Luke Skywalker. While all involving space battles and shooting stuff with lasers, the levels are varied and challenging, with bonus missions thrown in to keep players on their toes. Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II looks, feels, and sounds like Star Wars and is a short but sweet title that leaves players ready for more. The third title in the Rogue Squadron series was just as well-received, leaving fans to wonder when a fourth title would be released.

While it's unlikely more Rogue Squadron games will be made, the second of the series remains one of the best Star Wars titles around.

Hot take: the prequels weren't that bad. As viewed through the first-person tactical shooter Republic Commando, anyway. A game that makes the prequels bearable deserves its spot on this list, but the game does more than just that. Star Wars: Republic Commando gives players a closer look at the grittier side of galactic combat. Forget swinging around lightsabers and using the magical, omnipotent Force: you play just a guy with a gun trying not to get obliterated.

Players serve as the leader of the Delta Squad, four elite Clone troopers, during the events of the Clone Wars. The controls give you real authority and ultimately responsibility for the team that lovingly refers to the player as "Boss." And the Delta Squad are no dummies; they will take up positions of their own accord unless otherwise given orders. They, too, are fighting for their lives. Republic Commando is credited as being one of the more mature games in the expansive collection of Star Wars games, dark and gritty among titles that might otherwise feel like all fun and Force chokes.

Republic Commando is a blast to play, however serious the player might take their position as Boss.

Following the controversies of Star Wars: Battlefront 2, EA was under pressure to publish a new installment in the franchise that met fan expectations. Enter Respawn Entertainment, the folks behind the Titanfall series, who took a new approach to the property. By combining the trial-and-error combat systems of Dark Souls-type games, the puzzle-solving and platforming of Zelda, and the kind of out-of-sequence exploration commonly found in Metroidvania titles, Respawn created a Star Wars game that feels and plays unlike any other that came before it. 

The single strongest element of Fallen Order is its story, which was crafted by the game's narrative lead, Aaron Contreras, as well as a team of writers from previous Star Wars media. "Swinging a lightsaber is fun, but the story of outlaw Jedi Cal Kestis and former Jedi Cere Junda are what kept me playing," wrote Time's Matthew Gault. A strong cast led by Shameless and Gotham star Cameron Monaghan aided in telling that layered story of trauma and redemption.

Remember when the Kinect was going to revolutionize gaming? Yeah, neither do we. Motion controls and lightsabers should be the perfect pair, but an otherwise easy equation for a novel, new game turned into one of the worst Star Wars titles to date. Kinect Star Wars was a simple premise made needlessly complicated: kids want to swing around lightsabers, and the motion controls of the Kinect allowed them to do just that, except to such a limited scale that the fun was sucked out of the game entirely.

Kinect Star Wars is infamous in that you can only fight one enemy at a time, and the game arbitrarily chooses the opponent for the player, even if they're being beaten senseless by another. That and that there's no translation between the way the player swings and the direction that the lightsaber is directed. The optimal strategy here is flailing, apparently. Sometimes leaning one way or the other will allow the player to dodge attacks, but utilizing true Jedi skills and trying a Force push or two? Laughably overcomplicated and near useless.

The saving grace of this game, or its ultimate downfall, is the Galactic Dance Off mode. The dancing mini-game is evidently where all efforts toward maximizing motion control went. Clearly what players really wanted out of Kinect Star Wars was the ability to dance as Han Solo to punny versions of pop songs. Clearly.

Hate what the prequels did with Yoda? You'll hate this game too. The top-down RPG is just as cute as any other 16-bit game, but with none of the charm. Instead of a wise, wry master of the Jedi ways, Yoda is just a little green guy with a long list of fetch quests he's ready to unceremoniously thrust upon the player. There's no plot, and little indication as to why this game is even about Yoda other than the fact that he's the one with all the demands. Yoda Stories is cobbled together out of randomized missions that range from rescuing Leia to seeking out Sith amulets. Both of which sound exciting, but most of the gameplay involves walking around largely empty maps and hoping not to run into enemies.

Combat is near impossible. Enemies wink out of existence and make for difficult targets for boring attacks as Luke slashes his lightsaber (although it doesn't look like much of a lightsaber). But hey, in the end, the turtle-thing in the greenhouse is defeated, which is what ultimately matters. We think. The trouble with Yoda Stories is that the game was packaged as a time-killing desktop title like Solitaire, but the name of Star Wars comes with high expectations.

No one expects a Game Boy Advance rail shooter to change the industry's perceptions of what is possible within the medium of video game adaptations. However, it would be nice to be able to say that Star Wars: Flight of the Falcon was a decent game within its own genre. A Star Fox-esque title featuring the Millennium Falcon tearing through the forces of the Empire should be worth a few hours of button-mashing, at the very least.

Unfortunately, anyone hoping for something with even a fraction of the style of Star Fox (a game that was around a decade old when Flight of the Falcon was released in 2003) would be sorely disappointed. Reviews focused on issues including the game's muddy graphics, janky controls, and missions that drag on for far too long but feature such simple objectives as "shoot TIE fighters." The attempt at photo-realistic graphics on the tiny handheld system also resulted in a frame rate that, as Game Informer noted, "chugs to a point where many of the stages should be classified as unplayable."