"Excellent launch game that does the Star Wars legacy justice"

Back then, in the middle of the 90s, the revival of the Star Wars franchise slowly began, about to draw a whole new generation of fans into the vortex of fascination for the galaxy far, far away. Not only was the Star Wars Special Edition about to hit the theaters and the long awaited prequels finally in the making, Lucasfilm also decided to create a multimedia project in order to satisfy fans and to heat up the anticipation for the upcoming Special Edition and the Prequel Trilogy: "Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire", which can be described as some sort of Episode 5.5. It´s an interquel set between "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi", consisting of a novel, comic books and a video game, and they all clear up some burning questions concerning the one year gap between Episode V and VI, like how Luke Skywalker built his new lightsaber. And the video game "Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire" also happened to be one of the very first Nintendo 64 games, a launch title in the US, to be precise, and of course a game based on the most popular movie franchise ever seemed like an ideal possibility of boosting the sales of the N64 even further. But the most important question is: did it live up to the Star Wars legacy?

The story of "Shadows of the Empire" begins roughly at the same time as "The Empire Strikes Back". You play as Dash Rendar, a smuggler and old friend of Han Solo and Lando Calrissian who´s helping the Rebel Alliance during the Battle of Hoth in order to ensure the safe evacuation of the Rebel Base. After a dazzling chase through an asteroid field, resembling the one seen in Episode V, you follow Dash as he tries to foil the ambitions of crime lord Prince Xizor of the Black Sun organization, who is trying to kill Luke Skywalkwer and make Darth Vader appear in a bad light because of this failure, so Xizor can take over Vader´s place at Emperor Palpatine´s side as the second most important figure in the galaxy. At the same time, you´re also trying to track down Boba Fett in order to free Han Solo, who has already been frozen in carbonite at that point. In the end, the game directly goes over into the beginning of "Return of the Jedi", and while it is a great idea to tell the story between Episode V and VI, it shows its full potential if you read the novel and the comic books as well. But even on its own, "Shadows of the Empire" has an interesting and intriguing storyline.

The gameplay, however, remains a rather dubious aspect. "Shadows of the Empire" is a 3D action game at heart, featuring a variety of different missions, like the on-foot missions, space battles or even a speeder bike chase. This variety is already a big plus for this game, since it does not restrict you to a simple third person action affair throughout the entire game, and the that already gets clear right at the beginning of the game, where you´re piloting a Snowspeeder during the Battle of Hoth and have to take down the monstrous AT-ATs with your harpoons and tow cables, just like in the movie. Let´s just say that this level is legendary for a reason by now, and it already sucks you into the game right from the start. And while the space battles are also a lot of fun to play, the on-foot missions are not without their flaws. The controls are far from perfect, and it´s sometimes very difficult to even walk in a straight line. Turning around with Dash is also a problem sometimes, and it is very likely that at certain points, you might fall down off a cliff simply because you accidentally walked off it due to the somewhat clunky controls, which is somehow in stark contrast to the near perfect 3D control found in Super Mario 64, which was released at the same time. While it´s bearable in the regular third person view, the first person view makes navigating through the levels even more difficult, and I don´t really recommend using this camera angle. Speaking of which, the game features quite some camera angles for you to choose from, but alas, some of them are rather useless because they fail to provide you with a fitting overview over what´s going on. Another problem is that during some on-foot missions, you have to spend quite some time walking around without doing anything, since a lot of the areas in some levels are simply empty, so to speak, which means that there´s not a lot for you to interact with, not even enemies to shoot, since they appear rather sparsely in each level in comparison. On the other hand, some of the boss battles are really intriguing and quite challenging, too, especially the fight against Boba Fett and his Slave-1 spaceship is memorable. In terms of difficulty, by the way, "Shadows of the Empire" is well balanced due to you being able to select a difficulty level, so nearly everyone can enjoy the game, from beginners to experts. Anyway, despite the camera and control problems, "Shadows of the Empire" still is a very enjoyable gaming experience especially for Star Wars fans.

Visually, "Shadows of the Empire" is in some ways a mixed bag. First of all, the levels themselves have been excellently designed, and no matter whether it´s the sewers of Coruscant, the Rebel Base on Hoth or the junkyard on Ord Mantell, each level is a faithful recreation of the places we´ve seen in the movies or comic books or read about in some novels. The character models are also well done, especially those of Dash Rendar and Boba Fett, and the vehicles we all know from the movies are also being presented in a way that will surely please Star Wars fans. Sure enough, being a Star Wars game, you can also expect some nice special effects like some good looking explosions during the space battles, for example. However, the graphics also have their fair share of problems. The levels, while well designed per say, are sometimes suffering from a sterile feeling due to monotonous textures featuring gray and brown colors that make walking through the levels a little boring at times (in combination with the aforementioned problem concerning the gameplay). Also, some textures come off as blurry at certain points, and there´s also the occasional fogging a lot of N64 are suffering from, but at least it sometimes works in the context of the levels. Overall, the visuals are quite good for a first generation Nintendo 64 game despite their problems.

Knowing the problems of the Nintendo 64 in the sound department due to the cartridge technology being used instead of the CD medium and the limitations of the console´s sound chip, the audio in "Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire" is simply awesome and certainly does the orchestral soundtrack and the dazzling sound effects of the movies justice. A lot of John Williams´ world famous Star Wars tracks have been included in this game during certain levels, like the spectacular opening crawl theme, and in the first few missions during the Battle of Hoth, the music is exactly the same as in the same scene in the movie "The Empire Strikes Back", which adds a lot to the atmosphere of the game, and best of all things, Williams´ musical pieces even sound surprisingly good on the N64 despite the game being in mono. It´s a great relief for every Star Wars fan to know that the awe inspiring soundtrack of the movies along with some new and original themes by Joel McNeely have been faithfully recreated, and the same goes for the sound effects. They resemble their counterparts from the movies, like the roaring sound of the TIE-fighters or blaster shots, and they also help to create a very good Star Wars atmosphere in this game. So, in the sound department, Lucas Arts showed what the Nintendo 64 was capable of in that regard even early in the console´s life cycle.

While "Shadows of the Empire" might be suffering from some problems in the gameplay department, the overall presentation more than makes up for that. As one of the early Nintendo 64 titles, it is able to capture the Star Wars magic and to make fans feel right at home, and a lot of the missions simply are fun to play to say the least. Star Wars fans who were already intrigued by the "Shadows of the Empire" multimedia project and its forthcomings should definitely give this game a try.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/21/06