"A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, a mediocre Star Wars game was made."

Star wars have always been a profitable franchise. It seems that anything with the Star Wars name on it will always sell like hot cakes. The same goes with the video games. The only difference between star wars games and other movie to game adoptions' is that the star wars games are actually good.

So when the N64 was announced, they promised that they would be creating a star wars game. However, it didn't have Luke in it. Some were skeptic, questioning why they would change the already great formula that they had. Others saw the positive side of idea. So, is this game just as good as the others, or is it just a cheap knockoff made for the sole purpose of profit? Actually, to my surprise, this is a pretty good Star Wars game.

GRAPHICS: 6
For N64 graphics, they actually don't look to bad, but you can tell that this was an early game for the console. The graphics sort of have the same problem with Crusin USA's game; the walls and backgrounds are fuzzy and smeared together, and from what I've seen, most early N64 games have the same problem, but more on that in other reviews.

To be fair, the models actually don't look bad, but they do have their problems. For example, the main character Dack looks like a deformed rectangular cube clothed Intergalactic armor. Ok, so its not bad, but the worse part about him is had face. It looks like he's been beaten with an ugly stick and forced into a pool of acid. He doesn't even really resemble a real human being.

Luckily, the producers quickly saw this problem and made all the other models wear masks. Ok, so they also lack visibility and clarity as well, but that's forgivable. Speaking of all the masked solders, all your favorite solders are in this game, like the storm troopers to the snow troopers, and don't forget about the big white blocks known as the wookies. There are a few guys that they wont recognize like the green suit guys or the crab suit guys, but they add some depth and are refreshing to see in later levels of the game. There are also many alien creatures and space ships to see in this game, so keep your eyes pealed.

SOUND/MUISC: 7
The audio in this game is quite adequate, even if the sound quality is poor. What I mean is that its very muffled, which means that you will have to turn up the volume just to get any sound from this game.

If you listen to the music in this game, you will recognize it. Basically it's just the same music from all the Star wars movies before episode one, so its quite cool to listen to, because it makes the game feel like a movie. You have all you favorite themes, such as the intro theme, the Hoth music, and many more. Actually, most of the music is from the second, or fifth movie, probably because this game is based off that film.

The sound it's just what you would expect in any star wars game. You have you laser blast sound, you Millennium Falcon ship sounds and all the voices from all the storm Troopers and aliens that populate the weird worlds of the Star Wars Movies.

GAMEPLAY: 5
Shadows is a shooting/action game set in many levels or scenes from the fifth movie. With that information, you would expect the game to have a great display of enemies, big gunfights and light sabers. Well, sorry to disappoint you, but there aren't any of that, except for many gunfights. Dull, repetitive and boring gun fight's. Shadows, while it does have the occasional ship fight from time to time, is just a run and gun game where you go from point A to point B, shooting off many generic enemies with no thought at all. The game plays a lot like doom, only with better graphics, less weapons and an annoying camera.

The stages, however, are huge compared to Doom; in fact they're a little too big. Even at the beginning of the game, most levels are from 5 to 15 minutes long. So how is this a bad thing? Well, huge levels are good when you actually have fun objectives to accomplish, instead of just getting into a fire fest with the same generic enemy's.

Plus, and for who knows why, some producer actually thought that it would be a great idea to add cliffs the size of a tightropes in many levels. Ok, cliffs are fine, IF the controls are spot on. Unfortunately, this game doesn't have clear controls and at particular points, it really shows.

Take this as an example.

You're standing on one cliff and you have to jump to another one, which is in front of you and slightly to the right. You would probably think that it's just a simple task of jumping easily on the next cliff, but when you attempt to jump, you over shoot it, bounce, and fall off the cliff. To sum it up, the jumping in this game is suicidal, no matter which camera mode your in. What's worse is that sometimes they expect you to jump on cliffs taller than the one you are standing on. To put it in this perspective, the jumping is just about as easy to control as it is to score in Stanly Cup for the SNES.

To the producer's credit, however, they did add many hidden items to collect in this game to keep us entertained. These include challenge points, extra lives and health boxes. While this is fine and dandy, I have no clue what the challenge points do, so what is the point of having them if they don't do anything? The worst part it that there aren't enough things to find, thus creating an even more empty atmosphere in this game. You can also find weapon sets that increase in power as you progress thought the game. Most of these weapons are lame and don't do anything like the flame thrower, but there are some cool ones like this green orb weapon with a long name which I cant remember right now.

The vehicle levels in are a lot better compared to the other levels in this game. In these levels, you aren't just limited to all the things that you can do. The best level is the Hoth battle. In this one, you cannot only attack your enemies, but your friend as well, thus letting you decide whether you're a good or bad guy. It awesome but it won't effect the game in anyway, as the other levels don't let you have this option. It's just a small glitch found in the first level. That and it will make that level even harder, so its best NOT to do it

Plus, there are level barriers, which means that you are only confined in one open space. What's worse is that sometimes when the level turns you around, you can't see what's ahead of you, and it might steer you toward enemies who are ready to blast you butt. This isn't so bad on easy, but on Jedi, its suicidal.

REPLAY VALUE: 7
The game actually does have some reason why it should keep you playing it. Depending on the difficulty, you have multiple endings that get better as you progress thought the difficulties. There are also many hidden secret codes that you can put in, and the game just has this power of making you play it over and over again. It must be the force. CURSE YOU GEORGE LUCUS!

GET IT OR PASS IT: I would just rent this game from a friend who has played this game and beat it. Much like Wave race 64, its just a weekend game, since there's no reason why would play it after playing it from three days. If you're a Stars Wars nerd, then go ahead and get the game.

CONCLUSION:
As far as most Star Wars games go, this it probably my least favorite, but to be fair, this game is better than most Star Wars games on the Game cube, so that's good, I guess. Also, this was a pretty good early N64 game at the time, but as time went on, many better games were created. So, just like the light saber between Luke and Vader, Shadows just escapes the carbon freeze chamber, where all horrible games go to be punished.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 06/17/08, Updated 09/30/08

Game Release: Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (US, 12/03/96)