Obscure / underrated Star Wars games

[toadkarter]

With the release of Book of Boba Fett, I've decided to have a look through a list of all the Star Wars games ever released, and despite being a pretty massive fan of the franchise I was surprised at how many of these games I didn't even know existed. For example, stuff like Obi-Wan for the Xbox, or Lethal Alliance for the PSP...

I know when people talk about Star Wars games, the conversation almost always understandably steers towards the classics, like KOTOR or Jedi Knight / Academy, or sometimes even stuff like Shadows of the Empire. But for this thread, I would love to hear your experience with some of the lesser known Star Wars titles - maybe these are games that you played as a kid and now know were actually merely average or worse, but that you thought were great at the time. Bonus points if that particular game has an exclusive story that ties into Legends material - I love seeing how old Star Wars material tried to reference other expanded universe content!

Currently, I am playing the Obi-Wan game for Xbox that I mentioned, and while it's quite clunky, I do think the lightsaber mechanics are a lot of fun - and it's interesting to see some Legends content about Obi-Wan's apprenticeship before the events of Phantom Menace. It's definitely not something to recommend to anyone that isn't a die-hard Star Wars fan but it's pretty decent for a game that I haven't even heard of up until very recently!

 

[sionydus]

Jedi Power Battles back on Dreamcast?

 

[Zaubrer]

Pretty sure it's not underrated, but Empire at War is super fun too. And Galactic Battlegrounds has a place in my heart as well.

Ah right, I quiet enjoyed Star Wars Episode III on GBA/NDS very much as well. Nice side scrolling beat em up.

 

[White Glint]

Most of my childhood is playing all that trash.
Super Bombad Racing on PS2 - absolute trash.
The Phantom Menace on PC was probably the worst one I put a lot of time into.
Clone Wars on PS2 was an alright vehicle combat game.
There was another vehicle combat one on PC - Assault on Naboo or something, kind of ok.
Bounty Hunter is actually fun and it got a PS4 port.
Racer Revenge seems overlooked compared to the original Racer, it's totally decent.
Rebel Assault 2 is actually something I'd like to revisit, it felt like it hit the tone of the original trilogy perfectly.

Republic Commando, Jedi Outcast is all of course well known already.

 

[Mr.Deadshot]

The Episode 3 console game wasn't that bad, a solid albeit short 3D-hack'n'slash action game.
But the Nintendo DS version is a legit great game:

Pretty sure it's not underrated, but Empire at War is super fun too. And Galactic Battlegrounds has a place in my heart as well.

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Empire at War is probably the best known and most popular Star Wars Strategy game sitting at 97% with over 22.000+ reviews on Steam.

Galactic Battlegrounds needs the Age of Empires 2 remaster treatment so badly :( It's hard to go back to the original after you've played AE1+2 Definitive Editions.

 

[roguesquirrel]

have no idea if its good or not cus i never played it, but the first Star Wars game that always comes to my mind is the NES one where Darth Vader transforms into a scorpion for some reason.

 

[toadkarter]

Jedi Power Battles back on Dreamcast?

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Wow, another one I have no idea existed! I'm starting to sense a bit of a pattern here, I only had a PC growing up, so I guess some of these console Star Wars games slipped by me.

Ah right, I quiet enjoyed Star Wars Episode III on GBA/NDS very much as well. Nice side scrolling beat em up.

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I've heard this is great, as well as the console version - I'll definitely try and track down a copy!

The Phantom Menace on PC was probably the worst one I put a lot of time into.

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Is this the same as the PS1 Phantom Menace game? Because I've played that recently, it's a really strange product of its time. Such a weird mishmash of genres! At least the CG cutscenes looked pretty good

 

[White Glint]

Is this the same as the PS1 Phantom Menace game? Because I've played that recently, it's a really strange product of its time. Such a weird mishmash of genres! At least the CG cutscenes looked pretty good

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Yes, it's a port of that. Allegedly inferior in some ways but I'm not sure what could be better about it. The combat it complete horseshit and you get to hear an unlimited amount of fresh Jar Jar lines repeated ad nauseum.

 

[Deleted member 10335]

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[TASTokyo]

I haven't played it since the original release. But I'll go with what White Glint said and say bounty Hunter was fun.

 

[World B. SkiFree]

The GBA version of SW: Episode III is terrific. PS2 game is fun, too.

Apprentice of the Force on the GBA is enjoyable; it is like an updated version of the SNES "Super" Star Wars games without the frustration. Covers the entire OT.

Glad to see Racer Revenge mentioned. I love the original Pod Racer on the N64/PC like everyone else but I think Revenge offers a better single player challenge albeit a more streamlined upgrade system.

The two Starfighter games on PS2/PC are very good. Kind of a console version of the X-Wing games. I think they hold up well.

Edit: To your question about the Legends … I always liked the "backstories" of both the Masters of Teras Kasi and Demolition on PS1. Silly to some but I always thought they were neat haha. Demolition was not a great Vigilante 8-type game but I like how they upped pod racing stakes to vehicular combat.

 

[Ostron]

I played a lot of Yoda Stories as a kid! I think it was just the demo but it was a fairly complete tile set with randomly generated maps.

It was made to be a sort of mine sweeper-esque game to have on your desktop during downtime/breaks. You were dropped in with basic items and had to solve the maps and collect items to proceed.

I have played a lot of star wars games that have been a lot worse than Yoda Stories!

 

[Rassilon]

Star Wars: Flight of the Falcon

I fucking hated/loved this game as a kid because of how hard it was

while the 3D campaign portion was acheivable, there was a horozontal shooter arcade minigame that could not be beaten

 

[sir_crocodile]

Star Wars Supremecy / Star Wars Rebellion

It had the core of a really great galactic conquest game, but it was very rough round the edges. Maybe add a Force Commander style ground battle module, make captial ship battles a bit more fun...could have been outstanding.

Palps bitching at me that it was my fault his diplomacy mission failed was always hilarious

 

[Abominuz]

This gem.....

 

[Deleted member 10335]

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[julia crawford]

These are games from my youth, so it's probably just the nostalgia talking, but remember that Pit Droids beign pretty fun tile-based puzzle game.
There's also Droidworks, in which you can create your own droids and send them through different trials. I remember it being kinda janky, but I had a good time with it.

If we're talking modern stuff, then I'd like to shout out Vader Immortal. It's a pretty basic VR game/Experience, but as someone who is into the new canon, I really love it.

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is that star wars factorio? 🤔

 

[harz-marz]

Hard as nails. This was so impressive to me to play at home!

 

[Deleted member 10335]

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[Omanisat]

Star Wars Rebellion is a fun, if clunky, strategy game.

 

[Astrates]

The educational games they put on PC were genuinely great back in the day.

The already mentioned Droidworks was a lit of fun, given a scenario and creating a droid to complete the task.

There was also one around Gungan Ecological management, that I have very fond memories of. You were tasked with building up biodiversity with flora and fauna to try and build a livable world. Trying to balance all the different biomes and predators/prey etc.

Here it is, Gungan Frontier.

 

[Farlander]

Revenge of the Sith for GBA/DS, a fantastic beat-em up.

Star Wars: Starfighter (I presume its sequel too though I never played Jedi Starfighter). I think it is underrated because it's not the X-Wing-style game everyone has been expecting, but as a space arcade shooter it is very fun.

Gungan Frontier, a really cool bio-ecology strategy game.

Pit Droids - a nice puzzle that would honestly be a perfect mobile game these days (I wonder if there has ever been a mobile port?)

I never played the full version, but I had shittons of fun with the demo version of Droidworks and always dreamed of playing the full game someday. Sadly never did.

Also, Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds (with its Clone Campaigns expansion pack). I have had so much playing and making custom maps as part of the Heavengames community back in the day. It's a pure Age of Empires 2 clone, but here's the thing - AoE2 is fucking good. And SW:GB was freaking good as well, really great strategy game.

 

[Lihwem]

These are games from my youth, so it's probably just the nostalgia talking, but remember that Pit Droids beign pretty fun tile-based puzzle game.
There's also Droidworks, in which you can create your own droids and send them through different trials. I remember it being kinda janky, but I had a good time with it.

If we're talking modern stuff, then I'd like to shout out Vader Immortal. It's a pretty basic VR game/Experience, but as someone who is into the new canon, I really love it.

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Holy shit, just had a massive flashback of Pit Droids. I think I played a demo of that back in the day and completely forgot about it until now haha.

 

[-Hyperion-]

Fun fact, in Phantom Menace I didn't understand that the Mos Eisley level was meant to be a no-combat one.

First thing you see on arrival is a Jawa who was a standard enemy in the level before. You kill him, you end up triggering all AI to kill you on sight. I slowly, painfully killed my way through the level, not understanding that it was meant to be unwinnable and confused as to these small cutscenes and gameplay moments that seemed to be for a completely different level until I reached Anakin, who refuses to go with you because you're a murderer. The level is uncompletable from that point on.

 

[toadkarter]

These are games from my youth, so it's probably just the nostalgia talking, but remember that Pit Droids beign pretty fun tile-based puzzle game.
There's also Droidworks, in which you can create your own droids and send them through different trials. I remember it being kinda janky, but I had a good time with it.

If we're talking modern stuff, then I'd like to shout out Vader Immortal. It's a pretty basic VR game/Experience, but as someone who is into the new canon, I really love it.

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Wow lol I remember both of those, Pit Droids had a pretty funky OST as far as I can remember. I think DroidWorks I was a little young for when I first played it, I just remember being very impressed by the 3D environments as I'm pretty sure it was the first proper 3D game that I played.

And Vader Immortal is great! I replay it every once in a while, it's basically an interactive film, and if you treat it as such you will have a great time. I also appreciate that it explains the changing landscape of Mustafar, as this ties nicely into the Mustafar that we see at the start of Rise of Skywalker. I'd love to play Tales from Galaxy's Edge but sadly I only have a Rift S!

 

[The Archon]

Id say although not obscure, Republic Commando and Bounty Hunter are underated games by the general public.

 

[Uzzy]

Star Wars Supremecy / Star Wars Rebellion

It had the core of a really great galactic conquest game, but it was very rough round the edges. Maybe add a Force Commander style ground battle module, make captial ship battles a bit more fun...could have been outstanding.

Palps bitching at me that it was my fault his diplomacy mission failed was always hilarious

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Star Wars Rebellion is a fun, if clunky, strategy game.

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For sure, it's a very early example of a Grand Strategy Game, and deserved another go. A modern version would be quite welcome, or they could just do a digital version of the Star Wars: Rebellion board game too.

 

[fourfourfun]

Star Wars arcade was always THE game, but the RORJ one also looked cool.

 

[vanripofficial]

Fun fact, in Phantom Menace I didn't understand that the Mos Eisley level was meant to be a no-combat one.

First thing you see on arrival is a Jawa who was a standard enemy in the level before. You kill him, you end up triggering all AI to kill you on sight. I slowly, painfully killed my way through the level, not understanding that it was meant to be unwinnable and confused as to these small cutscenes and gameplay moments that seemed to be for a completely different level until I reached Anakin, who refuses to go with you because you're a murderer. The level is uncompletable from that point on.

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I killed them all just for the great quotes

 

[Vexed]

It's just an AOEII re-skin, but I played so much Galactic Battlegrounds on PC. The online community was great too, I remember playing a lot of a custom game type called "Galactic Senate" with like 10 players where you spawned on map with separated planets with Coruscant at center, modders even had a system for votes and such intermittently throughout. So many hours in that game.

 

[Atom]

Pit Droids - a nice puzzle that would honestly be a perfect mobile game these days (I wonder if there has ever been a mobile port?)

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This game holy heck.

Played so much of it as a 5 year old and I think I got through maybe half of the main puzzles? It really was quite a unique feeling game, like a weird sort of mix of designing an assembly line to meet certain objectives with a certain economy of parts and with planar constraints. As you say totally the sort of game you could see rereleased on steam and getting a fair bit of popularity.

Edit: the sounds of my youth

 

[Jimnymebob]

Wouldn't Say it's obscure as such, but the first LEGO Star Wars always gets overlooked because of The Complete Saga, and I kinda think the first is better.

 

[ascii42]

I don't think I've met anyone else who has heard of The Gungan Frontier, let alone played it. Kind of like SimLife. You have to manage the ecosystem on a planet so that the Gungan city can grow.

 

[Teeny]

These are games from my youth, so it's probably just the nostalgia talking, but remember that Pit Droids beign pretty fun tile-based puzzle game.
There's also Droidworks, in which you can create your own droids and send them through different trials. I remember it being kinda janky, but I had a good time with it.

If we're talking modern stuff, then I'd like to shout out Vader Immortal. It's a pretty basic VR game/Experience, but as someone who is into the new canon, I really love it.

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Came to post Droid Works, I loved that game as a kid. Also had The Gungan Frontier with similar educational vibes.

 

[ascii42]

Wow, another one I have no idea existed! I'm starting to sense a bit of a pattern here, I only had a PC growing up, so I guess some of these console Star Wars games slipped by me.

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Jedi Power Battles is also available on PS1 if you don't have a Dreamcast.

 

[Faceless_Caesar]

Rebel Assault 2 is actually something I'd like to revisit, it felt like it hit the tone of the original trilogy perfectly.

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I remember liking this game quite a lot when I was younger. I think it may have been the fact that I could manage to get it running with only a little bit of stuttering on my PC at the time. I definitely know that it contributed to my fondness for FMV games though.

This gem.....

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There were worse fighting games than this available at the time.

 

[ascii42]

There was another vehicle combat one on PC - Assault on Naboo or something, kind of ok.

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Factor 5 had a game called Battle for Naboo similar to Rogue Squadron. That one?

 

[LastNac]

There's some legit charm in Obi-Wan. I'm glad you're playing it, OP

 

[Zaubrer]

I don't think I've met anyone else who has heard of The Gungan Frontier, let alone played it. Kind of like SimLife. You have to manage the ecosystem on a planet so that the Gungan city can grow.

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holy shit, I remember that one, my local library had that and I once rented it.

 

[snakey2389]

Jedi Power Battles for Dreamcast was so fun with friends back in the day, my childhood. Obi-Wan was so weird but kinda cool and yea I hear Lethal Alliance on PSP is actually not bad either. Oh yea and there's that Star Wars gba game made by Ubisoft which is kinda like a Star Wars Prince of Persia game.

 

[Kirksplosion]

Kind of hard to hit many obscure games with this IP, but I loved

Galactic Battlegrounds
Rebellion

I also enjoyed Yoda Stories when I was a wee lad.

 

[JigglesBunny]

Bounty Hunter is wildly underappreciated. The only real complaint I've ever had with it is the clunky implantation of the bounty system and the scanner. Otherwise, literally a dream bounty hunter game.

 

[PrepaidPostage]

Star Wars Obi-Wan had a unique combat system where you flick the right thumbstick to move the lightsaber in that direction. the game had a few major issues, but between that and the two-player versus mode, it was fun!

Also, I third DroidWorks. it was an amazing game!

 

[Deleted member 17210]

have no idea if its good or not cus i never played it, but the first Star Wars game that always comes to my mind is the NES one where Darth Vader transforms into a scorpion for some reason.

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It's good in that it controls well and is fun to play (aside from the maze level) but it's obviously not good at following the movie accurately.

 

[horkrux]

I'm not sure it's any good (haven't played much, since the controls are ridiculous), but there's also Force Commander

Visually it's totally my jam and what I wish Empire at War had looked like. But I don't think you can even play this anymore without a VM lmao

 

[garion333]

Star Wars Supremecy / Star Wars Rebellion

It had the core of a really great galactic conquest game, but it was very rough round the edges. Maybe add a Force Commander style ground battle module, make captial ship battles a bit more fun...could have been outstanding.

Palps bitching at me that it was my fault his diplomacy mission failed was always hilarious

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This. I loved so much about the game, but it was fundamentally flawed in a bad way, not a Master of Magic is great type of way.

 

[345]

it was terrible but i played the heck out of the phantom menace game on PC. what a weird tie-in! it simultaneously felt phoned-in and ultra-ambitious. i'd buy it if it came back out on GOG or whatever.

good to see people in here digging the GBA/DS revenge of the sith game too (DS version is identical except for touchscreen powers and random 3D space battles). pretty legit brawler for what it was.

i also genuinely loved yoda stories. the art was cute and the random levels made it super replayable

 

[KeyBladerXIII]

Another vote for Jedi Power Battles, it introduced me to my favorite jedi Plo Koon. He had a yellow lightsaber which I thought was the coolest because it was the first time seeing a saber that wasnt blue, green, or red. He even shot yellow force lightning!

Now every time a game lets you choose your saber color, it has to be yellow for me.

 

[Mentalist]

I played a lot of Yoda Stories as a kid! I think it was just the demo but it was a fairly complete tile set with randomly generated maps.

It was made to be a sort of mine sweeper-esque game to have on your desktop during downtime/breaks. You were dropped in with basic items and had to solve the maps and collect items to proceed.

I have played a lot of star wars games that have been a lot worse than Yoda Stories!

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Best Star Wars game out there. No joke

 

[Deleted member 10335]

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