It's May 4th! Yes, May the fourth is with us (hmm, that doesn't really work) and we're republishing our ranked list of every Star Wars game on Nintendo consoles, but now with a twist! We've rejigged the ranked list below to be governed by each game's User Rating in our database, meaning that the order is now dynamic and entirely reader-ranked — and subject to real-time change, even after publication.
In order to rate any of the games on the list below out of 10, logged-in Nintendo Life users can simply tap the 'star', assign it a personal rating, and refresh the page to see any changes reflected. With various of the games in the lower half of the list only having a handful of ratings at the time of writing, there's plenty of potential for change in the coming days. It will be fascinating to see how the ranking shakes down as we move onto May 5th, May 6th, and other similarly un-Star Wars-y dates. Enjoy!
The release of Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker in 2019 may have 'ended' Star Wars as we've known it for the past four-and-a-half decades, but all it really did was tie a bow on the cinematic tales of the Skywalker clan and the nine-film saga which began way back in 1977. After all, Star Wars is never really gone.
Streaming platform Disney+ has all the movies in 4K, plus shows like The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan, and a deluge of other TV projects, and not forgetting new trilogies, spin-offs movies, games, and much more in the pipeline. Yep, that galaxy far, far away will be coming at you across all media for a long time to come.
The franchise has a long and storied history with video games, too. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor might be grabbing all the galactic gaming headlines at the moment, but there are plenty of Star Wars games to play on Switch, too. Below we take a look back at nigh-on every Star Wars game on Nintendo systems in the West, ranked from worst to best by you, dear readers.
To keep things tidier, in instances where the same game was released on multiple platforms, we've opted to mention the lesser of the two — invariably the portable version — in the other's entry.
So, come with us on a journey to a galaxy fa—oh you know the rest. We begin at the bottom, so beware that the Force is not strong with many of these...
39. Star Wars: The New Droid Army (GBA)
An isometric platformer that takes place between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, you control the petulant young Skywalker in this stodgy action game. Considering the platform it's on, the game looks and sounds okay. Beyond that, though, it's dull, repetitive and so s-l-o-w. Anakin, you're breaking our heart.
38. Star Wars: Jedi Power Battles (GBA)
With passable animation and audio (especially considering the system) and boring, finicky platforming, Star Wars: Jedi Power Battles falls into a regretfully familiar pattern of portable Star Wars games. It's not as hateful as some, and it's a little faster-paced than New Droid Army, but it's a similar story. Perhaps developer HotGen was trying to faithfully capture the excitement of The Phantom Menace's trade disputes, in which case job done. Some might call the non-canon blue lightsaber wielded by Mace Windu on the cover unforgivable, but we were too bored to care.
37. Star Wars: Flight of the Falcon (GBA)
Anyone who's only ever played Star Wars games on a Game Boy deserves your pity. Retro Nintendo portables had a lot of things going for them, but a high midi-chlorian count wasn't one of them.
Flight of the Falcon is one of the very worst Star Wars games ever because it's got Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon on the cover — the two coolest things in the Star Wars universe — and it sullies their good names. As with all terrible Star Wars games, the iconography fools you into thinking 'ah, it can't be that bad!', but our review conclusion sums this up perfectly: "Flight of the Falcon is a very bad game. As such, you should not play it. However cool the screenshots look, however promising the premise sounds, just remember that the Force is not with this one in any way, shape or form."
Han, mah boogie, you deserved better.
36. Star Wars: Yoda Stories (GBC)
You have to remember that while Yoda is a beloved character, this game came before we'd ever seen him wield a lightsaber in what is easily the best scene in Attack of the Clones. Despite the name, in Yoda Stories you control Luke Skywalker in a top-down adventure as he chops snakes in two with his laser sword. How bad can that be?...
Really quite bad, it turns out. 'Sedate' is too generous a word, and the whole game is a technical embarrassment. It's tempting to blame the hardware, but then you look at Link's Awakening and see what might have been. Link's Awakening this ain't. Poodoo, plain and simple.
35. Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones (GBA)
Fittingly, the weakest movie in the saga got one of the weakest Star Wars games ever. Normally we'd caveat a statement like that with 'arguably', but Episode II really is inescapably pants for the most part (except for that Yoda bit at the end — we remember quite liking that).
The tie-in GBA game is a turgid side-scrolling beat 'em up that lacks the artistic polish even the dullest Star Wars games bring to the table. Coarse, rough, and irritating, indeed.
34. Star Wars Trilogy: Apprentice of the Force (GBA)
A Ubisoft side-scroller, Star Wars Trilogy: Apprentice of the Force sure looked impressive. It used the same engine as the console's port of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, with smooth animation and 3D-style character models. Giving players the chance to relive the original trilogy anew, bland gameplay was once again its undoing. Totally vanilla, utterly underwhelming, but could've been worse.
33. Star Wars: Episode I: Obi-Wan's Adventures (GBC)
Another one quick to tick the 'dull' and 'repetitive' boxes, if you think the isometric adventures on the GBA were tough going on the eyes, Obi-Wan's Adventures takes that style of game back a console generation in an 'adventure' set concurrently against the events of Episode 1. It's not awful, just ugly and entirely pedestrian.
32. Angry Birds Star Wars (Wii U)
Angry Birds — remember them? This Star Wars crossover came out for Wii and 3DS as well, and although the comedy of the mash-up might not be to everyone's tastes, it's a fun little time sink all the same. It suffered from being massively overpriced on consoles, but the core Angry Birds gameplay is as fun as it ever was, except this had TIE Fighters with pig faces. What's not to like?
31. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (NES)
A relatively ho-hum 8-bit platformer where you play as young Skywalker battling through variations of the locations from the movie, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back could not be more average. For kids desperate to play as hero Luke, it was passable filler but no more.
A Game Boy version also exists, but if you're gagging to play through the best film of the saga in video game form, you're much better off going with the 16-bit 'Super' iteration. Indeed, LucasArts didn't even bother with an 8-bit Return of the Jedi — the developer simply jumped generations and started afresh with Super Star Wars on the SNES.
30. Star Wars: Lethal Alliance (DS)
Another Ubisoft entry, Star Wars: Lethal Alliance put a Twi'lek named Rianna on the cover, which is about the most exciting thing it has going for this third-person shooter. Ditching lightsabers for blasters, the story introduces characters new and old (Kyle Katarn's in it) and features the theft of the Death Star plans before Rogue One arrived to wipe the canon clean. With obligatory touchscreen shenanigans because DS, it's not awful by any means, just generic.
Star Wars deserves better, no?
Comments (33)
Ooooohhh...I wonder if Limited Run is gonna ship KotoR 2 today. That would be cool.
Empire Strikes Back on Game Boy is one of those games I'm going to die without finishing. It just becomes so unplayable after a while.
Jedi Outcast should have been higher though.
HK-47 alone makes the KotOR series #1 by default.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg1gTas7OAA
Do feel like playing rogue leader again... hope i'll get my wii up and running
Rogue Leader is the best and it isn't even a competition (and I say this as someone who has enjoyed MANY Star Wars games).
It feels just as impressive today as when it released over 20 years ago.
You are strong and wise. And I am very proud of you.
Shadows of the Empire is the only one I ever played in my entire life that was worth remembering.
@Cashews Bounty Hunter is basically Shadows 2.
Lots of good games here, however I've said it before and I'll say it again..... when is there going to be a Star Wars collection with NES Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, SNES Star Wars, ESB and ROTJ and throw in N64 SOTE, RS and Gamecube RS 2 and 3! You have my money already! PS and may the fourth be with you all today. PPS I appreciate the licensing issues involved with my request, however who would have thought we would have a TMNT collection now??!!
I know it'll never happen but I really want an HD Remaster of Rogue Squadron on Switch (or at the very least, put the N64 version up on Nintendo Switch Online along with Shadows of the Empire)!
@DarthFoxMcCloud Yep with you there, it's about time these treasures were remastered on the Switch!
@TheHighGround Hello there
Jedi Power Battles is ranked lower than Yoda Stories? I don’t think so. Yes the GBA game’s criticisms are fair, but it’s in no way worse than Yoda Stories.
Man I want them to release the original Lego Star Wars collection on the switch so bad. Loved it even if it’s a bit dated now.
Surprised the Skywalker Saga isn’t number 1 since it honestly seems like the perfect Star Wars game period to get into. Well for what it’s worth I’ll be celebrating the Star Wars holiday by doing a nice big old session of Jedi: Survivor tonight after work.
What's with the release dates on this article? The Super Star Wars games definitely did not come out in 2009.
It has always kind of bothered me how more developers didn't take advantage of the Gamecube's graphical prowess the way that Factor 5 did with Rogue Leader.
How I wish they would remaster the Rogue Squadron games and make them a trilogy in one cartridge. As someone who doesn't particularly enjoy Star Wars games, this would still be a day 1 for me. Those games were exceptional.
I skipped ahead to make sure RS2 was #1.
I have the bottom 4 games on the list 😆
Flight of the Falcon should be #39. It's 3 levels of unrelated mini-games strung together with mediocre controls and sometimes awful graphics. And when you die you start back at the beginning of the level.
The cover art was definitely the best part of the game.
The other three had their good moments though..
Played Revenge of the Sith (GBA) on an emulator early this year. An absolute blast
Here's hoping for a console re-release of "Star Wars: Rogue Squadron."
Oooookay. I'm going to get the damned Skywalker Saga cause it's on sale, despite not being a fan of LEGO or Star Wars. Somehow (I assure you), it's still your fault if I do this dumb thing and dislike the game.
I know many Star Wars games are on sale on the eShop and I was tempted to splurge...until I realized I have nearly all of them on GOG.
We need a new Rogue Squadron game. Jedi Survivor does bring me some hope, as we are seeing some OK star wars games again, but looking at the past you have to say Disney are making a right mess of their vodeogames. They need to stop outsourcing based on money, and start having a cracking at it themselves based on quality.
@Lightsiyd I've played the Xbox version myself, it's a great game.
@FawfulsFury
General Kenobi!
You are a bold one.
They ever get around to finishing KOTOR2?
@DarthFoxMcCloud I think Rogue Squadron is available in HD on Steam.
Otherwise, just get a Nintendo 64. I'm best best case an RGB modded one and one of these super modules with all N64 games on it. You can than throw away the laughable Switch Online selection.
There's a good amount of worthwhile Star Wars games. Too bad Nintendo gamers can't enjoy Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order and Survivor, since they are like best of all.
But maybe on the next system.
Glad the Skywalker saga finished behind the original I was really disappointed with it, you spent most of the time running around and the puzzles weren't at the same level.
@Krysus update! It did! Bwuahahaha! I forgot to check the mail Thursday! Super happy!
I recently got Star wars Rouge Squadron on the N64. Holy crap it is decent. I knew it was a good game just didn't realize it was that good
Tap here to load 33 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...