1996
Shadows of the Empire
"At the time, a decent addition to the Star Wars franchise despite its failings being magnified up against Mario 64. Level locations, atmosphere, music capture the Star Wars universe well. Personally, too many third-person platform levels: the game needed more variety. These levels are clunky and some overly long. Bosses can also be unnecessarily frustrating to beat. Better N64 Star Wars games out there."
7/10 - Steven Smith 64
User Reviews (10)
"SOTE is one of the most cherry-picked Star Wars games out there. It's like someone took all the iconic things from the Star Wars movies and made a game out of them. Of course, this makes it more of a Jack-of-all-trades than a complete, cohesive game. Platforming is slippery, action feels slow, and difficulty fluctuates between easy and death. Still, it's got its charms."
7/10 - GreenGaming 64
"Whether you were tooling around in snow speeders or battling IG-88, there was a lot of fun to have in this game. I spent a lot of time using the "Wompa Stompa" code to play as a Wompa. This was one of the games that everyone wanted to play when they came over to my house. The later Rogue squadron was much better though."
8/10 - Shworange 64
"+has 5 different types of levels +despite being on cartridge, features actual recordings of the John Williams score +lots of cool cheats including a full debug mode -5 of the only 10 levels are clunky (even for the time) third-person shooting gameplay -frustrating boss fights -flight combat was greatly improved in Rogue Squadron -lacks CGI cutscenes from the PC version -complicated debug mode code"
5/10 - VGScrapbook 64
"There is quite a bit to like here: Roguish protagonist, nice character models, extensive environments, clever level design, and Stormtrooper Wilhelm Screams a plenty. It's too bad that the camera was a pain to use and it became too easy to drop into a pit. In the end, this is a game worth of the name "Star Wars", but could have been better implemented."
7/10 - GloryQuestor 64
"For early N64 adopters, it was their first virtual steps in that galaxy far far away. No one can deny the joy of wrapping up their first AT-AT, shooting a stormtrooper, or piloting an X-Wing to John Williams's iconic soundtrack. However, the game has aged pretty poorly since its release. It's not a bad Star Wars game, but better ones have come out since."
7/10 - chiefeagle02 64
"The Force is strong on this one! Can't believe I'm corny enough to waste words on that quote, but oh well... "Shadows of the Empire" was one of my original few I got with my N64 and it was the first time I was able to properly play the battle of Hoth in proper 3D piloting a Snow Speeder. Use the Force, Nintendo 64!"
8/10 - Shiryu 64
"An absolutely mind blowing first level with superb graphics and sound. It flung me into the cockpit of a snowspeeder and I loved it! The thrill of bringing down the AT-ATs was unbeatable! It conjured up the Star Wars universe brilliantly. The controls allowed for precision flying, lovely. A magical first level. Sadly, after that, comes the rest of the game and disappointment reigns."
6/10 - dAvecaster 64
"Shadows of the Empire is exactly what its name implies: a mere shadow of what it could have been. Playing as Han Solo ripoff Dash Rendar, players traverse across the galaxy far, far away in a game that is plagued by a bad camera and annoying bosses. That aside, it succeeds in providing that wonderful Star Wars feel. That alone is worth a playthrough."
7/10 - bizcuthammer 64
"The music - insanely good. The graphics - chunky but decent. The game's saving grace was that it succeeded where it absolutely had to; it put you in the Star Wars universe. The vehicles controlled well, but the platforming control was dicey at times. AND we were't Luke or Han. But it didn't matter. I just brought down an AT-AT in a snow speeder. Nuf said."
8/10 - Tsusasi 64
"Easily my favorite game on the N64/one of only two that I love. People complain about the controls for the on-foot levels, but I never had any trouble with 'em (after switching to first person). The atmosphere, the music...the game just feels like Star Wars. "Needed more variety"? What? The variety is one of the best things about it. A top-10 game for me."
10/10 - Krambo42 64
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Comments 19
I love this game, it's in my N64 under the telly right now. The graphics are gorgeous. The music is outstanding. The Wampa's are scary. It's one of my few old games I kept the box/instructions for. SOTE was great! I still have the comics, novel, soundtrack and figures.
"At the time, a decent addition to the Star Wars franchise"
At the time it was an exceptionally great addition. Maybe today it can be perceived as a decent addition. But not at the time.
Also, more variety? Variety was one of its strongest points! What Star Wars game has more variety than this one?
I'm with Fandabidozi. The game's great.
But still: Shout out for covering it in this special. And I gotta admit: That robot boss in the labyrinth could be a bit of a pain.
Seems a bit harsh 7/10 - this was virtually a launch title for the N64 that was a lot of fun with some great variety in the missions - who can forget the Hoth mission where you had to deploy the arrester cables around the legs of the AT-ATs? Brilliant. I think it's worth 8/10.
@KeeperBvK "Variety was one of its strongest points!"
Right?!?! I couldn't believe it when I read "the game needed more variety" in their review!
I need to go back and comment on most of your 64x64 posts, as I've been missing a lot sadly. However this is one game that stood out in the N64 era as being one of my favorite games. I got this game shortly after getting my N64 around launch and played this game probably a hundred times. As a kid, I mastered every nook and cranny of every level and had fun doing it. As a huge Star Wars fans, it's still my favorite Star Wars game and I enjoy going back to see the world in it as Dash Rendar. This game was well put together and I was upset they never made any kind of movie or show to follow up with Dash's story. I did buy all books/comics though. This is another game that means so much to me on my favorite video game console of all time.
The atmosphere in this game was incredible. Loved playing this as a kid. Damn the N64 kicked some ass
@KeeperBvK
No kidding. This game was released to tons of hype and anticipation, and it delivered. LOL @ saying it was just "decent" at the time....
This is still in my top 3 games of all time, so many happy hours blasting tie fighters and meteors
I'm still hoping this will come out for VC at some point :/
@Kogorn733 Same here. I know it's a long shot, for many reasons, but I'm still holding out hope. This game is the only reason my N64 is still hooked up.
7/10 seems a little harsh. I finally got around to playing SotE a couple years ago and it was awesome. Obviously by today's standards it may be not be as great, but back then it did a lot considering the hardware limitations. I would give it an 8/10 at least.
Anyone saying this game is worth more than a 7 is viewing it thru some pretty rose-tinted glasses. Sure in 1997 it was great, but only because it was the first time we could experience the Star Wars universe in a 3D game on consoles. It had a good sense of atmosphere and used a lot of sounds and music that came directly from the movies qe loved. Other than that, though, the gamr is mostly a mess. The intro level on Hoth is probably the only thing that actually works, and literally every other level is plagued by one issue or another. The boss fights are almost all extremely frustrating and annoying and the camera issues are probably the cause of several N64 pads broken in frustration. I love Star Wars and liked this game when I was 8... But even then I knew it had some issues. Replaying through it now is a chore.
The first game I ever played on the n64 and it was brilliant
Would be really great if this series of articles had screen shots
12 Games left!
I Predict:
Banjo Tooie, Glover, Robot: Rocket on Wheels, Ocarina of Time, Jet Force Gemini, San Francisco Rush 2049, Donkey Kong 64, Super Smash Bros, Yoshi's Story, Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, Tetrisphere, Ridge Racer 64
I hated the fight with IG88. Other than that I remember liking most of this game. Except maybe also the Slave 1 fight.
Put it on the Wii U e-shop with updated graphics.
hack me my password is password
I hope Earthworm Jim 3D is on the list... being my first 64 game I can't wait to sink my teeth into its review.
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