Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
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| Released on December 3, 1996 for the Nintendo 64 by Nintendo, and developed by LucasArts, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire tells a new Star Wars story from a third person shooter perspective. |
Star Wars in the 80's and 90's is my Star Wars, and one of the most exciting developments during that period was the Shadows of the Empire multimedia project. In 1996, Lucasfilm used a Steve Perry novel, a Joel McNeely soundtrack, comics, toys, and many collectibles and storytelling devices to present a new tale set between The Empire and Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Shadows of the Empire features familiar Star Wars heroes, and a new mysterious protagonist. Well, not that mysterious. Dash Rendar is essentially just a stand in for the wise-cracking, rational, yet wild card-carrying Han Solo, who is of course frozen in carbonite during this Star Wars time period. Whatever the case, I ate Shadows of the Empire up.
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| Just throw it between two slices of bread and put it on a plate |
I read the book, I called into a listening service to hear Joel McNeely's CD soundtrack (that was a thing in the 90's!), and more than anything, I played the video game, only the eighth game released for the Nintendo 64 at the time, and my first Nintendo 64 experience. I played it at my cousin Joe's house on Christmas of 1996, then I famously, at least according to the top banner on this website, bought Joe's Nintendo 64 and all of his games the next year. I thought Shadows of the Empire was a solid game when I played all the way through it after my purchase in 1997, but then a lot of other Nintendo 64 games entered my life, and I hadn't played it since...until two weeks ago. How does the Nintendo 64's first Star Wars game hold up?
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| Yes, it has its own opening crawl! Shadows of the Empire is legit! |
Once you've lived and played through the full life of the Nintendo 64, something becomes apparent: developers had a far better handle on how to create games for the console in the late 90's and early 00's than they did in 1996 and 1997. So-called "first generation" games generally have less polished graphics and production values than later games released for the console and Shadows of the Empire is no exception. Distance fog, which helps the game run smoothly by obscuring distances in, literally, fog, is plentiful in this game. The textures and graphic models feel pretty rudimentary (particularly Dash's), as well. With that said...this game has visual character, and the graphics get the job done. Even though every strength has a drawback, i.e. the cool, motion-capture death animation for a stormtrooper is the ONLY death animation for a storm trooper, or the lighting effects are sometimes surprisingly sophisticated, but the explosions look primitive, etc., etc., Shadows of the Empire's graphical presentation feels unmistakably like Star Wars. From Imperial Walkers, to the Millennium Falcon, to Star Destroyers, to the aforementioned stormtroopers, to the level art and architecture, LucasArts' design team nailed the look, even with the drawbacks. The game also runs smoothly, and avoids slowdown or framerate issues.
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| One of those pictures you can hear |
The audio presentation here is much like the visual one. Several years after Shadows' development, a company called Factor Five would pioneer compression technology that allowed developers to cram Nintendo 64 cartridges with tons of voice-acting and high quality music and sound effect textures. LucasArts didn't yet have that technology at their disposal here, yet still tried to push the envelope. In lieu of a midi soundtrack, LucasArts took real, high quality orchestral samples from the original Star Wars trilogy, as well as from Joel McNeely's great Shadows soundtrack. However, because of cartridge space issues, each level's musical piece is essentially a short clip that's looped over and over again. To a degree, this can feel repetitive and frustrating, but at the same time, that old school Star Wars flavor is still delicious. Same goes for sound effects. You get no voice acting (the later-released PC version of the game features voice-acting and full-motion videos, while this version features still image cutscenes with text dialogue). However, the laser blasts, explosions, and creaky walker steps sound straight from the movies. There's even the classic Wilhelm scream from a stormtrooper when you shoot them and they fall off a cliff. Brilliant.
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| Hey, wait a minute, doesn't Darth Vader come into the hangar the same instant the Millennium Falcon takes of?! Where's Vader?! Still a cool sequence, though! |
Similarly, the gameplay is a mixed bag that comes out on the positive ledger, and conjures up a wonderful Star Wars vibe. The player takes control of the roguish Dash Rendar, as he helps out the Rebellion, helps Luke and Leia try to rescue Han Solo before his frozen body reaches Jabba the Hutt, then helps to thwart an assassination attempts on Luke's life by the evil crime lord, Prince Xizor.
While I generally wouldn't do this, the diversity in gameplayer here
dictates that I give a quick review of each stage.
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| Yeah, he looks like a rogue, I guess |
1. Battle of Hoth -- It's basically a fully 3D update of the Battle of Hoth from Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back for SNES. You pilot a snowspeeder, and just like on SNES, face foes of escalating power, from droids, to AT-ST's, to massive AT-AT's. You blast the former with your lasers, and wrap a cable around the latter, just like on SNES, but it's in full 3D and just as fun.
2. Echo Base -- The first on-foot level, as Dash tries to get out of Echo Base alive to his Millennium Falcon-like ship, the Outrider. The third-person controls are a little stiff, and the jumps a little floaty. Dash's main weapon is a classic laser blaster, and he can pick up newer, better weapons throughout the game. The laser has unlimited ammo, but the better weapons, like heat-seeking missiles, a pulse rifle, and a flamethrower, all have a limited amount of rounds, which must be collected through the levels. Levels are fairly straightforward, though paths do branch out just a bit. Frankly, this level is a blast, as Echo Base not only feels like a fully realized 64-bit version of the The Empire Strikes Back setting, but features a Millennium Falcon cameo, captive wampas (that can be freed, and sicced on stormtroopers), and an on-foot boss battle against an AT-ST walker! One of my favorites.
3. The Asteroid Field -- Again, feels like an updated version of the same level from SNES, where Dash pilots his ship through an asteroid field while destroying tie fighters, just like Han did in the Falcon on SNES...except I actually think the SNES level is more fun. This 64 level, post-first moments Star Destroyer, is a visual mess, and surprisingly a little joyless, even with John Williams' awesome music blasting, then looping, then blasting in the background.
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| I don't know, I actually think the 16-bit asteroid field looks better than this |
4. Ord Mantell -- This is where the game leaves the world of The Empire Strikes Back. Dash has to ride the top of a train car through a junkyard in what is essentially an on-rails on-foot mission. I should mention here, you CAN switch to first-person perspective at any point in this game (as well as a third option, an unplayable "cinematic" angle), though you can't see your weapon or hands from this view, which makes it feels unnatural and a bit more unwieldy on-foot than the third-person view. As for this level, it's not aesthetically pleasing (of course, it is a junkyard) and all of the jumping over and ducking under metal bars on the track gets old over a level that's too long. One of my least favorites.
5. Gall Spaceport -- Another on-foot level set on a bunch of sheer cliffsides and platforms high above the desert. Gall pushes the limits of how long a level should be, but at least there are plentiful save points in all the game's levels, including this one. Of course, if you have to turn off your 64, or you get a game over (you have a set amount of lives, though earning extra lives isn't difficult), you've got to start over from the beginning. The game introduces a jetpack element here, which is pretty cool, and this level might just feel the most epic, climaxing in a two-stage boss battle against Boba Fett and then his ship.
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| I think this looks 64-bit epic, even with the fog |
6. Mos Eisley and Beggar's Canyon -- This is another vehicle-based level, with many pros and cons. Dash must prevent a bunch of biker assassins from reaching Luke, who is staying at Obi-Wan's house in the Tatooine desert. You've essentially got to use your bike to ram the other bikers, until they crash and explode. The gameplay is extremely simplistic here. Turning the bike isn't difficult, though jumping is quite frustrating. The Mos Eisley design is cool, definitely looks like the movie, including ships taking off from port, but the fog obscures distant views. Overall, I enjoy this level for the pure sense of speed, which is almost shocking. Dash's bike is FAST!
7. Imperial Freighter Suprosa -- A classic third-person shooter stage. You're on-foot, in close quarters, on a ship full of stormtroopers and Imperial officers. I love this level and its great Star Wars feel! Reminds me a bit of a third-person take on Dark Forces.
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| zoom zoom |
8. The Sewers of the Imperial City -- Another fun on-foot stage, where Dash and the OT characters try to take down the evil Xizor. Water levels can be nightmares, but this one is just fine.
9. Xizor's Palace -- Essentially, the above-ground continuation of the last stage. The level design isn't quite as good, but it's still fine overall.
10. Skyhook Battle -- A space battle above Xizor's palace, which takes a page from Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi in its "destroy the station core" conclusion. It's an okay stage. I should mention, for all of the vehicular levels, you can switch to a cockpit view, which is truthfully the easier way to play, and my preference. It also appears that I prefer the on-foot stages to these vehicular ones.
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| Maybe because I like shooting stormtroopers |
This isn't an overall long game, and a competent player should wrap up these ten missions in five hours or so. Thankfully, there are two elements that increase replay value. The first element is challenge points. These are silver force symbols hidden throughout each level (sometimes deviously so). The second element is the game's multiple difficulty levels, which include easy, medium, and difficult. To get the true ending, which reveals Dash's final fate, which isn't even revealed in the book, you must finish the game on at least medium difficulty. YES, BEATING THE NINTENDO 64 GAME ON MEDIUM IS THE ONLY WAY TO REVEAL THE COMPLETE ENDING FOR THE ENTIRE SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE MULTIMEDIA PROJECT. The two elements also intertwine, as collecting every challenge point on each difficulty level reveals a cool reward. The fulfillment in finding and collecting all of the challenge points is a bit of a reward in itself.
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| One of my great obsessions and extremely niche interests is the portrayal of outer space on the Nintendo 64. For some reason, it stimulates my imagination in a way nothing else does. |
I love the modern way the level selection screen is laid out, as it shows not only how many challenge points you've collected out of the total level challenge point amount, but how long it took to finish the stage, and how many lives you had upon its completion. That's the kind of detail my OCD brain loves. Even more than that, though, my brain loves retro Star Wars. If you've been as disappointed by Disney's handling of the Star Wars franchise as I have, Shadows of the Empire not only feels like a refuge, but a portal to a time when Star Wars still felt singular and all-powerful. Even if Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire isn't perfect, and is clearly a product of the Nintendo 64's early days, it's still quite an enjoyable experience.
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| Hey, Xizor, I hate to break it to you... |
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