Star Wars Games I Want To See

I like Star Wars.  No, that’s not right.  It’s closer to say that Star Wars is a part of me.  For me, it’s not about the individual movies, books, and games.  To me, Star Wars is a genre.  It’s not sci-fi, it’s not fantasy, it’s just Star Wars.  And when I see a property in this way, I want to see it branch out in directions the creator didn’t necessarily intend. 

In other words, not everything with the “Star Wars” logo on it has to be an action-packed space opera.  I mean, zombie movies are mostly horror, but then we have movies like "Fido", "Shaun of the Dead", and "Warm Bodies".  A while back I read a "Lost Stars", which is basically a romance novel set in the Star Wars universe.  And I loved it.  Personally I’d like to see Star Wars sitcoms, Star Wars cooking shows, and whatever else fanatics can come up with. 

So when I look at Star Wars video games, I’m pretty happy.  There’s a huge amount of variety in there, from RPGs to squad combat to flight simulators.  Unfortunately, a lot of them suck.  But that’s the problem with licensed games; they’re driven more by the marketing department than the artistic vision of the programmers.  Still, they should keep trying.  Assuming a skilled team of programmers with the freedom to follow their artistic vision without executive meddling, here are some Star Wars themed video games I would like to see:

“Bushido Blade” Style Lightsaber Duels

Bushido Blade for the Playstation was a completely different kind of fighting game.  There were no health meters.  Instead, you concentrated on parrying.  If your opponent’s sword hit you in the arm, that arm would hang limply at your side for the rest of the match.  Hope that wasn’t your sword arm!  If you got hit in the leg, you would limp along slowly for the rest of the match.  Both legs injured?  You crawl, making it nearly impossible to win the match.  And if you got hit somewhere vital, the match was simply over.  As you can imagine, matches were usually quite short.  We would typically hit “Rematch” five or six times before switching characters.  I know that sounds annoying, but it was actually incredibly fun. 

I especially loved the arenas.  You weren’t confined to some squared-in tournament pit, you fought in natural-looking asymmetrical environments.  Some had multiple levels, or let you fight waist-deep in water.  My favorite had you fighting in a field of bamboo, where your wide sword swipes would cause the foliage to fall down around you as you dueled.  You could choose different types of swords, which effected the speed, reach, and power of your blows.  There was also a sledgehammer, and a rather unfair secret character who wielded a gun.

The entire time I played it, I kept thinking, “This would be awesome with lightsabers.”   Just think about, lightsaber duels where severing limbs is a constant possibility.  It only takes one hit to win, but first you have to get through their defenses.  It might still have some sort of a stamina meter, but running out of stamina would just make your blocking less effective.  At full stamina, blocking would be almost automatic, but you would lose stamina the more you swing and block.  You would also be able to use Force powers from this pool of stamina, making it a trade-off to use.  This stamina meter would gradually refill whenever you aren’t mashing buttons.  Maybe it wouldn’t be a visible meter, so much as your character would stand like they were running out of breath.  I don’t know, I’m mostly spitballing here.

One of Bushido Blade’s biggest problems was a lack of characters.  My Star Wars version would include pretty much everyone who has ever wielded a lightsaber in the movies.  Who cares if it doesn’t make any sense in the timeline?  Just throw in a line about it being a training simulator or something. 

I’ll admit the chances of this happening are pretty low.  With Disney owning Star Wars, a dismemberment-based fighting game is less likely than ever before.  But you can’t deny it would be pretty cool.

A Decent Tournament Fighting Game

I know I sound redundant, but this one would play nothing like Bushido Blade.  Playstation’s “Masters of Teräs Käsi” was not a great game.  But that doesn’t mean it was a bad idea.  I loved the concept.  You had a button that switched between fighting modes, just like later Mortal Kombat games.  With your weapon drawn, it controlled like SoulCalibur – three slash buttons and a kick button.  If you sheathed your weapon, it played like Tekken – each button controlled a limb.  That was awesome in itself because it catered to more players that way.  Hate Tekken?  Keep your rifle out.  It was pretty clever at the time.

Unfortunately the controls were sluggish, the combos were dull, the roster was small, and the graphics were primitive.  There is nothing about that list of flaws that a modern day sequel couldn’t fix.  A couple of the SoulCalibur games had Star Wars characters as guest stars, and they were fantastic.  I’d love a sequel to Teräs Käsi that actually plays well.  Some people thought concept was silly, but I don’t care.  Yeah, yeah, why would these characters be in a fighting tournament together?  Why would someone with a rifle be entering the ring with someone wielding a lightsaber?  But they’re overthinking it.  All I care about is that it mixes some of my favorite movies with one of my favorite genres of video games.  If Mortal Kombat X can let the Predator fight Leatherface, then what’s so weird about Han Solo fighting Darth Vader?

And yes, it’s silly that you can hit someone 15 times with a lightsaber before it knocks them out, but you could say the same thing about dozens of Star Wars games, from “Super Star Wars” to “Knights of the Old Republic”.  You could also say that about other powerful weapons in fighting games, such as the swords in Soul Calibur or the bazookas in Marvel Vs Capcom 2.  The X-Ray moves in the last few Mortal Kombat games are particularly fatal-looking, but the match goes on.  So don’t tell me a guns vs lightsaber tournament fighter is unrealistic, when realism isn’t exactly inherent to the genre.

“Need for Speed” Style Speeder Bike Racing

There are certain scenes I’ve always wanted to recreate in a video game.  The speeder bike scene on Endor has been done in video games several times, but never really well.  There were a couple of decent pod racing games, but I’d rather play something that doesn’t carry the stigma of Episode I.  The original "Return of the Jedi" arcade game was fun, but the isometric view doesn't really draw me in.  At least one of the Battlefront games has a speeder bike scene, but they just don’t capture the feel I’m looking for. 

I want something more along the lines of Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit.  You pick either the Imperial (cop) or Rebel (criminal), and you race through the forest, either fleeing the Imperial or trying to catch the Rebel.  The emphasis would be on the speed.  The forest may have to be more sparse than in the movie, to keep you from crashing every three seconds.  Other planets would be welcome, too.

It doesn’t have to have anything to do with the plot of Return of the Jedi.  On one planet you could be working as a courier, trying to deliver stolen plans to a Rebel outpost.  Another mission might see you breaking out of an Imperial prison camp, trying to return to the Rebels without leading the Imperials there.  Or, heck with it, just make it a racing game.  I just want to feel that kind of speed in a Star Wars environment, racing against other players.

Obviously multiplayer is a must.  I may be old fashioned, but I’d really want a split screen racing mode.  VR might also be nice.

“Kingdom Rush” Style Tower Defense

Now I’m really reaching.  But I love tower defense games, I can’t help it.  Obviously this would mostly be for tablets.   But picture the Death Star, with a long winding trench leading to the exhaust port, and hundreds of X-Wing fighters following the trench to the end.  You have to place various kinds of turbolaser turrets to destroy them before they reach the port.  Another level might have R2-D2 overriding the Death Star’s own internal defenses to keep an army of Stormtroopers from reaching the landing bay.  Another might have you defending a walled Tatooine town from a party of Tuskan Raiders.  Or how about a level where Imperial scouts are following a trail through the Endor forest, and the Ewoks set up a bunch of traps to slow them down?  Some levels would be Light Side, some Dark Side, and all would be lighthearted and comically animated.  Long shot?  Yes.  But they did a Star Wars version of Angry Birds, so who knows.

The Sims: Star Wars Edition

Well, now I'm just being silly.  You can already mod the Sims into just about anything you'd want.  Still, I'd love to see a Sims game that was completely Star Wars right out of the box.  Sims 4 comes with some Star Wars costumes, but the characters look out of place in the suburban neighborhoods.  I'd like to see neighborhoods themed after Star Wars locations, with objects and furniture to match.  With occupations like smuggler, bounty hunter, and Imperial agent.  I think it would be hilarious to control a guy going through his day to day life, only to have him don a Stormtrooper suit when it's time to go to work.  Maybe I'm the only one who wants to see that, but I doubt it.