Ranking the Star Wars games I’ve played

As an ode to the wonderful guide provided by PC Gamer, here is a ranked list of all of the Star Wars games I played.

Dishonorable mention: Force Commander. I played it for about five minutes because the camera controls are wretchedly terrible. It’s an RTS — the camera should be the least complicated part of the game, by far.

10. Rogue Squadron — At the time, I considered it superior to X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, mostly because my two weakest game genres are flight simulators and racing games. I just wanted to blow shit up in space, and this game most certainly lets you blow shit up in space.

9. Dark Forces — I’m still not convinced I like the game. I recognize it for its merits as a DOOM-clone that went so much farther, and the story is great, but the gameplay itself was lacking.

8. Force Unleashed/Force Unleashed II — I consider these one game, especially since the latter doesn’t add much to the core formula. This is the Rogue Squadron of lightsaber games, and very God of War-esque, but I liked them.

7. X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter — I don’t remember if I ever actually played either X-Wing or TIE Fighter, but I do remember this one. I, objectively, know it’s better than Rogue Squadron. It’s also much, much harder. Still, it’s probably the best space-fighting game Star Wars has produced to date, and if you have a flight stick, it still holds up.

6. Knights of the Old Republic II — The story was absolutely incredible, the game itself a buggy mess, but loads of fun. Characters actually changed as you changed, reacted to you, instead of being fixed archetypes.

5. Jedi Knight — The non-lightsaber parts are brutal and little more than a somewhat nicer version of Dark Forces. Blasters are the least fun part of Star Wars, people. Once you get the lightsaber, though, it’s very solid, and I personally liked the FMV (even if lots of other people didn’t).

4. Mysteries of the Sith — Expansion to #4, introduced new Force powers and a compelling new protagonist, Mara Jade, who was eventually incorporated into some of the novels. A better version of Jedi Knight; I only wish the new powers were retroactive.

3. Jedi Knight II — You don’t start out with a lightsaber, but getting it is more fun, and the sections where you don’t have one are miles better than Dark Forces or Jedi Knight. A fitting end to the Kyle Kataran saga, somebody I hope one day makes it into a movie.

2. Jedi Knight III — As close to an open world lightsaber adventure as you’re going to get, you could play as multiple races, and the lightsaber combat was brilliant.

1. Knights of the Old Republic — This. Game. It is amazingly incredible, holds up well (even if widescreen support is somewhat buggy) and is still one of the best Bioware RPGs ever. One of the most shocking twists I can remember in a video game. If you don’t have a copy, I recommend reading John Walker’s “Bastard of the Old Republic.” It’s a tribute to some of the moral choices that KOTOR offers that no other game has.

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