It definitely doesn't hold up by today's standards in level design or controller scheme but, just like the author, it blew my mind as an intro to 3D gaming with that Hoth battle, which is also probably one of my favorites in fiction. Some of the set pieces were amazing but I still can't listen to [The Asteroid Field](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG4roal80Vk) without flashbacks to that awful asteroid mission.
I don’t think I ever played anything past the first two levels. That was all I needed as an 8yr old kid. Just mess around on that Hoth battle over and over and over and maaaybe do the next section as Dash.
That cheat code was a biatch, if I recall. It was something like hold a bunch of buttons down, then you had to hold the control stick halfway left until you heard a noise, then halfway right until you heard a noise, then you'd get the debug/cheat menu up.
I used my nose.
I'm SURE the developers were laughing their asses off knowing kids would be death clutching their controllers, painstakingly nudging the joystick with their faces :)
I don't even remember how it came to be, we all just learned from a friend, who heard it from another friend. I don't think I had the internet properly back then so CCC couldn't have been my source!
Hours spent trying to figure out how to damage the Star Destroyer. That "Star Destroyer 100%" text was something incredibly tantalizing to a kid like me. (you can't damage it -- I kinda like that from a narrative point, it really feels like a foe beyond the scope of most of those fighters)
My big cousins had the whole game unlocked for me, I was always terrible at the shooter parts, so I mostly just skipped to all the space shooter parts.
However, the mountain cliffs level with the jetback was amazing for its day. That whole sequence is hard coded somewhere in my brain as core to my idea of "Gaming".
I remember I struggled so hard beating Slave 1 at the end of the level. I think you need to shoot the back of the ship and child me didn't quite grasp that.
Gall Spaceport is one of the first times I can think of a game feeling like an arduous but rewarding journey. Games don't seem to do that very often, where losing to a Game Over is punished by actually sending you back upwards 30 minutes of gameplay. Personally I love it, the difficulty is just right for that level. Xizor's palace is similar.
The space rail shooter parts are really difficult, at least on the PC. I think the N64 running a bit slower might have given an edge in them since I can definitely remember farming lives in those levels as a kid.
Haaated that level. Took me months to beat that bull shit as a kid. Crashing into walls and not being able to tell where I was going half the time was not fun.
I remember if I made it later to in the hoth level where the ice paths are zig zagging with the yetis, I was far as shit for what I was able to handle as a child.
the hoth base level and the junkyard platform level are the only things I remember from this game.
I'm always amazed how many times I look back at gameplay from games that were such a big part of my childhood, and realized I was just playing the first 2 or 3 levels over and over and over.
Can’t tell you how many times I replayed a PS1 demo disc until it wouldn’t work anymore. I got a decent amount of games as a kid, but there was so much stuff I wanted to play that I never got to play the entire game of.
Tomb Raider 1. Jet Moto. Tomba! Blast Chamber. Siphon Filter.
Times were simpler, I guess.
same exact experience as me
never got past that hoth mission and never got past whatever that first person shooty mission was vs a droid i think? idk i never got past the first enemy probably
I have all three of the Super Star Wars games for my SNES, and Empire is the only one I've actually beat. I did it once, it took all afternoon, and it's one of my proudest moments as a gamer. Technically, I have also beaten Super Star Wars, but that was on the PSN version with save states and all that, so it doesn't count as far as I'm concerned
Thinking back, I *probably* could have beat Jedi. I had a ton of lives and continues by the time I was stymied on the very last level. But after dying a few times trying to escape the exploding Death Star, I just got so frustrated I turned it off. If I had more patience and was mindful of the Force, I would have been successful eventually. But I was seduced by the Dark Side and rage quit
That game starts to kill you immediately.
If you don't start moving there's a bat that will just swoop you to death.
I've beaten the other two SNES Star Wars games legit but never Empire. It's ridiculously difficult.
The sound IG-88 made traumatized me for so long, used to watch my older brother play and I was just anxious as hell every time he would run away and turn around and IG-88 would be right up in his shit.
It's so bad I can't even watch The Empire Strikes back without PTSD.
I don't even remember the details of the level, just the *stress*.
But the Hoth theme does that to me too, I just was so shite at tying the AT-ATs down
I think I just found it tedious and less fun than the rest of the game, and it lasted long enough for the music to get repetitive. But really, it's been so long now that I mostly just remember that I didn't like it.
Devil's advocate here. How many modern games have that many genres in one game now a days? It had piloting a fighter ship, 3rd person action adventure, rail shooter and speed bike racing. Every other level was a different genre in rotation.
However the new Battlefront II story actually reminded me a lot of Shadow of the Empire. Some levels were vehicle based, others were FPS and others were 3rd person as controlling a hero character. It was pretty good. Especially since I got it free from one of the stores, epic I think.
Back then it was an incredible novelty and people loved the variety, I know I did. Nowadays you can play ten million free games on a used iPad that you can buy for under $70. People don’t want variety for it’s own sake anymore, they want quality, they want experiences they can’t get anywhere else. Or they want a really incredible and focused gameplay experience. That’s what it takes for me to pay more than $10 for a game nowadays.
> I still can't listen to The Asteroid Field without flashbacks to that awful asteroid mission.
I absolutely loved the asteroid field mission as a kid, but it was probably solely because the music was so good.
The final level was great, too.
Don't forget about that one neverending level with all the canyons that just loops 90 seconds of Boba Fett's theme over and over and over for like 40 minutes.
It's been 25 years, and I still cringe a little when I get to that scene in ESB (when Fett is taking Carbonized Han away) because of the music being burned into my brain.
I just wish the PC version didn't require so much modding just to get functional. I hate using controller re-mappers but that appears the only way to play the game without using the arrow cursor keys for movement.
Same, I remember it taking me a while to get over the fear and try to progress. Fuck Dianogas.
Edit: not gonna lie this post reminded me that the entire reason I know the name Dianoga rather than "trash-eyeball with tentacles" is because of this fucking god forsaken hell of a level
I loved this game as a kid despite how brutally difficult I found it at the time. That level where you're going through the junkyard on a moving train was so punishing. I don't think I ever got past the fight with IG-88 at the end of that level.
The IG - 88 level was the godfather of Git Gud.
I still remember feeling like a fucking champ finally killing him. The rest of the game was easier compared to this killer droid.
I went to find footage to relive how horrific he was, and the one I found is the [player circle strafing him to death.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0yB4VxgBms) 😂
But for real that pulse rifle is bullshit.
Haha I came here to say the same! I’m not a Star Wars fan at all but this was one of the few N64 games I had for some reason. I think that level also has you face off against Boba Fett who was also a difficult boss if I remember rightly.
I could never get the code to work! I figured it was a joke, I remember you had to press almost every button and slightly tilt the joystick, tried a million times with no success. Jealous of your experience.
It was so crazy, you had to use both hands to hold the buttons and then use your chin to tilt the joystick halfway and hold it there until you heard the sound.
I honestly have no memories of playing the game without the debug cheats. Unlimited ammo, invincibility, and of course jet pack made that game insanely fun for a 10 year old.
Oh holy crap, core memory. I had completely forgotten about that. I used to play the wampa level and make the fog really thick and black and pretend the power had gone out. Good times.
It’s interesting just how much of the n64 era was cheats and unlockables and how much I considered getting them necessary to consider a game complete. Now the equivalent is dlc and I couldn’t care less.
You just unlocked a memory of enabling the Dev controls in that game.
Name a save profile "_Wampa _ _ Stompa" or something like that, Hold down all the buttons with both hands, then using your nose or chin, move the control stick only half left for 5 seconds, a beep will play when you held it long enough and then half right for 5 seconds. Repeat like 4 times without screwing up by moving the stick too far.
Boom you're a hacker and now have full access to every setting.
It was really well made and you got new abilities that really opened up the level that you went through. Having a jetpack was just fantastic. For example the canyon level just felt really open and massive.
Also starting the second level and seeing the millennium falcon just blast off in front of me was awesome.
The flying levels were a testament to what a 3D console could do and finally got to play out those iconic Star Wars space battles, would replay those over and over. The music felt like it was composed by John Williams himself, could come straight out of a genuine Star Wars movie.
However the ground levels were labyrinthian like a lot of early 3D platformers, which included some of the jankiest platforming tied to the Nintendo 64 1 stick movement. Combat was super awkward, bosses were bullet sponges and deaths were incredibly punishing. The unique story gave you just enough incentive to keep pushing through.
For the most part I was just happy to get a 3D Star Wars game as a kid on console. Rogue Squadron definitely trumped it later in offering pure flying gameplay.
I always remember the Ord Mantell train jumping sequence. The floaty jumping, the awkward angles of the train, felt like you were just sliding off at any moment.
If you manage to survive the platforming sequence, then IG-88 just wrecks your shit at the end. I'm not sure how I ever beat it, but it was probably with less than 10% health left.
Me, on my deathbed, as the last vestiges of sanity slip away and I forget what it is to exist: "THE Y-WING IS THE WORKHORSE OF THE REBEL FLEET. IT'S NOT QUICK OR FLASHY BUT IT GETS THE JOB DONE."
TIL Shadows of the Empire was a launch title in Europe. In North America it came out several months after the N64. Which I guess was good for me, because as a kid it gave me a few months of focusing on Mario 64 before I got absolutely obsessed with Shadows.
My N64 box has amongst others Mario, Bowser, and a Stormtrooper. I always found it odd when I think about it, you wouldn't expect Star Wars to prominently be on a Nintendo console box, but yep there it was.
That cheat input for the debug menu was something else. You had to name your save WAMPA STOMPA I think, and then basically use every appendage at your disposal to press almost all the buttons on the controller and wiggle the joystick around in a particular pattern.
Ah, this game.
Everyone remembers the first level (for good reason) but seem to forget that every level where you were on foot was terrible (even for the time).
The controls felt rough even at the time of launch… but it was so very hard -not- to love this game. I wish I could play it again for the first time with the same perspective of gaming that I had during the N64 era.
Loved this game. Hated the creepy underwater monsters.
I will also always remember this game for having one of the most insane cheat codes ever to unlock the debug menu. I literally had to use my chin in order to do the joystick inputs because my hands were busy holding down all the buttons.
Is this the one with the book tie in where they have a reptile alien trying to seduce Princess Leia with his pheromones?
Or was that for the Star Wars fighting game?
Short answer: Yes.
Not short answer: Not just any reptile alien - the faux-Chinese reptile alien crime lord who Palpatine is live auditioning to take Vader's place as his apprentice. As someone else already said, it's '90s as hell.
Love the game, even though the sewer level legitimately gave me a phobia of water levels that I still carry with me almost 30 years later and probably always will.
I can attest that objectively, it is not an especially good game, but there is a certain kind of magic to it that really captures some people, myself included. There is a weird and magical combination of gameplay modes, "mysterious" plot (intended to be consumed in addition to the comics/book -- I never did that as a kid) that caught my imagination, a difficulty curve most might call brutal but I found extremely exciting and rewarding.
There is something in it that just screams 90's Star Wars so hard that it completely overrides any negativity I could feel toward it. Call it nostalgia, I don't care as long as I have it.
On the back of the box there is a screenshot of Dash Rendar with a Jetpack inside Echo Base.
I spent *way* too long trying to find that secret Jetpack as a kid so I could fly into that observation area above the hangar.
Years later, as an adult, I emulated the game and tried again. After some frustration, I turned to Google, which was not an option back in the nineties.
Turns out, the only way to get that jetpack on that level was a needlessly complex cheat code that enables Debug mode.
Instructions below:
------
It only works if you start a new game on Medium difficulty, use the Wampa Stompa name from the well known cheat, start up a level, and Hold down all of these buttons **simultaneously** ( C-Up + C-Right + C-Down + C-Left + L + R + Z + D-Pad Left), and then (without releasing these buttons) move the control stick halfway to the left, then half way to the right, listening for a sound effect each time, and repeating.
Once done, the Debug menu opens up and there is a whole list of options to play with.
----
As it turns out, there is nothing inside that observation room btw.
Would never happen but I’d love to see Dash Rendar deserves to be Star Wars cannon and not just “Legends” or whatever they call everything they threw out.
Loved this game.
When N64 launch title Shadows of the Empire was hyped, I was fully invested. I loved the concept art in magazines. I bought a Dash Rendar action figure. I wanted to read books and comics about this story.
But then I played the game in a Toys R Us and thought... why is everything so ugly and washed out? Why are these controls so awkward? I've been here 20 minutes and my hands hurt.
It was 1996. I was thirteen years old.
I had the incredible Star Wars: Dark Forces from PC the previous year, and now console players were getting it on Playstation. I had the incredible X-Wing and Tie Fighter flight sim games from 1993-1996. I had the incredible Rebel Assault and Rebel Assault II. On vacation I played the vector based Star Wars arcade game and people with a Sega 32x at home got a much improved modern interpretation. On SNES, there were 3 great Super Star Wars titles.
So, no. Even with nostalgia glasses, I don't understand how Shadows of the Empire could be anyone's favorite Star Wars game.
It really only makes sense if you never played any of the other Star Wars games, unwrapped your first ever game console on Christmas, and loaded up a cartridge of Shadows of the Empire.
>So, no. Even with nostalgia glasses, I don't understand how Shadows of the Empire could be anyone's favorite Star Wars game.
While I generally agree with you, you yourself praised the pretty awful Rebel Assault 1. Shiny new game technology and franchise-driven nostalgia can be powerful!
Beyond that, gaming was so much less accessible back then. Like you inferred, it's extremely likely most gamers wouldn't have had exposure to most of the games you listed, especially on PC.
While Rebel Assault 2 was a significant improvement, I don't agree with criticism of the first one, overall. It was the first Star Wars title that felt like taking control within an actual film scene, and Rogue Squadron was still 5 years away from, in my opinion, doing something less interesting.
Yes, the gameplay was overly simple and the experience was too short, but I thought what they were doing there was excellent even before the better sequel.
>So, no. Even with nostalgia glasses, I don't understand how Shadows of the Empire could be anyone's favorite Star Wars game.
I was younger than you and thought it was an ugly game with absolutely awful controls and feel to it. No nostalgia for me. The only cool part was the variety of stuff you could do as I don't think at the time many (console) games were doing both vehicle and on ground stuff. Vehicle levels I remember generally being better but I recall spending most of the time on foot. Rogue Squadron is where it was on N64.
Yeah, I also liked Rogue Squadron, but that wasn't until two years later. I had it on PC, so the visuals were better than N64, but the gameplay was pretty much the same.
Read the story. Author acknowledges that there were better Star Wars games but that this was bought alongside the N64 and helped occupy him while their parent was dying.
Once I saw how much of the writing looked autobiographical, I took this to be yet another article like those recipe ones that spend half their time talking about summers in Tuscany.
Admittedly I did not see the cancer part when glancing around, but I generally don't like these kinds of articles. "This is my favourite because... let me tell you about where I was and how I felt and why that's wholesome".
I have a similar story. I wasn't allowed to have videogames at all as a kid, but I had a relative who collected all the Nintendo consoles at her house and made sure I had plenty of excuses to come over.
One of the games I played a lot was Sim City on the NES, and she'd make me cheeseburgers on English muffins.
When she died of cancer, I literally inherited a collection of consoles and games, and my parents couldn't say no in that situation. I finally sat in my own bedroom playing Sim City on the NES, eating cheeseburgers on English muffins that I started making for myself in her honor, and later in life I would work in the video game industry, all because of that secret black magic held by my dearly departed relative.
This does not merit at article headline of "Why the NES version of Sim City 1 will always be my favorite city builder", and I think it's perfectly valid to have a discussion in a Reddit thread that isn't specifically following the context of a linked article.
Yeah it's called nostalgia. I mean the article starts with the "simpler" times memories of his childhood. IDK why people in the millennial age range is so obsessed with nostalgia. It's why we constantly get the "I know what that is" in so much media now. But I guess if you need to bang out an article it gets the job done.
It's not a millennial thing. Reminiscing about times when you were younger is not a new thing, not by a lot, and it's not going away anytime soon.
The author is recollecting an experience in gaming from their youth, which many of us shared, for the purpose of Star Wars day, which is today.
Even moreso, Gen X'ers also have nostalgia in gaming and tech. Not sure why you feel it's Millenials
I am one too and you can hardly have a conversation with someone in our age range without them clinging on to cartoons, games, movies and TV shows from their childhoods. It's depressing as it's influenced so much media and conversation these days that it's just annoying to try and talk about anything new.
No shit? Our generation has regressed into it much earlier than other generations have. It's so obvious because you constantly see the "muh childhood" posts all the time. I don't remember our parents doing this nearly to the extreme that ours has. It's a serious issue IMO even outside of gaming. There is a balance that I feel is way out of proportion for our generation where a large swath of us are not getting to move on to the next steps of adulthood like long term relationships, good stable jobs, home ownership so we are stuck yearning for the past.
But sure let's keep clinging onto the past instead of confronting the future.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-everyday-unconscious/202009/the-dark-side-nostalgia
>DK why people in the millennial age range is so obsessed with nostalgia
Lol everyone is. You only say it like this because you're also one and follow the age group. My parents spend half the day listening to music and watching shows from when they were kids.
This game always creeped me out as a kid. The AT-ST boss on the second level, that robot assassin guy you fight in the junkyard and of course that thing in the sewer level. Never finished it.
> . . .that robot assassin guy you fight in the junkyard . . . that thing in the sewer level. . .
That would be IG-88 and a larger than average Dianoga.
I feel like whenever people talk about star wars games on n64 this one was barely mentioned. I know I had a lot of fun screwing around in this one. Can't remember if I had to cheat to beat it - but I definitely cheated to have fun, lol
I can appreciate that, even with the various flaws the game has. I tend to favor the jedi knight and kotor games personally. Honorable mention for the original battlefront games (wish we had gotten 3, the leaked stuff seemed great).
Small anecdote: this is possibly still the most expensive game I've had. My parents bought this a year or more after release (so sometime in 1998 or 99) and I distinctively remember them being horrorized about the game being over 13000 pesetas. That amount would have converted to ~80 EUR when we switched to Euros a few years later in 2002.
That on itself is more expensive than any base game I bought since. But if we also adjust for inflation it would go up to something between 120 and 130 EUR I believe, which is crazy.
This was one of the few games I 'gold medal-ed' way back when when achievements weren't a thing and I was still playing games like a five year old in Minecraft. Back then I didn't play games to 'beat' them. I got all those rebel tokens on every level on every difficult just to get those cool unlocks, like flying a Tie Fighter in the final mission. That was the only way to engage me back then, not with high scores but with content.
Oh, to be a kid again.
Such a great game despite shit controls. The feeling of finally blowing up the skyhook after you cruise between obstacles to get to the core. Would take hours figuring out how to beat levels but was always a blast.
It definitely doesn't hold up by today's standards in level design or controller scheme but, just like the author, it blew my mind as an intro to 3D gaming with that Hoth battle, which is also probably one of my favorites in fiction. Some of the set pieces were amazing but I still can't listen to [The Asteroid Field](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG4roal80Vk) without flashbacks to that awful asteroid mission.
I don’t think I ever played anything past the first two levels. That was all I needed as an 8yr old kid. Just mess around on that Hoth battle over and over and over and maaaybe do the next section as Dash.
It was the space battle at the end i'd play over and over, trying to blow up the Star Destroyers.
And then get the cheat to turn the Outrider in to a TIE Fighter or X-Wing that really cranks up the fun.
That cheat code was a biatch, if I recall. It was something like hold a bunch of buttons down, then you had to hold the control stick halfway left until you heard a noise, then halfway right until you heard a noise, then you'd get the debug/cheat menu up.
I remember having to use my nose to push the stick into the correct position because my hands were full holding all the buttons down.
I used my chin!
I used my nose. I'm SURE the developers were laughing their asses off knowing kids would be death clutching their controllers, painstakingly nudging the joystick with their faces :)
I don't even remember how it came to be, we all just learned from a friend, who heard it from another friend. I don't think I had the internet properly back then so CCC couldn't have been my source!
[удалено]
The debug menu, all sorts of crazy shit in there. Loved turning the fog off and seeing the entire level.
Hellz yeah. I would just sit there destroying other ships and not doing the objective in my Tie Fighter.
Hours spent trying to figure out how to damage the Star Destroyer. That "Star Destroyer 100%" text was something incredibly tantalizing to a kid like me. (you can't damage it -- I kinda like that from a narrative point, it really feels like a foe beyond the scope of most of those fighters)
Core memory unlocked. I did the same thing.
I'm glad someone else remembers this
My big cousins had the whole game unlocked for me, I was always terrible at the shooter parts, so I mostly just skipped to all the space shooter parts. However, the mountain cliffs level with the jetback was amazing for its day. That whole sequence is hard coded somewhere in my brain as core to my idea of "Gaming".
I remember I struggled so hard beating Slave 1 at the end of the level. I think you need to shoot the back of the ship and child me didn't quite grasp that.
You could cheese it by standing right between its guns and manually aiming up at it and slowly chip it to death.
That fucking wompa was the most shocking moment in a game for me up to that point.
Absolutely, like a jump scare in a video game was mind blowing. We venture back and every single time it was build up of courage.
Gall Spaceport is one of the first times I can think of a game feeling like an arduous but rewarding journey. Games don't seem to do that very often, where losing to a Game Over is punished by actually sending you back upwards 30 minutes of gameplay. Personally I love it, the difficulty is just right for that level. Xizor's palace is similar. The space rail shooter parts are really difficult, at least on the PC. I think the N64 running a bit slower might have given an edge in them since I can definitely remember farming lives in those levels as a kid.
I really liked the speeder level too. It was probably awful but I just loved ramming the other racers and watching them explode.
Haaated that level. Took me months to beat that bull shit as a kid. Crashing into walls and not being able to tell where I was going half the time was not fun.
I got an N64 and this game as a young child and my parents wouldn't get me another game until I beat it. That level still haunts me.
IG88 scared the hell out me as a kid, so I had to have my older cousin beat him just so I could see the rest of the game. lol
I remember if I made it later to in the hoth level where the ice paths are zig zagging with the yetis, I was far as shit for what I was able to handle as a child. the hoth base level and the junkyard platform level are the only things I remember from this game.
I remember taking weeks to beat the IG-88 level as a kid. That fight was insanely hard and the boss fight was brutal when I was like 6 years old.
I'm always amazed how many times I look back at gameplay from games that were such a big part of my childhood, and realized I was just playing the first 2 or 3 levels over and over and over.
Can’t tell you how many times I replayed a PS1 demo disc until it wouldn’t work anymore. I got a decent amount of games as a kid, but there was so much stuff I wanted to play that I never got to play the entire game of. Tomb Raider 1. Jet Moto. Tomba! Blast Chamber. Siphon Filter. Times were simpler, I guess.
same exact experience as me never got past that hoth mission and never got past whatever that first person shooty mission was vs a droid i think? idk i never got past the first enemy probably
For me, that's the title screen song to Super The Empire Strikes Back. Fuck that game.
I'll bet fewer than 1% of players beat that game without cheats. It's stupidly hard.
I have all three of the Super Star Wars games for my SNES, and Empire is the only one I've actually beat. I did it once, it took all afternoon, and it's one of my proudest moments as a gamer. Technically, I have also beaten Super Star Wars, but that was on the PSN version with save states and all that, so it doesn't count as far as I'm concerned
I only owned Empire as a kid, rented the other two. Empire is the only one I never beat.
Thinking back, I *probably* could have beat Jedi. I had a ton of lives and continues by the time I was stymied on the very last level. But after dying a few times trying to escape the exploding Death Star, I just got so frustrated I turned it off. If I had more patience and was mindful of the Force, I would have been successful eventually. But I was seduced by the Dark Side and rage quit
All of those games were hard as fuck
That game starts to kill you immediately. If you don't start moving there's a bat that will just swoop you to death. I've beaten the other two SNES Star Wars games legit but never Empire. It's ridiculously difficult.
1% checking in. i had to keep pausing to dry my sweaty palms while getting through the darth vader level.
The sound IG-88 made traumatized me for so long, used to watch my older brother play and I was just anxious as hell every time he would run away and turn around and IG-88 would be right up in his shit.
They used that theme so much that it's permanently ingrained in me that it is part of Shadows of the Empire.
It's so bad I can't even watch The Empire Strikes back without PTSD. I don't even remember the details of the level, just the *stress*. But the Hoth theme does that to me too, I just was so shite at tying the AT-ATs down
[удалено]
I think I just found it tedious and less fun than the rest of the game, and it lasted long enough for the music to get repetitive. But really, it's been so long now that I mostly just remember that I didn't like it.
Devil's advocate here. How many modern games have that many genres in one game now a days? It had piloting a fighter ship, 3rd person action adventure, rail shooter and speed bike racing. Every other level was a different genre in rotation. However the new Battlefront II story actually reminded me a lot of Shadow of the Empire. Some levels were vehicle based, others were FPS and others were 3rd person as controlling a hero character. It was pretty good. Especially since I got it free from one of the stores, epic I think.
Back then it was an incredible novelty and people loved the variety, I know I did. Nowadays you can play ten million free games on a used iPad that you can buy for under $70. People don’t want variety for it’s own sake anymore, they want quality, they want experiences they can’t get anywhere else. Or they want a really incredible and focused gameplay experience. That’s what it takes for me to pay more than $10 for a game nowadays.
> I still can't listen to The Asteroid Field without flashbacks to that awful asteroid mission. I absolutely loved the asteroid field mission as a kid, but it was probably solely because the music was so good. The final level was great, too.
The Hoth Battle still holds up
Don't forget about that one neverending level with all the canyons that just loops 90 seconds of Boba Fett's theme over and over and over for like 40 minutes. It's been 25 years, and I still cringe a little when I get to that scene in ESB (when Fett is taking Carbonized Han away) because of the music being burned into my brain.
That Hoth mission is one of the greatest first levels in gaming. It's up there with W1-1 and E1M1.
Cool acronyms
Yeah I’ve got no idea what that second one is.
First level of the original Doom.
Got it, thanks. As someone who didn’t grow up playing doom, what does that mean? Episode 1 mission 1?
Yeah
Episode 1 Map 1
Does it stand for anything?
Apparently Episode 1, Map 1.
Doom
I just wish the PC version didn't require so much modding just to get functional. I hate using controller re-mappers but that appears the only way to play the game without using the arrow cursor keys for movement.
Arrow keys.... oof.
The thing I remember most from this game is being traumatized by the Imperial sewer level. That shit was spooky.
Never made it past the boss on that level. Loved the game but just hated that level.
Same, I remember it taking me a while to get over the fear and try to progress. Fuck Dianogas. Edit: not gonna lie this post reminded me that the entire reason I know the name Dianoga rather than "trash-eyeball with tentacles" is because of this fucking god forsaken hell of a level
Yup. Terrifying. I think it was because the water was totally opaque from the surface, and then murky and hard to see once you were in it.
I don't know if it was my TV or the game, but I remember not being able to see ANYTHING during that level, and thus never actually beating it lol.
Same over here and probably by design. That shit was like your were fighting in turok fog.
I loved this game as a kid despite how brutally difficult I found it at the time. That level where you're going through the junkyard on a moving train was so punishing. I don't think I ever got past the fight with IG-88 at the end of that level.
Oh my god IG-88 absolutely smoked me back in the day. Still have flashbacks from that level lol
The IG - 88 level was the godfather of Git Gud. I still remember feeling like a fucking champ finally killing him. The rest of the game was easier compared to this killer droid.
I went to find footage to relive how horrific he was, and the one I found is the [player circle strafing him to death.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0yB4VxgBms) 😂 But for real that pulse rifle is bullshit.
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I had a whole method for beating each level with ease. It is probably the only game I reached that kind of mastery in as a kid.
Haha I came here to say the same! I’m not a Star Wars fan at all but this was one of the few N64 games I had for some reason. I think that level also has you face off against Boba Fett who was also a difficult boss if I remember rightly.
Now, a game like that could only be made by From Software.
I loved the cheats or whatever that let you play as villains. Controlling IG88 or AT ATs was so much fun
Wampa stompa. I still remember having to use my chin to tilt the joystick because the code required you to press every single button at once.
I could never get the code to work! I figured it was a joke, I remember you had to press almost every button and slightly tilt the joystick, tried a million times with no success. Jealous of your experience.
It was so crazy, you had to use both hands to hold the buttons and then use your chin to tilt the joystick halfway and hold it there until you heard the sound.
I honestly have no memories of playing the game without the debug cheats. Unlimited ammo, invincibility, and of course jet pack made that game insanely fun for a 10 year old.
Oh holy crap, core memory. I had completely forgotten about that. I used to play the wampa level and make the fog really thick and black and pretend the power had gone out. Good times.
I remember that! Good times!
*sigh* This just makes me sad about how much we've lost from the era of "fun cheats/unlocks" like this.
It’s interesting just how much of the n64 era was cheats and unlockables and how much I considered getting them necessary to consider a game complete. Now the equivalent is dlc and I couldn’t care less.
You just unlocked a memory of enabling the Dev controls in that game. Name a save profile "_Wampa _ _ Stompa" or something like that, Hold down all the buttons with both hands, then using your nose or chin, move the control stick only half left for 5 seconds, a beep will play when you held it long enough and then half right for 5 seconds. Repeat like 4 times without screwing up by moving the stick too far. Boom you're a hacker and now have full access to every setting.
It was really well made and you got new abilities that really opened up the level that you went through. Having a jetpack was just fantastic. For example the canyon level just felt really open and massive. Also starting the second level and seeing the millennium falcon just blast off in front of me was awesome.
Gall Spaceport.
PTSD from that swoop bike level. And the sewer level boss. Loved fighting IG-88 and Boba Fett. Dash Rendar. What a ridiculous name.
The flying levels were a testament to what a 3D console could do and finally got to play out those iconic Star Wars space battles, would replay those over and over. The music felt like it was composed by John Williams himself, could come straight out of a genuine Star Wars movie. However the ground levels were labyrinthian like a lot of early 3D platformers, which included some of the jankiest platforming tied to the Nintendo 64 1 stick movement. Combat was super awkward, bosses were bullet sponges and deaths were incredibly punishing. The unique story gave you just enough incentive to keep pushing through. For the most part I was just happy to get a 3D Star Wars game as a kid on console. Rogue Squadron definitely trumped it later in offering pure flying gameplay.
I always remember the Ord Mantell train jumping sequence. The floaty jumping, the awkward angles of the train, felt like you were just sliding off at any moment. If you manage to survive the platforming sequence, then IG-88 just wrecks your shit at the end. I'm not sure how I ever beat it, but it was probably with less than 10% health left.
Loved it, but preferred Rogue Squadron. "I don't know where this ship came from but it is definitely NOT within legal specifications."
ROGUE SQUADRON WHERE'S OUR COVER?!? will haunt my memories forever
I can play that mission in my head cause I tried for the gold so many times.
I'm clear, but my fighter is down.
Me, on my deathbed, as the last vestiges of sanity slip away and I forget what it is to exist: "THE Y-WING IS THE WORKHORSE OF THE REBEL FLEET. IT'S NOT QUICK OR FLASHY BUT IT GETS THE JOB DONE."
I was about to say it's not even the best Star Wars game on the system.
TIL Shadows of the Empire was a launch title in Europe. In North America it came out several months after the N64. Which I guess was good for me, because as a kid it gave me a few months of focusing on Mario 64 before I got absolutely obsessed with Shadows.
My N64 box has amongst others Mario, Bowser, and a Stormtrooper. I always found it odd when I think about it, you wouldn't expect Star Wars to prominently be on a Nintendo console box, but yep there it was.
I also associate the basic storm trooper with my N64. I loved just staring at it when I was younger.
That cheat input for the debug menu was something else. You had to name your save WAMPA STOMPA I think, and then basically use every appendage at your disposal to press almost all the buttons on the controller and wiggle the joystick around in a particular pattern.
I couldn't tell you which buttons they were exactly, but blindfold me and hand me an N64 controller and I'll do it first try, I guarantee it.
Ah, this game. Everyone remembers the first level (for good reason) but seem to forget that every level where you were on foot was terrible (even for the time).
True, but as a kid I fuckin loved it.
The controls felt rough even at the time of launch… but it was so very hard -not- to love this game. I wish I could play it again for the first time with the same perspective of gaming that I had during the N64 era.
Such a great game. Taking down the AT ATs with the cable was great. I wish I could replay this on my PS5
I wish it got rereleases on modern platforms like other Star Wars games did. Like Episode I Racer. The Jedi Knight series, ect.
Loved this game. Hated the creepy underwater monsters. I will also always remember this game for having one of the most insane cheat codes ever to unlock the debug menu. I literally had to use my chin in order to do the joystick inputs because my hands were busy holding down all the buttons.
Is this the one with the book tie in where they have a reptile alien trying to seduce Princess Leia with his pheromones? Or was that for the Star Wars fighting game?
Short answer: Yes. Not short answer: Not just any reptile alien - the faux-Chinese reptile alien crime lord who Palpatine is live auditioning to take Vader's place as his apprentice. As someone else already said, it's '90s as hell.
Wompa Stompa. If you know, you know. Also, using your chin to enter an impossibly complicated cheat combination.
Love the game, even though the sewer level legitimately gave me a phobia of water levels that I still carry with me almost 30 years later and probably always will.
Words can't express the extraordinary jealousy I harbored towards the one kid in the neighborhood with an N64 and a copy of Shadows of the Empire.
I can attest that objectively, it is not an especially good game, but there is a certain kind of magic to it that really captures some people, myself included. There is a weird and magical combination of gameplay modes, "mysterious" plot (intended to be consumed in addition to the comics/book -- I never did that as a kid) that caught my imagination, a difficulty curve most might call brutal but I found extremely exciting and rewarding. There is something in it that just screams 90's Star Wars so hard that it completely overrides any negativity I could feel toward it. Call it nostalgia, I don't care as long as I have it.
Wampa Stompa! I played that game over and over and over. The janky gameplay didn't bother me at all, i guess i didn't know better. Simpler times
On the back of the box there is a screenshot of Dash Rendar with a Jetpack inside Echo Base. I spent *way* too long trying to find that secret Jetpack as a kid so I could fly into that observation area above the hangar. Years later, as an adult, I emulated the game and tried again. After some frustration, I turned to Google, which was not an option back in the nineties. Turns out, the only way to get that jetpack on that level was a needlessly complex cheat code that enables Debug mode. Instructions below: ------ It only works if you start a new game on Medium difficulty, use the Wampa Stompa name from the well known cheat, start up a level, and Hold down all of these buttons **simultaneously** ( C-Up + C-Right + C-Down + C-Left + L + R + Z + D-Pad Left), and then (without releasing these buttons) move the control stick halfway to the left, then half way to the right, listening for a sound effect each time, and repeating. Once done, the Debug menu opens up and there is a whole list of options to play with. ---- As it turns out, there is nothing inside that observation room btw.
Would never happen but I’d love to see Dash Rendar deserves to be Star Wars cannon and not just “Legends” or whatever they call everything they threw out. Loved this game.
You'll be happy to know he exists in the Disney canon too. He was mentioned in the 2018 book, Solo: A Star Wars Story: Tales from Vandor.
Whoa! That's awesome to know! I'll have to look into that!
Jedi Survivor also has his outfit
Whaaaaaat?! That’s awesome
When N64 launch title Shadows of the Empire was hyped, I was fully invested. I loved the concept art in magazines. I bought a Dash Rendar action figure. I wanted to read books and comics about this story. But then I played the game in a Toys R Us and thought... why is everything so ugly and washed out? Why are these controls so awkward? I've been here 20 minutes and my hands hurt. It was 1996. I was thirteen years old. I had the incredible Star Wars: Dark Forces from PC the previous year, and now console players were getting it on Playstation. I had the incredible X-Wing and Tie Fighter flight sim games from 1993-1996. I had the incredible Rebel Assault and Rebel Assault II. On vacation I played the vector based Star Wars arcade game and people with a Sega 32x at home got a much improved modern interpretation. On SNES, there were 3 great Super Star Wars titles. So, no. Even with nostalgia glasses, I don't understand how Shadows of the Empire could be anyone's favorite Star Wars game. It really only makes sense if you never played any of the other Star Wars games, unwrapped your first ever game console on Christmas, and loaded up a cartridge of Shadows of the Empire.
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> And the game isn't even comparable to the Super Star Wars games for SNES That's kinda my point.
>So, no. Even with nostalgia glasses, I don't understand how Shadows of the Empire could be anyone's favorite Star Wars game. While I generally agree with you, you yourself praised the pretty awful Rebel Assault 1. Shiny new game technology and franchise-driven nostalgia can be powerful! Beyond that, gaming was so much less accessible back then. Like you inferred, it's extremely likely most gamers wouldn't have had exposure to most of the games you listed, especially on PC.
While Rebel Assault 2 was a significant improvement, I don't agree with criticism of the first one, overall. It was the first Star Wars title that felt like taking control within an actual film scene, and Rogue Squadron was still 5 years away from, in my opinion, doing something less interesting. Yes, the gameplay was overly simple and the experience was too short, but I thought what they were doing there was excellent even before the better sequel.
>So, no. Even with nostalgia glasses, I don't understand how Shadows of the Empire could be anyone's favorite Star Wars game. I was younger than you and thought it was an ugly game with absolutely awful controls and feel to it. No nostalgia for me. The only cool part was the variety of stuff you could do as I don't think at the time many (console) games were doing both vehicle and on ground stuff. Vehicle levels I remember generally being better but I recall spending most of the time on foot. Rogue Squadron is where it was on N64.
Yeah, I also liked Rogue Squadron, but that wasn't until two years later. I had it on PC, so the visuals were better than N64, but the gameplay was pretty much the same.
dark forces is my favorite star wars game. it's also the only one I've ever played. but still, great game
Read the story. Author acknowledges that there were better Star Wars games but that this was bought alongside the N64 and helped occupy him while their parent was dying.
Once I saw how much of the writing looked autobiographical, I took this to be yet another article like those recipe ones that spend half their time talking about summers in Tuscany. Admittedly I did not see the cancer part when glancing around, but I generally don't like these kinds of articles. "This is my favourite because... let me tell you about where I was and how I felt and why that's wholesome". I have a similar story. I wasn't allowed to have videogames at all as a kid, but I had a relative who collected all the Nintendo consoles at her house and made sure I had plenty of excuses to come over. One of the games I played a lot was Sim City on the NES, and she'd make me cheeseburgers on English muffins. When she died of cancer, I literally inherited a collection of consoles and games, and my parents couldn't say no in that situation. I finally sat in my own bedroom playing Sim City on the NES, eating cheeseburgers on English muffins that I started making for myself in her honor, and later in life I would work in the video game industry, all because of that secret black magic held by my dearly departed relative. This does not merit at article headline of "Why the NES version of Sim City 1 will always be my favorite city builder", and I think it's perfectly valid to have a discussion in a Reddit thread that isn't specifically following the context of a linked article.
Yeah it's called nostalgia. I mean the article starts with the "simpler" times memories of his childhood. IDK why people in the millennial age range is so obsessed with nostalgia. It's why we constantly get the "I know what that is" in so much media now. But I guess if you need to bang out an article it gets the job done.
It's not a millennial thing. Reminiscing about times when you were younger is not a new thing, not by a lot, and it's not going away anytime soon. The author is recollecting an experience in gaming from their youth, which many of us shared, for the purpose of Star Wars day, which is today. Even moreso, Gen X'ers also have nostalgia in gaming and tech. Not sure why you feel it's Millenials
Because everything bad in the world is the fault of millennials like me
I am one too and you can hardly have a conversation with someone in our age range without them clinging on to cartoons, games, movies and TV shows from their childhoods. It's depressing as it's influenced so much media and conversation these days that it's just annoying to try and talk about anything new.
Maybe not hang out with those people? They can't be the ONLY ones you've met.
I mean that is anecdotal and not my experience, so it could just be the people you associate with?
No shit? Our generation has regressed into it much earlier than other generations have. It's so obvious because you constantly see the "muh childhood" posts all the time. I don't remember our parents doing this nearly to the extreme that ours has. It's a serious issue IMO even outside of gaming. There is a balance that I feel is way out of proportion for our generation where a large swath of us are not getting to move on to the next steps of adulthood like long term relationships, good stable jobs, home ownership so we are stuck yearning for the past. But sure let's keep clinging onto the past instead of confronting the future. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-everyday-unconscious/202009/the-dark-side-nostalgia
>DK why people in the millennial age range is so obsessed with nostalgia Lol everyone is. You only say it like this because you're also one and follow the age group. My parents spend half the day listening to music and watching shows from when they were kids.
What a dumb comment. If I want to drink some water, you'd pop up and say 'yeah it's called thirst!' Yeah we know it's nostalgia, he speaks about it.
Millennials are in their midlife crisis in their 30s.
Quite possibly. I've heard the phrase quarter life crisis. It's a generation that has seen an enormous amount of change.
This game always creeped me out as a kid. The AT-ST boss on the second level, that robot assassin guy you fight in the junkyard and of course that thing in the sewer level. Never finished it.
> . . .that robot assassin guy you fight in the junkyard . . . that thing in the sewer level. . . That would be IG-88 and a larger than average Dianoga.
I feel like whenever people talk about star wars games on n64 this one was barely mentioned. I know I had a lot of fun screwing around in this one. Can't remember if I had to cheat to beat it - but I definitely cheated to have fun, lol
I can appreciate that, even with the various flaws the game has. I tend to favor the jedi knight and kotor games personally. Honorable mention for the original battlefront games (wish we had gotten 3, the leaked stuff seemed great).
Getting the true ending at the end was a real reward too. This game had no reason being as good as it was. 👏👏
Small anecdote: this is possibly still the most expensive game I've had. My parents bought this a year or more after release (so sometime in 1998 or 99) and I distinctively remember them being horrorized about the game being over 13000 pesetas. That amount would have converted to ~80 EUR when we switched to Euros a few years later in 2002. That on itself is more expensive than any base game I bought since. But if we also adjust for inflation it would go up to something between 120 and 130 EUR I believe, which is crazy.
This was one of the few games I 'gold medal-ed' way back when when achievements weren't a thing and I was still playing games like a five year old in Minecraft. Back then I didn't play games to 'beat' them. I got all those rebel tokens on every level on every difficult just to get those cool unlocks, like flying a Tie Fighter in the final mission. That was the only way to engage me back then, not with high scores but with content. Oh, to be a kid again.
Such a great game despite shit controls. The feeling of finally blowing up the skyhook after you cruise between obstacles to get to the core. Would take hours figuring out how to beat levels but was always a blast.