Get Played - Star Wars Games

Starting point is 00:00:00 This is a head gum podcast. Matt, I am super, super excited to do this episode on the history of Star Wars video games. But I've just gotten a sort of email from corporate and we cannot. Corporate. Well, we can't, we cannot use cannot use these suits these headgum suits Make me the headgum suits are they're tough They're tough, but they're just trying to keep the business afloat and what they've told me is

Starting point is 00:00:33 We cannot use any of the Star Wars sound effects in this episode or we will be fined many many many many Thousands of dollars we can I know that this is the premiere video game podcast and I know that that to our listeners probably sounds like such a little amount of money that we cannot take that hit. Yeah, we can't take that hit right now. That's too, that's too much money. Yeah, but you know we're gonna be doing a lot of talking so uh, so Matt my hope is, here's what we could do. Obviously there's gonna be blasters. Obviously there's going to be lightsabers.

Starting point is 00:01:06 Obviously there's going to be, you know, the sound of X-Wings and TIE fighters screaming through the air. I'm just gonna need you to lay down a little foley. Got it. For what we can use instead of those sounds. Absolutely. Those iconic Star Wars sounds.

Starting point is 00:01:20 So can you give me, how about three options for blasters okay? shoo-pew pew pew Those are great. Those are great and honestly much better than I expected I want this to work. Oh, I do too. Okay. I mean I also like I guess I'm trying to get cast and like voiceover stuff So like oh, that's great if people if you hear this new thing. I did a good job Bang my line. Okay, okay now we need um we need lightsabers igniting. You know Honestly Matt you're blowing my fucking mind As it going back in that's great, and then about a motion yeah, yeah, yeah

Starting point is 00:02:06 You know I'm gonna tell you right now Matt that one's probably not as good as the other ones when I Pitched this opening to you. I expected your sounds to be shitty and these are fucking fantastic Can you give me a lightsabers clashing against each other? This intro's not at all what I expected it to be. Alright, can you do like, Thai fighters? Like, you know, coming in from outer space? Okay, great, great, great, great, great. Can you do...what other effects are there? Mm-hmm

Starting point is 00:02:47 I mean, there's like the like r2d2. That's gonna be harder. I was gonna be honest I know that this one's not gonna be that good. Okay. Well, yeah, I can do him like screaming. Yeah, there you go All right, great well, I think we've got enough to get us through this podcast. There's only one more issue, and this is going to be tough. We don't have any license to use the John Williams score. Yeah, that makes sense. Kind of like a lot of these old Star Wars games didn't have access to the score.

Starting point is 00:03:18 But we do need something that will let people know, like, this is a Star Wars podcast. OK. you know, I know that I kind of just like, blew your mind with my hidden talent of being able to do all the Star Wars noises. You don't know this about me, I started to play music. You did? And I kind of wrote a new song that's kind of like, I wasn't really sure what it was for

Starting point is 00:03:42 or why it was coming to me, but now I realized that it was exactly for this, and I think it's gonna fit in exactly in, it's a Star Wars type song. It evokes Star Wars without being exactly that. Great, so here's my pitch. I'm gonna roll you in with my best rendition of a acapella fox fanfare and then you you

Starting point is 00:04:08 knock that theme in as the big you know Star Wars comes onto the screen there it goes Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr We engage our hyper drives and blast past more than 100 titles as we reminisce about the history of Star Wars video games this week on Get Played, your one-stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between. It's time to get played. I'm your host, Heather Ann Campbell, along with my fellow host, Matt Appadaka. Hello, everyone. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the premiere video game podcast

Starting point is 00:05:48 where you have not one, but two hosts. Two, and this week, that's it. That's it. That's it, and that's all you're gonna get. That's all you're gonna get. And you're gonna like it. You're gonna, well, I'm not certain they're gonna like it because we've never actually done this pairing before. Well, I'm not certain they're gonna like it

Starting point is 00:06:05 because we've never actually done this pairing before. Well, we've done it once when we had Albro, but Albro was like, Albro's so cool, everybody loves Albro. He counts as a third host. Yeah, that's true. And he's just like the coolest guy ever, too. But just you and me, we've never done it.

Starting point is 00:06:18 Yeah, that's true, that is true. And also, now that you've said that, I remember now how stressed out I was. Even with a third person. Even with a third person even with a third person And I want to say to you the listener. I am just that stressed again. Yeah before we started recording Heather said I'm stressed I'm stressed fuck. I'm stressed. Yeah, and I said it's gonna be fine, and she said no. It's not. I'm stressed I want to say our Our producer Rachelle Chen is out of the studio this week, so we have our guest engineer again Sam Rogich is here

Starting point is 00:06:50 Hi Sam. Hey there. Thanks for having me. So there is a third person here We might be leaning on you pretty hard. Yeah Hey Sam anything over there, what's what with you Sam? Hey Sam, anything kicking over there? What's that board looking like these days? I also know, I know that when Nick found out about this topic, he was so bummed out that he wasn't gonna be a part of it. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:07:14 And that isn't why we picked it. Kind of why I suggested it. Really, it is? Kind of a punishment. Are you serious? Yeah, next time you're out, it's gonna be something that you love. I think next time you're out,

Starting point is 00:07:23 Nick and I are gonna cover Mother 3. I would listen. No, no, no, there was you're out. It's gonna be something that you love I think next time you're out Nick and I really cover mother three. I would listen No, no, no, it was there was no spite involved. Yeah But I'm really excited about this topic and I Nick is so excited about it that I do think he's gonna drop in Just a little segment of his own. He's gonna record Abroad or wherever the fuck he is. Yeah, he's gonna record it locally Because he wants he has yeah, he's gonna record it Because he wants he has some stuff he wants to say about this week's topic It would be so funny if we threw to it now because we're just like Here's what I think

Starting point is 00:07:57 Honestly, I think that at any point during this podcast when we are at a loss yeah throw to it Yeah, absolutely and you know what if we are at a loss. Yeah. Throw to it. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And you know what? If we are at a loss twice, we can throw to it twice. We'll just play it twice. And just, he can play, we can play it twice, or we can say to him, hey, look, man, you gotta go with it too.

Starting point is 00:08:17 Send him a video of us going like this, like with our fingers, stretching. But we're gonna talk about the legacy, history, and sort of an overview of all of the Star Wars video games that have ever been released. The reason we're doing that is that Matt and I really dipped into Star Wars outlaws, and we were enjoying it, and we've been talking about Star Wars games,

Starting point is 00:08:42 and we've been thinking about Star Wars games, and Matt was like, maybe we should do a podcast sort of about all of them. Yeah, and you know, I guess, should we say this too? Yeah, say it. This episode, not unlike all episodes of the podcast when you stop and think about it, this episode is a bit pre-recorded, right?

Starting point is 00:08:59 Obviously, all podcasts are pre-recorded. What the fuck are you saying? This episode is coming out later than, usually we record, it comes out the week after. Yes. Days after really, five days after, not a full week. This one is coming out in a couple of weeks. So it's not going to be super current. We'll probably both talk about a game that we'll have covered as a WePlay YouPlay in

Starting point is 00:09:21 the past when you hear this. Wait, so we're going to talk about a game that we're playing in the past when you hear this. Wait, so we're gonna talk about a game that we're playing in the present, but by the time this is released, it will have released as the We Play You Play behind the episode? That's right. In a rear view mirror?

Starting point is 00:09:34 That's right. Holy shit. And you know, who knows when even this is right now? I just hope Star Wars hasn't been canceled by the time this needs to be released. Gosh, could that even happen you know the way people? Nobody cancels Star Wars. They just hate it louder in different ways I You know today in at work literally at work. Mm-hmm

Starting point is 00:10:00 I was talking about the acolyte. And sort of talked, nobody in the room wanted to watch the whole thing. Even though I was very effusive with my praise about the acolyte. And they were like, I remember you coming in and being like, it's episode four and I'm so fucking frustrated. And that was the truth. I was frustrated four episodes into that show, but episode five turns the tide. We... they were like,

Starting point is 00:10:30 well, what's so good about the choreography? And I was like, why don't we just watch some? And we put it up on these giant screens in our new office, these huge fucking, like, theatrical-sized screens. And we watched just the choreography of the major fight in episode five of the Acolyte, and everybody in the room, Star Wars fan or not, was like, this is pretty cool.

Starting point is 00:10:50 That's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. I still haven't seen it. I haven't even seen clips of that. I've avoided all of it. Oh man, it's so good, dude. I'll find the time to watch it and go back to it someday. I really like that.

Starting point is 00:11:00 I guess before we press on further. You mean before we start talking about Star Wars it's time to ask the question we always ask up top? I was gonna ask a secondary question. Oh, what's that question? Sam, how do you feel about Star Wars? I love the first three movies. Great. Yeah, I think I was at the right time for the reboots too for the second three. Uh-huh. And then I haven't well no okay. I take that back What three okay? Okay episode four through six? Yeah? I love right episode one through three

Starting point is 00:11:32 You were the right age the right age okay group for that okay, and then well speaking of the game That's when I had the racing game where they had the big heads. Oh, oh yeah. There's a different racing. I think it's possible Where they had the big head oh? Oh yeah, there's a different racing. I think it's possible or Bomb bad racing. I think it's that's what it's called. Yes. I loved that game, but after those six movies I haven't really given a shit honestly So that's where I'm at. I think that's fair. I think that's like that's pretty good. Yeah, cuz you know you look like I mean Not that I think you would be like this there are people that have engaged with the new Star Wars in a way that feels Bad in a way that's sort of like you know I'll just very plainly say it condemning it for being woke It's just like what are you talking about and now everybody who thinks that who listens to the show is mad

Starting point is 00:12:22 Before we press on any further, I do have a second question to ask, Heather. What is that? What are you playing? If you need a third host, you could ask me, is me the Resident Evil Merchant? And I'm here to ask a question I always ask.

Starting point is 00:12:41 Yeah. What are you playing? Good to see you Resident Evil 4 Merchant. Um, you know. It's good to see you man. The reason you can't, the reason you can't be... I can't, I can't wait to hear what you're about to say to him. Oh yeah, well the reason you can't be in the third seat. Yes. Even though you did... Is it too small? I can sit on the floor. No, I know that you've done it in the past I actually did get a pretty intense I got a pretty intense email you did from the network that was like head gum head gum emailed me And they were supposed to be a reference to how you put gum in your mouth and your mouth is on your head

Starting point is 00:13:21 I think that is When we stop and think about that's exactly what it is. Why isn't it called mouth gum? Because that's confusing because you have gums in your mouth. You do. So I got an email from the network. I go bone to teeth. Bone to teeth?

Starting point is 00:13:37 No gums. Teeth are bones. Yeah, they come straight out. No, I got rid of the flesh. Are teeth bones actually. I think they're like fingernails. Heather? I think they're, I think they are bone-ish.

Starting point is 00:13:54 They're bone-ish, right? Well, when you see like a skeleton on the ground. I see them all the time. Okay, yeah. Yeah, when you see a skeleton on the ground, you know, like there's the teeth are still there, but the fingernails aren't. So that makes me feel like teeth are bone.

Starting point is 00:14:11 If you had a third host, maybe he could answer. Here's the thing, Nick 100% would know this to a degree that we wouldn't like. Yeah. Yeah, that's scary. Yeah. He'd be like, actually teeth are a sex organ. This season Alienware has premium gear for every gamers wishlist.

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Starting point is 00:16:05 to indicate early signs of potential illnesses in my cat, like urinary tract infections, kidney issues, and more. Now my cat Hurley is an elder cat. He's 16 years old and he does have kidney issues. And so with pretty litter, I was, we were able to detect this and get him the help that he needs. And if that wasn't enough, pretty litter ships free right to my door. I never run out. I don't have any huge kitty litter bags taking up space. And even better, I don't have to lug those huge tubs from a store to my car and into my house. Miss me with that dog. Cats only. There's so many different issues that you have. Look, cause look, you have an animal that is going to go to the bathroom in your house. That's already problematic. That's an issue. What makes it worse is that other litters like clay

Starting point is 00:16:49 litters, for example, get kicked all over your house. So you just have little grains of sand everywhere. And what's great about Pretty Litter is that that's just not an issue. No mess. And I love that. Pretty Litter is amazing. You got to try it. Go to prettylitter.com slash play to save 20% on your first order and get a free cat toy. Ooh, that's prettylitter.com slash play to save 20% on your first order and get a free cat toy. Terms and conditions apply. See site for details. Meow. Matt, do you want to answer the question or do you want me to keep vamping? I'll answer the question. What are you playing? As I said, this will be moot by the time you hear this kind of.

Starting point is 00:17:38 Yeah, by the time you hear this, because I think we're going to talk about the same game. Yeah, and- Can I answer the question this week since you got it? You need a third answer if you have a third answer we can get your third answer All right, great Heather and I are both playing astrobot Astro bot which you'll have heard a full episode about at this point But we've recorded this before that episode came out. So we've just started playing Astro These are our first impressions of the game really.

Starting point is 00:18:05 Game fucking rules. I did send a text an hour after playing it for like a little bit, just an hour. It's so cool to me that video games can come out and be this good still. The idea that they were able to release this game and have it be one of the best in this genre. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:18:29 Kind of out of nowhere. Not really out of nowhere. There's the VR game, of course, and there's the pack-in that came with the PS5, Astro's Playroom. The pack-in hinted at this. Yes. Because the pack-in was better than it needed to be.

Starting point is 00:18:41 Yeah. And you feel that vibe in the pack and you're like, man, this is a good game. Like people talked about it as if it was like, like it was like if a Windows computer came with just a fantastic action adventure game. You'd be like, holy shit. But you wouldn't really think of it,

Starting point is 00:19:03 you wouldn't put it in your mental library as video game. You'd be like, holy shit. But you wouldn't really think of it, you wouldn't put it in your mental library as video game. You'd be like, what a great demo. Or the pinball game that came with all Windows computers for years. Mind sweeper. Mind sweeper. Those games come with computer. Those are good games.

Starting point is 00:19:18 Those are good games, but you're not thinking about them as the best ever. Astro Bot is basically, is a love letter to PlayStation. Yeah. Cynically could be seen as... Nostalgia bait? Nostalgia bait. I did see somebody call it a playable graveyard

Starting point is 00:19:39 of dead IP and stuff. But I don't know, there's so much joy injected into it, it feels impossible to think about it cynically at all. It feels like a love letter. It does not feel like a graveyard. No, and like, we were talking about this, and we'll talk more about this in the past, I'm sure. Nintendo could do this.

Starting point is 00:20:00 Yep. Sega could do this. Yep. Meaning, they could make a game that was a playful tour of old franchises and IP. A celebration of their work. One could argue that Smash Brothers is Astro Bot for Nintendo.

Starting point is 00:20:17 Yes, absolutely. You know who would have a really hard time doing a game like this? And I know that we're gonna sound like haters. We're gonna sound like haters of the, what I'll call the green box. Yeah. Microsoft couldn't do this. Microsoft would have a very shallow,

Starting point is 00:20:35 exclusive library to reference on an Xbox-style astrobot. And I don't think they could do it in as fun of a way. It isn't a console series known for platformers. Yes. Whereas Nintendo obviously is. They had Blinks. Yeah, they had Blinks. But like, Nintendo has always been a platform company.

Starting point is 00:20:58 Yeah. Sega, when they were making consoles, platformers. Even all the way through the Dreamcast, they were trying to do platformers on the Dreamcast. PlayStation has, you know, Ratchet and Clank. They've got like, what's the other one that I'm thinking of? Ratchet and Clank, Jack and Daxter, Sly Cooper, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro. Yeah, they've done platformers throughout their entire history. Xbox, not a big platform or console.

Starting point is 00:21:26 Happened to be proven wrong as well. I'm sure there must be one that exists but didn't catch on in the same way as these other ones. And then, you know, who are their guys? Halo Man. Master Chief. Halo Man. Halo Man.

Starting point is 00:21:40 So a lot of their guys are people that they've acquired. They have Doom Guy now, now right they have Skyrim Gears of War guy they have Marcus. Yeah from Gears of War. Yeah, they have what an airplane from flight simulator I mean if I was playing astro bot for Xbox and I saw airplane I'd be like, oh man, it's And I'm sure there are others and maybe we're being glib for humor Pretty funny And I'm sure there are others and maybe we're being glib for humor But I just think my impression so far of astro bot is that it is the most fun video game I've played this year, and I have a hard time seeing what could beat it possibly in our

Starting point is 00:22:19 eventual games of the year discussion yep really Really this astro Bot is like, you're driving down a highway, thinking you already know where you're going and where you've been. Behind you is Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, you know, maybe Star Wars Outlaws, maybe other major releases,

Starting point is 00:22:43 but you're driving down that highway and you're heading towards game of the year and you kind of know where you've been, where you're going. When all of the sudden a train off its tracks T-bones your car. And on the front of that train is Astro Bob. Yeah, the train is screaming your name and chasing you.

Starting point is 00:23:01 Yeah. How many Because I know that I've put in about nine hours into this game already. I have about 170 something bots found I'm at a hundred and three. Okay There's one I want to ask you about if you found it, but I don't want to spoil it for you Well, if it's not I've gold flagged Everything up through bot 103. Okay. So you'd have to be like what bot is this? I've only cleared the first

Starting point is 00:23:33 two space. Have there been any guest bots that you know the ones that are wearing the costumes because some of them are generic Some of them are I mean there's so many guys there been one in particular that you were very excited to see if you're asking me if Sam Porter bridges I Haven't seen Sam yet. That's not what that I asked about that's all I'm asking about so I mean like Joel and Ellie sure I've seen them And and saved them I don't fucking know you about to look this up. Hold on. I have to cuz I have to know Yeah, find out what about where this bot is and if it's after 103 I haven't been there yet

Starting point is 00:24:17 But if it's before 103 I've definitely caught them Whoever they may be Mmm, it's a hard metric because also the levels are kind of like yeah I've definitely caught them, whoever they may be. That's a hard metric, because also the levels are kind of like... Yeah, will it tell me where to find this? You can choose which, where to go. God, I like it. I like the game.

Starting point is 00:24:37 You might not have done this level yet. It's the Hieroglyph pyramid level. The what glitch? Hieroglyph is what it's called. Like instead of a hieroglyph, it's a hieroglyph. No, I haven't done that. You haven't done this one. You're gonna enjoyid level. The what glitch? Hiro Glitch is what it's called. Like instead of a Hiroglyph, it's a Hiro Glitch. No, I haven't done that. You haven't done this one. You're gonna enjoy this level.

Starting point is 00:24:49 All right, great. I can't wait. Because I've enjoyed every level so far. Yeah, that is the thing too. Every time I see one of these characters, even if it's one I don't know, I'm thrilled. I'm so excited every time. What a weird thing to be talking about a thing

Starting point is 00:25:03 we already covered in depth. Yes, and we've said probably similar things at this point, but what else were we gonna do? Yeah trick people. Yeah, I'm not gonna trick I don't trick. I'm gonna start playing some game What what I interrupted I said I trick I heard yeah, I heard that do you want to know a trick? I've done sure tell me about a trick you've done. Do you know that you can get liquid out of a, out of a, like a Pepsi bottle, a plastic one, with a syringe, and then refill it with a syringe, and the plastic has such tension that it won't leak?

Starting point is 00:25:39 Is that true? Yes. What liquids did you replace it with? Well, one time I tricked myself, but I took all of the blue Pepsi, out of a Pepsi. Pepsi Blue? Yeah, Pepsi Blue.

Starting point is 00:25:53 I took all of it out, I replaced it with Windex, and I put it back in the fridge. Was I ever tricked? I don't know if that counts. That's sort of like- I fucked myself up for days. Yeah. That's sort of like of like I think to put it in a way Nick would put it Yeah, that's like doing a prank the stranger kind of

Starting point is 00:26:15 So like do yourself, but not really oh When you sit on your hand, I don't need to do that because I don't have feeling oh, I see okay one of my hands I don't need to do that because I don't have feeling. Oh, I see, okay. In one of my hands. In just one? Only one. Okay, I guess then that's the trade-off. I got it caught in a cyber truck door.

Starting point is 00:26:32 Pfft. You said you were playing a game, Resident Evil Merchant. Yes. What's that? I'm playing Tycho baseball on a handheld Tycho machine. I think you've said that. I think you've been playing that before. Yeah, you have been playing that. Well, it's a hard Tyco machine. I think you've said that, I think you've been playing that before. Yeah, you have been playing that.

Starting point is 00:26:46 Well, it's a hard game to beat. I don't know where I am in the season. Now describe that for me as somebody who doesn't know what that is. All right, so it's like a round, it's a round handheld with an LCD screen. I see, I see. That looks like a digital clock.

Starting point is 00:27:04 Okay. And a little ball come at you and it goes beep, beep, beep, beep, and you have to time it to hit the ball. Would it be one of those ones that has basically the outlines of the ball and when it lights up that's where it is? Yeah, but it's backlit. It's not one of those ones that is like you have to have a sunlight. Oh, okay.

Starting point is 00:27:24 It's a backlit machine. Okay. Tyco baseball! Well, I hope you can beat baseball, I guess. Yeah, I don't know, I don't exactly know what that means. Usually to win baseball, you have to be playing against another team. You are, I mean, it's not like you're,

Starting point is 00:27:38 I don't pitch against my own team. You're not like Bugs Bunny out there, like throwing the ball and then trying to swing at it. No, no Well, thank you for telling us what you've been playing. Yeah, Resident Evil. Thank you Third host, you know, I think we're just we have a lot to get to and yeah, we got a lot to cover I know that you have somewhere else to be so that's that's totally cool I do not have anyone else to be kind of remember you saying you had to be somewhere

Starting point is 00:28:06 So I think that's cool. We don't have to we don't have to do we don't you have to stay it's okay I'll just stand in the corner. Okay. You can stand in the corner, but just make sure you Blair which rules and face the corner, please it's It's harder for me to be here when Nick's not here. Why do you, how do you mean? He's my antagonist! I guess we've both been being pretty nice to you, huh? Yeah, we, uh, you're... Just, thank you, thank you for, thank, that's the Resident Evil Merchant. Thank you so much, Resident Evil Merchant.

Starting point is 00:28:36 Yeah, thank you. ["Metal Gear Solid 3D Remake Theme Song"] I got a little intro about Star Wars. Okay, let's go. Should I do it? Should we talk about the topic at hand? What if I was like, nah, nah, nah. No of course. All right, here we go.

Starting point is 00:29:02 So I was sitting in my truck thinking about Star Wars. Not the movies, not the lore, the books, the TV shows, the action figures, none of that. I was thinking about the video games. And you know, it hit me. The history of Star Wars video games is almost as long and winding as the franchise itself. Like the movies, these games have gone through their own evolution, riding waves of technology, public taste, and of course corporate ambition. It all starts in 1983 in the arcades. Imagine this. The original Star Wars had come out in 1977 and

Starting point is 00:29:35 people were still living in the afterglow of the trilogy by 83. The video game industry on the other hand was just a few years into what would become a golden age of arcade cabinets. Enter Star Wars, the arcade game. It was cutting edge. The graphics were vector-based, those sharp glowing lines that formed TIE fighters and X-wings. The sound design included a synthesized voice

Starting point is 00:30:03 of Luke Skywalker and a John Williams score in reduced fidelity. The joystick was a perfect match for flying through the Death Star trench. You weren't just watching Luke blow up the Death Star, you were Luke, gripping the yoke, dodging laser fire. There was something visceral about standing there, locked in battle, your friends crowded around, cheering you on, and quarters clinking in the slot.

Starting point is 00:30:26 The arcade experience was pure adrenaline. Arcade cabinets back then were the beating heart of gaming. But then things started to shift. Arcades began to fade and home consoles began to rise. In the late 80s and 90s, Star Wars found a new home on the Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega consoles. One game in particular stands out, Star Wars found a new home on the Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega consoles. One game in particular stands out, Super Star Wars for the Super NES in 1992.

Starting point is 00:30:51 If you were a kid at the time, it was probably one of the harder games you'd ever played, and yet irresistible. You run around as Luke Skywalker, blasting stormtroopers and sand people, navigating impossibly difficult levels. Luke was very reliant on his blaster, unlike the movies. Sure, maybe the game was unforgiving, but in an era where you couldn't save your progress, every victory felt monumental.

Starting point is 00:31:17 Then of course, there was Star Wars Tie Fighter on the PC. Released in 1994, this was the game that let you step into the cockpit as an Imperial pilot. It was part of a string of Star Wars flight sims, X-Wing and TIE Fighter, that were more tactical than anything that had come before. It wasn't about that sort of raw arcade thrill, it was about strategy, maneuvering your ship, managing shields and energy. Immersive, complex, and it showed that Star Wars could be more than just a backdrop for action, it could be a world where you felt the weight of decisions. The PC era had another standout, Star Wars Dark Forces.

Starting point is 00:31:54 Released in 1995, it was LucasArts' answer to Doom, a first-person shooter, but with that Star Wars flair, dark hallways, storm troopers to blast away, and a new character, Kyle Katarn, who went on to become a fan favorite. It was gritty, atmospheric, and felt like you were playing through one of the original movies,

Starting point is 00:32:13 albeit with a much darker tone. It opened the door for more immersive storytelling in Star Wars games. Then comes the late 90s, the dawn of 3D gaming with the PlayStation and Nintendo 64. Can't talk about this era without mentioning Star Wars Shadows of the Empire in 1996. This game was a whole event. It came with a novel, a soundtrack, like a multimedia explosion all focused on this character,

Starting point is 00:32:38 Dash Rendar, who is basically a Han Solo stand-in. It was ambitious, combining platforming, vehicular combat, and of course, that incredible Hoth battle sequence. It was a sign that Star Wars games were becoming more cinematic experiences. Then we get to the 2000s. This was the era of Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. Released in 2003, it was a role-playing game from Bioware,

Starting point is 00:33:03 the same team that would later give us Mass Effect. But Knights of the Old Republic was different. It wasn't about playing as Luke or Han. It was set 4,000 years before the movies, and you created your own character, deciding whether they'd follow the light or dark sides of the Force. It was emotional, it was deep,

Starting point is 00:33:20 and it brought these Star Wars stories to new heights. For many, it is still the pinnacle of Star Wars games. Of course, the saga doesn't end there. You've got the Lego Star Wars games, these fun, irreverent takes on the franchise that somehow became beloved even by hardcore fans. And then there's Star Wars Battlefront, the 2015 reboot that was a technical marvel but controversial for how it handled microtransactions. A reminder that as games became more advanced, they also became more entwined with realities

Starting point is 00:33:50 of modern gaming economics. Now we're in an era where Jedi Fallen Order is showing that a single-player Star Wars story can still grip audiences in a world obsessed with multiplayer experiences. And who knows what's next? Star Wars games have followed the arc of the franchise itself. Reinventing, rebooting, expanding, contracting. There are VR games now too.

Starting point is 00:34:11 Vader Immortal, Star Wars Squadrons. And then there's the latest release, Star Wars Outlaws. Star Wars started as a movie, but it's always been more than that. It's a universe that you want to explore. A galaxy's edge, if you will, a world that you want to be a part of. And for the last 40 years, video games have let us do just that, whether we're dodging asteroids in the arcade, storming a base on Hoth in

Starting point is 00:34:36 our living room, or navigating the moral complexities of the Force on our PC. In a way, Star Wars video games have allowed us to live out the adventures we've always dreamed of, not as spectators, but as participants. And that's a kind of magic no movie, no matter how spectacular, can quite replicate. We did it, guys. That was great, Heather. That's the intro. I have something to say about something you said oh, I'm wrong

Starting point is 00:35:13 Try again No, you said you mentioned gripping the yoke. Yeah, and that sort of reminded me of you cracking an egg I All of that I just said, and you're like, you dumb bitch, you can't break an egg. I get it, I get it. Listener, what may have been months ago, I mentioned that I cannot peel a banana nor break an egg without either obliterating the egg in the process

Starting point is 00:35:45 or destroying the banana. Yes, I don't know if that made it across the pond, if that made it across to get played actually. I think that was on Get Animated. That was Get Animated? I think so. Somebody has offered to come help us. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:36:00 Multiple people have offered to come help me learn. We all wanna help you. I think you can do it. I am not a child. No. If I was a child, then maybe there'd be hope. But like my wife makes me crack each egg individually into a cup so that I can then get the shell out of it.

Starting point is 00:36:26 And she also says while watching me, I don't know what you're doing wrong. That's. Because it looks like I've watched videos. Like I know how an egg should be cracked. I'm not a fucking psychopath. I think I know how to fix this. You tap on a flat surface. You don't tap on fix this you tap flat on a flat surface

Starting point is 00:36:45 You don't tap on a rim you tap on a flat surface You barely tap because you don't want to like shatter it when it hits the thing and then you pull The egg in two separate directions the shell in two separate directions you don't push in you pull and then the the yolk in the white drip out of the container into another, into a copper and a frying pan or whatever. Every fucking time I do it, it's shell all over the place. Next time, you're on egg duty. Video it?

Starting point is 00:37:15 No. Oh. Ask Mary to Swayze you. Swayze me? Like in Ghost, hold your hand from like. I think that's gonna get worse And just show her she's got I'm gonna get on the phone with Mary. We're gonna solve this great You can I also have her solve banana

Starting point is 00:37:35 One thing at a time we're gonna change the world knife to be able to open Funny it's true. I mean it's funny. I'm not so like, I have enough self-insight to know that it is funny that I can't do either of these things. You know, Hugh, you gotta, I know exactly who can help you open a banana. Who? Donkey Kong? Yeah, damn monkey. I've tried from the top, I've tried from the bottom.

Starting point is 00:38:04 It just turns in a mush You need a chicken Finally I've laid an egg time to kill it. Yeah time to rip it open with my with my talons Heather that was fantastic and a great table setting for because here's the thing you mentioned a lot of Star Wars games in that in that intro We can't think we can't talk about every Star Wars game There have been over a hundred Star Wars video games like I they're very few in that little intro I did yeah, like I didn't mention Star Wars podracer Which is one of my favorite from my favorite from the 90s or

Starting point is 00:38:48 whatever. Came out on both N64 and the Dreamcast. And then there was Racer Revenge, which was the sort of sequel to it as well. Wikipedia says, Star Wars games have gone through three significant development eras. Early licensed games, games developed after the creation of LucasArts, and games created after the closure of LucasArts, which are currently licensed to EA and include an EA Star Wars logo.

Starting point is 00:39:14 Interesting, because you know, I was thinking about that in the, in a little bit of research that I did as well, where you see the games that are tailored for the first three movies, because at a certain point prior to let's say 1997 nobody was really thinking about

Starting point is 00:39:34 More Star Wars so everything that was Star Wars was a new hope Empire Strikes Back return of the Jedi and like that's it yeah, so when the when the prequels come out, episode one, two, and three, then we start to get licensed games based on those movies. And I talk about this a lot, and I feel like I've pitched this as an episode in the past, and I can't remember if we did it or not, I think licensed games should come back. I like, they're good. Yeah, I mean like

Starting point is 00:40:06 Ducktales Incredible game great. What's the other one? Lion King line King the Scott Pilgrim Great game game is really good great game I've mentioned in the past the Peter Jackson King Kong video game being yep Incredible are very very good first person survival game. Really fun. But this is the type of game that, you know,

Starting point is 00:40:29 I know Weiger has experienced working on some of these himself, but these are the type of games that they don't make anymore. Maybe they weren't as profitable as the studios thought they would be. But I certainly do miss them. Okay, so let's just go through, you know what my first Star Wars game was? What?

Starting point is 00:40:49 Star Wars Masters of Terrascasi. Is that the card game? Chess game. It is a fighting game. Fighting game. That's right. And it was, I played it first on a demo disc that came with my PlayStation 1.

Starting point is 00:41:01 Wow. And I would only play that. I think Armored Core 1 was on that demo disc. If I had been Armored, one of the first Armored Cores was on this demo disc. Crash Bandicoot 2, Cool Borders, and a couple other ones. And because we didn't have a lot of money and I didn't have a lot of games at this time,

Starting point is 00:41:22 I played through this demo disc, oh and Tombaa I played tomba so much on this demo disc But the one that will go back to was this Star Wars fighting game, and it was a very exciting It was very exciting to play as a Jedi and just fight And you know guys usually it was Luke versus Darth Vader is what it is yeah in the demo, but it was Extremely fun to me, and I thought it was very, very good. I don't know what history thought of it, but at the time I was like, this is everything I've ever wanted in a game.

Starting point is 00:41:51 It was great to me. I mean, I never played that one, but I remember there was a window of time where I'm not a Star Wars fan. Yes. Where I think my first experience of seeing a Star Wars film is not on VHS or on DVD,

Starting point is 00:42:09 it's the re-releases in the 90s in theaters. And I was like, oh, I should see Star Wars because everybody talks about Star Wars all the time. I was a Star Trek kid. Okay, sure. So I go and see Star Wars in the theater. The Sega to Star Wars as Nintendo. Yes and

Starting point is 00:42:28 Honestly, like full honesty. I did not like it I had this thing had been built up my whole life. Yeah, and I saw it and I was like this is goofy It's silly. Yeah, and I didn't expect that. I didn't expect, like Star Trek is kind of ponderous. It's kind of serious. You know, the next generation stuff is like, though there are jokes in it, it's not weird. And Star Wars was weird. Like seeing Chewbacca yell at like a mouse droid

Starting point is 00:43:01 and it squeak away, I was like, what the fuck am I watching? Now, if that happened, say, in the holodeck on Star Trek, that wouldn't be considered weird. Yeah, because there'd be context. They'd be playing a game. And I've been pretty upfront about this. And also, before how did this get played,

Starting point is 00:43:25 one of the things that Nick and I flirted with was doing a Star Wars podcast. Yes. And that's because when I saw The Last Jedi, I became so deeply obsessed with Star Wars that I went back and consumed everything. Like a ravenous beast. Like- The cereal. The Star Wars cereal? Yeah, I did. like a ravenous beast, like-

Starting point is 00:43:45 The cereal? The Star Wars cereal? Yeah, I did. I mean, like every, I could not get enough Star Wars after The Last Jedi. Like I went insane, read the books, subscribed to the comics, but my first Star Wars video game comes before I had seen the Star Wars film.

Starting point is 00:44:05 And it was Star Wars for the 32X. Oh wow. It's Star Wars Arcade for the 32X, which was exclusive to the 32X. And at the time was the fanciest home graphics you could get. Like it was like, oh my God, it's 3D. It's like, if you take starfox on the n64 and you add so many more triangles And it also starts with the John Williams score and it had been like digitized and I was like this is fucking amazing

Starting point is 00:44:38 This is great That's awesome. I gosh some of those old Star Wars games It's kind of interesting to me that obviously there wasn't, I mean, there had to have been a contemporary console like when the movies were coming out, but these ones that come out for like the NES and stuff come so much after their release. It's kind of funny to me.

Starting point is 00:45:00 Like the first one is released like six years after the first movie. And it's like, the first movie and it's like at that point It's still a cultural like, you know, it took everything by storm Everybody was super into Star Wars like pretty immediately Yeah, you know, I guess the games really start picking up with the release of the prequels wouldn't you say? Like obviously there's plenty before that and I know that like there's like PC games that I'm missing that I'm sure Nick will Fill us in at some point Wait before we before we move on yeah, can I read the January?

Starting point is 00:45:30 1995 next generation issue number one review of Star Wars arcade for the 32x sure all right Star Wars arcade forceful 24 megabits available now based on the recent coin up of the same name, Star Wars Arcade has to produce on the 32X what was previously accomplished only on Sega's famed AM2 board, which generated the polygons behind such Sega hits as Virtual Fighter 2, Daytona USA, and Desert Tank.

Starting point is 00:45:59 The result? A fine attempt. The 3D graphics are remarkably good, although the absence of texture mapping gives the game a flat look. The music is CD quality, including many songs from John Williams' classic theatrical score.

Starting point is 00:46:13 The ship controls well, and most importantly, the game doesn't force you to fly down a specified track, like in Star Fox or Star Blade. Also, eight new levels were created specifically for the 32X to give the home player a longer replay value. A excellent translation of a good game and a good hint of what to expect from the 32X.

Starting point is 00:46:34 How wrong they were! Man, that's tough to think about. That's really hard to consider. Yeah. That's tough to think about. That's really hard to consider. Yeah, like also it was a launch title, so like as the second kid I was like I gotta get a 32X, I have to get it. I have to get a 32X. And that was one of the first games that I got for 32X. I was like, holy shit, this system is gonna be amazing. In your estimation, is that Star Wars arcade game fun?

Starting point is 00:47:03 Yeah, I've gone back and played it. Yeah. It's legitimately fun. Okay. You play it now and it feels, especially because it's coming out sort of concurrently with the NES games or the Super NES games.

Starting point is 00:47:17 It felt pretty fucking cool. I guess at that time too, think about, I'm thinking about it in this way where the graphics for those video games are similar to me that as the graphics Depicted in like the movies like as far as like what's on there like screens and stuff like that So that is that is that must be pretty cool. Do you want to see a video of Star Wars arcade on the 32x? Yeah, let's let's watch it and probably you'll have to cut out this part. But then you can get Matt's reactions afterwards.

Starting point is 00:47:48 Before we watch it, I think it's important to just see the context of where it is in gaming time, which is that you should see like, you know, games look like this. OK, yeah. It's 1993, you know? And this comes out for the 32x in 1993. It's a LucasArts game Honestly, that's pretty good

Starting point is 00:48:14 That was a neat effect yeah, it's a really neat effect for a 1993 video game They've captured what it looks like in that shot where you camera is sort of under a star destroyer while it is flying through space. And then it plays the actual theme, which coming out of a console in 1993, you're like, oh my god, it's actually Star Wars! And like, even though I hadn't seen the movie, I know the theme. All kids know the theme. I could see how you could see this and think the 32X is gonna be pretty good. Because that is good.

Starting point is 00:48:56 Yeah. That's fantastic. You wanna fast forward just a little bit to like some actual gameplay? So again, it looks like it's 1993, what looks like it's 1993, what looks like computer graphics, but it's significantly better than Star Fox is

Starting point is 00:49:10 at the same time. It looks so cozy to me. Something about it is making me feel, for lack of a better word, some type of way. Yeah. I'm very comforted by it. It's simple, but inviting, and also you immediately see that it is iconic Like you're like oh, it's it's Star Wars. Can I say a take yep? I?

Starting point is 00:49:35 Think maybe you know it's I don't think it's an insane thing to say okay I kind of wish video games still looked like this I wish that more games chose to look like this I wish they looked like this but played that they felt good to play. You know what I mean? Yeah. Because I do think that this is an aesthetic that looks cool to me, but I could see maybe booting this up now and being like, oh, it feels clunky. It feels dated to play. Yeah. All right. That's enough. We get it.

Starting point is 00:50:02 That's fantastic. Yeah. You know, there's I mean. There's just some there's so many Games that I know that we won't get to them all but I will say Obviously we covered Yoda stories on this very show with our friend Mark Renny and that game fucking sucks It like sucks ass there was like a like it wasn't he like asking us to get like acorns and shit? Like it sucked. Yeah, pretty bad game. So while Star Wars games can be good, they could also be pretty bad. For example, Yoda stories.

Starting point is 00:50:38 I probably hadn't played another Star Wars game until the Phantom Menace comes out. And then there are a bunch of licensed games based on the Phantom Menace comes out and then there are a bunch of licensed games based on the Phantom Menace and I played quite a few of them yeah I played just the Phantom Menace game for PlayStation 1 and was pretty excited about that and I also played Jedi power battles for the Sega Dreamcast and that was one of the games that my uncle rented and I remember thinking that they were both fun and cool and it was just neat that I was playing a game based on a movie that I had seen twice now.

Starting point is 00:51:09 It was very exciting to me at that time. I loved Podracer for the N64 enough that when it came out again for the Dreamcast, I got it again. Because my complaint about it on the N64 was, I was like, this is good, but I feel like with just a little bit more power in the system, it would be phenomenal. And sure enough, on the Dreamcast, Podracer is amazing.

Starting point is 00:51:33 It's a great game. It is a super good game. And I know we also did the remaster on the show with Lauren Lapkus. And that was super fun. And playing it still feels pretty good. I think for all the faults in the prequel series, pod racing is good.

Starting point is 00:51:54 Pod racing is good and cool and it looks awesome. It maybe goes on for too long in the movie. Because when I saw it re-released this past year in theaters, I was like, this sequence is like, it feels like it's 15 minutes of the fucking movie. It's so long. Yeah. It feels like it's a long time. Yeah. But Sam mentioned earlier a different racing game called Star Wars Super Bombad Racing and it's characters from episode one and Return of the Jedi and for some reason only those two.

Starting point is 00:52:33 And they're, you know, it's like Darth Maul with a big head racing around on Endor with Ewoks and Niseboba and things like that, Very strange looking game. Did you ever play Shadows of the Empire for N64 or other systems? I didn't, I know I didn't play Shadows of the Empire. Shadows of the Empire was a game that I rented. Because again, I didn't have that, you know,

Starting point is 00:52:59 aggressive connection to Star Wars. So when a Star Wars game came out for the N64, I was like, I'll play it, but I'm not gonna. The opening level of Star Wars, so when a Star Wars game came out for the N64, I was like, I'll play it, but I'm not gonna... The opening level of Star Wars Shadows of the Empire recreates the Hoth battle, and it was amazing. And I don't know that I ever got farther than that level in that game. Maybe I got to other levels and I just was like,

Starting point is 00:53:21 these are unremarkable by comparison, but you had to, like, fly around the legs of the walkers in order to like bring them down. And it was like a full three dimensional plane that you like flew, not plane as in like airplane, but like a plane, like 3D plane. In a plane, yes. And it was so great to just play that level.

Starting point is 00:53:44 That I, yeah, I don't know that I ever went back and played any more of it and so shadows of the Empire I'm reading here is a multimedia project and it's not just a video game right it's the book it's the book comics yeah all one thing which is pretty cool yeah I like when I like yeah I know that, hey, I know that The Matrix tried to do that too. Yeah. But I think more things should be like that.

Starting point is 00:54:10 I think there should be, to understand the totality of something, there should be a movie, a TV show, a video game. Yep. And maybe even a rock opera of some sort. Some sort of song. It does sound to me like you're selling yourself on Kingsglaive

Starting point is 00:54:26 no I mean I think something like Kingsglaive could and should exist it should just be good I think if it was good I would like it well I I think Kingsglaive is pretty good yeah that where, that's one of the ways we're different. You know, there's a couple of other Star Wars, you know, I've talked about this so much on the show, I think. I don't remember playing any games for Attack of the Clones because I remember, as, you know, even though I was a kid when these ones came out, I guess I was a little bit older at this point, 2002 I was 11 or 12, I had more a sense of my opinions and taste. I remember seeing Attack of the Clones

Starting point is 00:55:12 and being like, this sucks. I feel like this is bad, and I think still to this day, I think it is the worst of the Star Wars movies. And I'll say by a significant margin. Do you think it is worse than rise of Skywalker that's tough to think about because I just forgot that it existed gosh I'll have to watch them all again to to be sure because I haven't seen attack of the clones and gosh in in years now at this point

Starting point is 00:55:48 Attack the clones did give us the best meme But I hate sand yeah, yeah, that is pretty no I meant the picnic the picnic scene Where the the meme format of the four panels where it's like? I'm gonna do this and she's like you're gonna do this first right and then he doesn't say anything You're gonna do that first right and he doesn't say anything. Yeah, you're gonna do that first, right? Yeah, that is pretty good. It's a good we uh yeah, that is excellent And you know what there are no memes from rise of Skywalker that are good, so it is somehow probably returned But that's not but that is good. That's a good meme format when you want to communicate that something sucks that is good

Starting point is 00:56:25 So you know what? Let's just call it a tie. Yeah, but the Star Wars episode 3 game Is good. I think okay for a licensed video game It's a pretty you know by the numbers sort of thing you go through the plot of the game The game did come out before the movie and did spoil the movie Oh, this is the one that has two endings, right? This one has two endings. You can go with the canon ending of exactly what happens. Anakin gets chopped by Obi-Wan and then becomes Darth Vader and that's the whole thing. Or

Starting point is 00:57:00 you can kill Obi-Wan and then kill the Emperor and then be like Emperor Anakin basically and that's pretty cool. Yeah, that is pretty fun. I like that a lot. It is crazy yeah, because now they're so protective of You know they've wiped so much of the expanded universe canon And I have now created this new cannon that people don't like yeah But and now are very protective of what? Happened so for example like in these new games You can't do like a character creator because the character is canon to all of Star Wars

Starting point is 00:57:41 Right Cal Kestis exists as Cal Kestis now He can have a mullet or like a mustache or whatever right because these are stories being told yeah But you can't you can't make them how you want them to look did you ever make him not a boy? Did you ever play Star Wars the Force Unleashed? Yes? How is that game? to me That came out at the right time because it's in that same pocket of time

Starting point is 00:58:08 where I'm playing like Prince of Persia, I'm playing God of War, so like my characters, I'm playing Jak 2, all the characters I like are a little bit edgier now, and this is basically what if you were Vader's apprentice in these games. And it's pretty fun and pretty cool, I don't know. You just kind of go around to hack and slash, sort of like force user game. It's not as satisfying to me as a story.

Starting point is 00:58:39 It's not as satisfying gameplay as the new Jedi games. I think those are peak Star Wars, I think those are peak Star Wars media. Jedi survivor and Jedi fallen order. But I like those games quite a bit. And you never played Star Wars Squadrons? I did play Squadrons, the newer one though, right? The, yeah, I played that.

Starting point is 00:59:03 The one that has the VR? I didn't finish it. I played it for, I probably played like two or three hours of that and then decided that it wasn't worth me feeling sick, because the piloting in that game is very fun and very exciting, but it's too much for me. I get a little topsy-turvy. I think it's one of the best VR games that's available.

Starting point is 00:59:26 I'm worried that I'll fall out and then just be floating around in space. You do feel that. You do. Like you're in the cockpit and you look down and it is endless and you feel a little like, oh, I should stay in my seat in this ship. Yeah. Which is a crazy thing to feel in a video game. You've probably played nights of the Old Republic

Starting point is 00:59:46 No, you weren't in on Star Wars in this way I wasn't in on Star Wars and the truth is a friend of mine has gifted me nights of the Old Republic Because he's so he's like this game is the best Star Wars game Yeah, and I just haven't had because because we play so much for this show, and I have such limited time, it's just right there on my, you know, the desktop of my mind, installed on multiple devices, installed on my phone even. Because I'm like, oh, I can't wait to play

Starting point is 01:00:19 Knights of the Old Republic, and I just haven't had a chance to dig into it. It is one of those ones that I feel like I have to play it as well. I played it, I played a few hours of it on an old iPad. I had like an iPad mini, like when they first introduced the iPad mini and was playing it. I played, I played so much Grand Theft Auto San Andreas on that thing and some of, because I was like, oh, this is cool. I could just have Grand Theft Auto San Andreas with me whenever I want. This is great Oh shit here we go again

Starting point is 01:00:48 With Knights of the Old Republic, I think there is just something I wasn't as into RPGs Even though I was obviously a massive Kingdom Hearts fan. Yeah, I was not as into RPGs When I was playing that and I would like to go back to it. I think the remake is canceled. Yeah, I've heard that But I'd be interested in in trying it out And if they do remake it I'd love to play that of course But maybe I should just boot up the original and just see what it's like. It's on everything It's a good play on switch. Yeah, you can play it on literally everything. I'd be interested in checking that out I know the Jedi Knight franchise is really popular as well

Starting point is 01:01:23 I have Jedi Knight to Jedi outcast on switch and Knight franchise is really popular as well. I have Jedi Knight 2, a Jedi outcast on Switch and played that a little bit as well. I thought that was pretty interesting. Have you dabbled, you did dabble in the Star Wars Lego game. This is what I wanted to bring up. I feel like- You think it's one of the best. I feel like the Lego Star Wars games are the best Star Wars games. And I also think some of the best games ever made. I think they're so good.

Starting point is 01:01:48 They're so satisfying. And I think the Lego movies captured this joy as well. The sound of Legos is good. It is good. And that is half of the battle to me. Being a little Lego Qui-Gon Jinn, building a thing that you need to open a door and you just hear his little...

Starting point is 01:02:07 And he's like, you know, clicking all the stuff together. That's a home run. That's an A+. They're super funny. The games are funny. And I think, I don't know, they're just pretty satisfying. I know that, you know, the first, the ones that first came out were of the prequels and then they did the original trilogy, which was so fun fun and they did a bundle with all of it and then they did the

Starting point is 01:02:28 remake that had all the new Star Wars ones including grandfather that guy Kylo Ren. Imagine being so mad about your grandpa. He's not mad about him. Oh he loves him. He loves him. I love my grandpa. I'll finish what you started. What girl? What girl? I like his performance on the ride so much. I haven't ridden the ride.

Starting point is 01:02:54 Dude, I- Nevermind, I thought I was sitting here with somebody who liked Star Wars. Hold on a fucking second. I got, let me tell you about my commitment to Rise of the Resistance, which is that when Galaxy's Edge opens, I go to Galaxy's Edge multiple times,

Starting point is 01:03:13 and I'm like, this place fucking rules. It's good. I get- Nick will say it's not good, even though he's never been. It is good. It is great. It is great. I like great. It is great.

Starting point is 01:03:25 I like to walk around the stores. So I, yeah, I love walking around the stores. I am so pot committed to Star Wars that I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna get an annual pass to Disneyland. I remember the rest of the story. So that I can get into Star Wars land whenever I want. And the truth is, I'm gonna bring my laptop and I'm gonna write.

Starting point is 01:03:45 I'm gonna work at the fucking restaurant, at the cafe. You're gonna be eating a Ronto wrap and then getting back to a Zoom. Yeah, I'm gonna work in Star Wars land as if it's a place that people work and go. Because how fucking awesome is it to live in Star Wars? And I do all this. You hear the sounds and all that. I know that Rise of the Resistance is coming. It's about to open.

Starting point is 01:04:10 So I got my annual pass, February 2020. Ha ha ha. I am unable to use it once. I'm not laughing at you. I'm laughing at how much that sucks. I was unable to use it once. And to Disney's credit, I think I've said this on the show before, they did refund me

Starting point is 01:04:30 about seven months into the pandemic. That's pretty good. And honestly faster than they needed to do it. Yeah, they were like, hey, we're not gonna open for the rest of the year. Yeah. You can't ever use this pass. That's crazy, I forgot about that.

Starting point is 01:04:44 I've been, so you haven't been back to Disneyland since? I haven't been back to Rise of the Resistance. I think I've been on the ride like 10 times. Holy shit. It's really good, and now you can just kind of walk on. Well, I'm trying to convince, Mary does not like theme parks. She's never been to Disneyland.

Starting point is 01:05:02 And I keep trying to convince her to go because I'm like, the truth is it's fucking awesome I love it. It's incredible and Specifically Star Wars land is incredible. I grew up here So I'm biased and I know that like, you know people have opinions about quote-unquote being like a Disney adult I like to go three times a year and like call it a call it a day. That's pretty good to me It's a totally fine thing to do and you don't you you don't have to be a Disney adult to like Right, you know you're not I don't want a lounge fly backpack. You're not bounding. I'm not bounding. Yeah

Starting point is 01:05:36 You're just going and having a good time, and I'm sure that you want to go because the Kingdom Hearts guys are there now. I'm You can you came at I'm Jones in I always call you Nick. I can always there now. I'm... You okay, Matt? I'm jonesing. I almost called you Nick, because he always sits there. I wake up, this is a common conversation in our household. It's sort of a race to who will say it first. Okay.

Starting point is 01:05:57 Isabelle and I will go, when the fuck are we going to Disneyland? We wanna go so bad all the time. We love it. I love the time. We love it. I love the food. I love just being there. It's great. I love it, but if that makes me some kind of freak,

Starting point is 01:06:13 I guess lock me up. Encase me in Carbonite, why don't you? Like Han Solo. But the Lego Star Wars games, I think, just to circle back to that real quick, are they games for babies? Absolutely. Okay.

Starting point is 01:06:26 They're the most, they're so, they're not quite like Astro Bot. I was gonna ask. But I think they're about as close as you can get to something, like, I don't know, that first Lego movie is like so filled with joy and so much fun. Those Star Wars games really nail it as well,

Starting point is 01:06:41 and I do think of the other I know that some people love the Lord of the Rings one I know some people love the Harry Potter one I not really mess with those not very interested I am interested in the Lord of the Rings one I gotta say yeah the Star Wars one it's just I like hearing the Star Wars stuff and I like having a lightsaber and I like you know when you get hit too many times you just explode and you become a pile of Legos that's funny that's pretty good. That's really good.

Starting point is 01:07:06 I think those are some of the best games, period. Just period. We have to talk about Star Wars Battlefront. Wait, before we move on, because we did touch on Kingdom Hearts, has there been, there hasn't been a Star Wars Kingdom Hearts crossover yet, right? Only in my dreams But there's a likelihood that since the next Kingdom Hearts game takes place in the real whatever the fuck that means That it might incorporate more human characters into the Kingdom Hearts world I say Go for it do that

Starting point is 01:07:41 But do across All of the Disney subsidiaries, get Marvel in there, get the Simpsons in there, get Avatar in there, get- Sora interacting with a Navi would be hilarious. Get him a Xenomorph summon. And get National Geographic in there as well. Donald getting a facehugger on him

Starting point is 01:08:06 would be one of the most iconic images. It'd be really good. It'd be great. It'd be great. I wanna see it. Sora! In space they can't hear you scream, little yunk! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Battlefront. Yeah. I have this very specific idea in my mind about Battlefront. It is raining outside.

Starting point is 01:08:31 We've ordered pizza. Oh my god, sounds like a great day. I have my PSP. And I'm playing Star Wars Battlefront 2. And I'm having the best day of my fucking life. Pretty good. Pretty good. Because I mean, I played it on PlayStation 2 but

Starting point is 01:08:45 then I had it for the PSP as well and like I don't know something about something about the PSP I'm also just like nostalgic for a PlayStation handheld of course yeah but Star Wars Battlefront on a PSP there's nothing like it and it's been taken from us they took everything from us they that yeah I mean it's been a shame that Sony has exited the weird market and gone towards the... Useless? To place this record in time,

Starting point is 01:09:15 this is the week when the PS5 Pro was announced. Yes. And it's, as everybody knows, an insane amount of money for a system that currently doesn't really even have games to showcase its power. And one of the games they used in the showcase was a remaster of a PlayStation 4 game. So we're not even tapping the potential

Starting point is 01:09:41 of the PlayStation 5 yet, and they're already launching the Pro. The personal issue I have with this is, I wish they'd released a weird little guy instead. I wish there was a weird little guy, and to this point as well, I wish they had released... I wish Sony had an Amiibo-type thing so I could have a little astro bot on my shelf.

Starting point is 01:10:01 Yeah, that would be great. And the fact that my shelf is astro bot-less right now is actually Really upsetting to me. You know what make for a good visual novel is and or they should do it and or visual sure Why not? Yeah So talk to me more about battlefront. It's it's 2005 I'm just getting together with my boys and we're booting up the PS2.

Starting point is 01:10:25 Yep. Just getting in some Battlefront and just like going nuts. Like and just having the time of our fucking lives. The new remake was also called Battlefront, yeah? Very confusingly, yes. Yeah. I played those games. I like those fine.

Starting point is 01:10:40 Yeah, they're fine. They don't feel, they didn't really, not in the same way that the Tony Hawk remakes did, where that felt like how I remember doing it. Yeah. This was just like, it felt like a new type of thing. Yeah. With the same name, I was like, this is fine, I'll allow this. But if I can just go back, if they could just port the original Star Wars Battlefronts to Switch, I'd never asked for anything else except for all the other ports I want for Switch like Beautiful Joe and NBA Street volume 2 and that type of stuff.

Starting point is 01:11:11 You know even though we've mentioned some shitty games for Star Wars, for example Yoda stories, another one we haven't mentioned is like the Kinect Star Wars dance-off or whatever the fuck it's called. Where they're dancing. On the whole, I think that's good. I don't know how I feel about it. It's not good I'm glad it exists on on the whole Most of these games are pretty good. Yeah, and some of them are great the ones that I think really get it, right It's the same thing to me that that I think really get it right it's the same thing to me that you hear about these directors that go to the campus okay of where you know what's it called they go to the ranch yeah where they go to the ranch yeah Skywalker ranch the

Starting point is 01:11:56 directors that go and engage with the texts of George Lucas and Dave Filoni Filoni did this Favreau did this, Gareth Reynolds did this. I think Tony Gilroy did it as well. I think Rian Johnson did. Right, yeah. There are certain directors that went to this place before they started making their movie

Starting point is 01:12:16 to understand the vision. Yes, yes, yes. To understand the canon, to understand how it feels, what it's supposed to be like, to learn all the rules. And thus, I think those properties, the stuff that they made is the stuff to me that resonates more,

Starting point is 01:12:34 is more in line with what I think Star Wars is. The same can be said, I think, for the games that get, the games that portray Star Wars in the same way that I enjoy These Jedi games right I think do a really good job With feeling like Star Wars looking like Star Wars sounding like Star Wars and also telling what I think is like a good Star Wars Story, yeah, not just you know magic space wizards Like fighting good versus evil. Yeah, there's a, there's a, you know, there's balance. There's a sort of, I guess balance is the right word for it.

Starting point is 01:13:09 Where like, you know, Cal Kestis is the apprentice to somebody who was one of the sisters, right? And like that's an interesting story because this person was previously evil and like what are this, what is this person's motives and things like that. That is good, that's a good story. Yeah it's good writing, good structure. It doesn't work for me as much in like the force unleashed because it's like you can be

Starting point is 01:13:31 good or bad that's sort of inconsequential to me. Yeah. Whereas like in these new Jedi games they really play with like you know sometimes you have to make a hard choice doesn't make it necessarily a good choice or making a good choice doesn't make you a hero necessarily Yeah, and I also like that they don't they're not tied necessarily to just what I think the bad stories of Star Wars do Which is let's focus it on this one family in this entire universe, and that's it Yeah, I like that this new Jedi game has elements of, what are they calling it, the High Republic? Because that's interesting because nobody knows

Starting point is 01:14:10 what that shit is. That's cool and it's making the world expansive. I like Star Wars that adds to the world that doesn't rely on the world. You know what I mean? That's what I think is good about Star Wars. Yeah, Star Wars that's additive and expands instead of being like, oh, we're drilling down

Starting point is 01:14:27 on the two years in between when Luke was here and when he was here. Yes. Yeah. And we better get, you know, let's make sure that Han Solo's name has an origin. Yeah. You know, that type of stuff.

Starting point is 01:14:40 Though I really liked Solo. I'm a Solo apologist. I liked it too. We talk about this a lot. I feel like we talk about this a lot more off pod It is hard to make stuff It is hard to make something and I feel like with you know a microscope on a production like that It's gonna be challenging even if it comes out good. Yeah, it's gonna be a fucking nightmare to make something like that

Starting point is 01:14:58 Yeah, so the fact that it even works a little bit is good I think that that actor is great and I think great in other things I've seen him since. I was excited by Donald Glover as Lando. But I'm interested to see what I think about Outlaws upon finishing it. Because I have taken a pause from it since- We've been playing Astro Bot. We've been playing Astro Bot. Same here.

Starting point is 01:15:17 I was so in for Outlaws. And the things about Outlaws that I feel like it succeeds at, a lot of people are like, oh, the missions are kind of samey. The, you know, like all of that stuff is sort of secondary to me to atmosphere for that game. And I feel like it is showcasing atmosphere above all else. And from the moment, like all we want,

Starting point is 01:15:41 all we want is a cyberpunk-style, like, gigantic world where you can go anywhere in a specific Star Wars land, and everything is infinitely detailed. And Outlaws gives us that by, you know, you start in a bar you've never been to before, and you walk around a section of, she's not Corellia, it's...

Starting point is 01:16:08 Canto Byte, right? Canto Byte, yeah. It's like a section of Canto Byte you've never seen. And it's like, all of that shit is great to me. Like, I love that stuff. Even though we've just complained about movies that drill down on parts of the timeline between characters that aren't quite filled in, The difference between that and what I'm saying

Starting point is 01:16:26 about outlaws is environments aren't characters. They're places where stories happen. And if that environment is fully realized, it's no different than a million different movies set in New York. Like nobody's ever like, ugh, New York again. I can't watch a movie set in New York. Like, nobody's ever like, ugh, New York again. I can't watch a movie set in New York. Like, it's the characters that exist in that city

Starting point is 01:16:52 and what that city provides to those characters and how it informs those characters. And that's why it's really fucking exciting to me that she starts in CantoBite. And I do think it's interesting because, I mean, so much of what Star Wars is portrayed as is Jedi's and the battle between light and dark and things like that, where an underrepresented part

Starting point is 01:17:18 of this entire universe is like the crime world of it. And that is legitimately interesting. There's just not that much about it. It's always this larger intergalactic war. But she's just going planet to planet and fucking over different crime bosses or serving one over another one. And that to me is pretty interesting.

Starting point is 01:17:44 It's the same thing that I like about the Mandalorian or serving one over another one. And that to me is pretty interesting. It's the same thing that I like about, you know, the Mandalorian because it's just not the same type of stuff. Yeah. Like, I don't know, like it's just interesting to see other characters, because there's so many different types of people

Starting point is 01:17:58 in the Star Wars universe. They're not just Jedis. Here's what I think, if I was in charge of the future of Star Wars media, here's what I would set as a mandate. You can never again create a show or a game or a book that ends on a permanent cliffhanger. That if you're going to approve content, you have to approve the conclusion

Starting point is 01:18:27 of any cliffhangers in that content. You have like, solo ends on a huge cliffhanger with characters that you never fucking come back except in the comics, right? I think that that should not be allowed. I think there is enough brand management there that if you're going to make solo, you have to be like, okay, this has to be two films.

Starting point is 01:18:46 And we are locked in for two films. And if those are a wild success, then maybe we'll make a third one. But that we are no longer going to end the acolyte on cliffhangers that will never be resolved. We'll never end books or video games in like half finished worlds. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:19:06 That, that, because so much of what Star Wars rewards in a fan is you see a thing and then you think about it with your buddies who are Star Wars buddies. And you, you, you guess at where it's going to go next. Yeah. You know, and that's been the strength of the series since the beginning is like, oh my God, is he really Luke's dad?

Starting point is 01:19:29 Or is he lying about being Luke's dad? Like, why would you trust Darth Vader? He's probably fucking with Luke. And then like, by the time you get to Return of the Jedi, those answers are given to you. And we'll never fucking know what, I mean, you know, if you read the comics, what happened to the Crimson Dawn and all that shit.

Starting point is 01:19:51 And Crimson Dawn also pops up in outlaws, but it doesn't have that satisfying closure. No, I was just thinking about this and it's gonna sound so stupid. It's kind of underrated how scary Darth Vader is. I don't think he gets credit for being as scary as he is. He's obviously a menacing figure, and I think the thing about him that,

Starting point is 01:20:13 obviously we just lost James Earl Jones and his voice and his performance is the whole thing, but people imitating the voice and imitating the presence and doing the breathing and stuff like that has sort of taken the air out of how legitimately terrifying he is as a bad guy, I think. And when he pops up at the end of Rogue One, I think it's the first time in a long time

Starting point is 01:20:36 where I was like, holy shit, he's fucking scary, this guy. Because he's just going in and just killing everybody and cannot be stopped. And I kind of wish if they were gonna do stuff where they're showing us stuff we've seen before, do it more like that, because that was pretty good. Yeah, I'm sure with a lot of brands,

Starting point is 01:20:57 there's so much management of the IP on the corporate side that is so hard to untangle. I do wish that there was just a slightly lighter touch with some of the Star Wars stuff. And I feel like Outlaws represents that lighter touch because it's like, I don't need every fucking game to end with Vader coming in. It's cool, but save it for one out of every 30 games.

Starting point is 01:21:24 So that when he shows up you're like oh Fuck I do like seeing Jabba the Hut. Yeah, Java can be in everything He's good like he's just good. He's a good character good character design. Yeah, I know it wasn't the original character design Okay, I understand but supposed to look like Game of Thrones. Yeah, but it's cool. I don't know yeah I like that. He's a big worm. Yeah, he's like the one guy that looks like that I guess he has families there are other huts. Yeah If we're gonna talk about Star Wars, how about a segment? Oh my god, okay. I prepared a segment. Holy cow Madapadaka prepared a segment. You know, Star Wars characters have appeared in non-Star Wars games.

Starting point is 01:22:05 I'm gonna see if Heather can tell me who appeared where in a new segment called, Who's That Guest Character? Who's that guest character? Think that? Yeah, exactly like that. That was exactly sort of the vibe I was going for. Alright. And Sam, feel free to play along as well.

Starting point is 01:22:21 It's right you! I'm gonna suffer on this one. I guess, yeah, this is gonna be tougher for you. Feel free free to chime in but if you don't want you that's also okay So I'm gonna name a game and you're gonna tell me it I'm gonna name a game that a Star Wars character Appeared in that is not a Star Wars game. What the fuck you're gonna. Tell me what character you think it was okay great from 1990 the game night shift What is Night Shift? It's like a toy making game.

Starting point is 01:22:47 Chewbacca. No, it's kind of harder because it's only one of us. I kind of thought you would know. It's R2-D2. No, but how the fuck am I supposed to win this game? This one's gonna be hard. It's a bunch of Stormtroopers and Darth Vader, like in the toy factory, like assembly line type of thing.

Starting point is 01:23:03 All right, great. Okay, I see how this game works. It could be a bunch of people not just one character You know you had to be one all right great. Okay great. Okay, which Star Wars character here. We go appears yes in 2001 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 Jar Jar Binks it is not Jar Jar Binks, but this is a good guess 2001 yes Tony Hawk It is not Jar Jar Binks, but this is a good guess. Fuck. 2001. Yes. Tony Hawk. Hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm. Fuck.

Starting point is 01:23:30 I wish it was Jar Jar Binks. Yeah. Think about what he could do with his tongue. Hahaha. Grab the board. When he falls, he would say, how rude. I'm gonna guess it's Obi-Wan Kenobi. It's not Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Starting point is 01:23:41 It is, in fact, the coolest character from this movie, Darth Maul. Oh, cool. And he has his double lightsaber. Oh, I vaguely remember this. And he does a trick with the Force, and he holds the board out with it. It's really, really cool. I do vaguely remember that.

Starting point is 01:23:56 Super awesome to see him. Having never played that game, really. Well, you have another chance to guess right now. Which character appeared in 2002's Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 It's all right Darth Maul. It's not Darth. God damn it any guesses Sam Is this where we throw to Nick? Yoda it is not Yoda it is in fact Django Fett. Oh my god They kind of did the reverse

Starting point is 01:24:31 They should have just put like Mace Windu or something like it would have been cooler or even One of the... Plo Koon or something. Yeah. Anybody. Anybody. Not Django. Not Django. We don't talk about Django I don't know it you haven't seen In canto nope. I think you would love it. Okay. It's universally beloved. I think Mary would like it, too Okay, which Star Wars characters appeared in secret weapons over Normandy from 2003 All right, I'm gonna guess stormtroopers. I'm gonna double that. Yeah stormtroopers is incorrect And it's actually kind of a trick question because they aren't characters But there are unlockable x-wings and tie fighters in the game so you can do Normandy with a fucking x-wing

Starting point is 01:25:24 Kind of funny information though This next one That sucks. Kind of funny information though. This next one, who appears in the game Mercenaries Playground of Destruction? Jesus Christ this is a hard game. I'm gonna guess Mercenary, Han Solo. Heather's correct, it is Han Solo. Han Solo appears in the game mercenaries playground of destruction now. Heather's on the board in the board with one point. She's winning Who appears in 2008? soul caliber for

Starting point is 01:25:58 I'm gonna say soul caliber for is Darth Maul is Incorrect wait fuck. Oh, no, it's Vader Luke Skywalker Sam's incorrect Vader is on the PlayStation 3 version. Yeah, I remember Do you remember who else is appears in the game Yoda Yoda on the Xbox 360? That's right. Yeah, and Starkiller from the forceashed games is in both versions. Yeah, yeah, fuck. And finally, who appears in the 2009 game

Starting point is 01:26:30 Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings? The fuck? A Star Wars character shows up in an Indiana Jones game? Oh, god. I'm going to guess C-3po on a hieroglyphic The funny guess but it's incorrect on solo It is Han Solo or you can just kind of you can just play as Han Solo instead Indiana Jones dressed as Han Solo. That's weird. It's weird

Starting point is 01:27:00 And that was who's that guest character and that's this week's get played our producer is Rochelle Chan sitting in this week is our Wait, wait, wait, we have to throw Away. Yeah, you're right Fuck him. No, no, we do have to do it do it right now Nick What are your thoughts on Star Wars video gaming specifically? maybe you wanna talk about the PC. Wow, thanks Heather, thanks Matt, thanks Ranch. Hey buddy, it's Weiger.

Starting point is 01:27:29 I thought I'd toss in some of my thoughts as the resident PC gamer, because if we're talking Star Wars games, there were a number of notable PC exclusive Star Wars games that were published by Lucasfilm Games, later LucasArts in the 1990s. But first, real quick quick what are you playing just because it's very zeitgeist-y. I have been playing I've been out of town

Starting point is 01:27:49 but I got back just in time for the Diablo 4 expansion Vessel of Hatred. I've got a few hours into it I'm playing the new spirit-borne class it is so fun it is so kinetic. You pick your animal allegiance through the skill tree and I am gorilla-pilled. Love the gorilla, Thr, thriller gorilla, very tanky, very fun. It's a very different experience than Astrobot but it's the same sort of like here's just a game for the sake of being a fucking video game and I really enjoy that aspect of it. So I'll have some more time in it and I'll have some more impressions at a later date but yeah, Vessel of Hatred as a longtime Diablo fan since the very first entry in the

Starting point is 01:28:23 franchise, I am enjoying it. Alright Star Wars PC games of the 90s. I'll just go through these in chronological order and hey let me know in the discord if there's anything big that I missed, but I think I pretty much got everything. First up, X-Wing in 1993. This was an awesome game. This was much more of a space sim than you might expect. You might think an X-Wing game is just going to be very arcadey, but this was in the era

Starting point is 01:28:50 where a lot of these games were effectively flight sims in space. You were using a joystick for control, but this one played really great. You got to be in the X-Wing, the titular X-Wing. You got to play the Y-Wing, the A-Wing, the B-Wing. Maybe that was in the expansion, but yeah, they were all there and they were all very satisfying and had a really good single player campaign. Around the same year, I think it was also 1993, there was a game called Star Wars Rebel Assault, which was a very different game.

Starting point is 01:29:18 This was a much more glossy game that was designed for CD-ROM early adopters and I believe was a more financially successful game, more commercially successful game, because this let people show off their, like, mist, their hardware with FMV and John Williams score. But it just sucked to play. It was a piece of shit. It was basically a rail shooter. And I never thought it was very fun. It sold purely via pizzazz, but it was as much a game as something like Dragon's Lair. It was just kind of, you know, a cool thing to look at, but not really a cool thing to play.

Starting point is 01:29:51 Certainly not as much fun as X-Wing. There was also a Star Wars chess game, I think just called Star Wars Chess that came out in 1993 that was kind of cool actually. I'm no chess expert, so I don't need like the highest level of AI in order to have fun playing a chess game So there was a series that existed at the time called battle chess that maybe people has fallen out of the the the you know Collective knowledge a little bit but what this were this what these games were were they were chess games where they had pieces that were Like you know like a knight or a rock monster

Starting point is 01:30:24 To you know an actual knight to represent a knight or rock monster to, you know, an actual knight to represent the knight, a rock monster to represent the rook, a spellcaster to represent the bishop and so on. And when they, when a piece would take another piece, they would have a little combat sequence that would be pre-animated. This was the same sort of thing except it was with Star Wars characters, so it would be like, you know, a stormtrooper versus Princess Leia who would be the queen or whatever. Cool and the issue was it was like the the Mortal Kombat fatality So it would be like, you know, a stormtrooper versus Princess Leia who would be the queen or whatever cool and But the issue was it was like the the Mortal Kombat fatality thing or or like the Final Fantasy

Starting point is 01:30:50 Summon thing of like once you've seen it a couple times. You don't need to see it anymore It kind of loses its novelty, but still, you know as a Star Wars fan It was it was a cool thing that existed. Okay, 1994 tie fighter This is the sequel to X-wing where you play on the side of the Empire. This was even better than X-Wing. This was a heightening of the original. The cool thing about the TIE fighter is that these ships were very vulnerable. A lot of them had no shields. So you just like, it really felt fragile at there.

Starting point is 01:31:16 It felt like you were, the Empire viewed you as just like, you know, as something that could just be like churned ground through the gears of battle and they didn't actually care about you. And that was like a fun, you know, kind of like a kind of hook to it also made it feel very dangerous. But it was this also this game was just better than every way the next the next wing and playing as the different model ties was super fun. The Thai bombers, the Thai interceptors, the mission design was really cool. And Grand Emerald Thrawn was in this.

Starting point is 01:31:44 I have so much nostalgia for this game. This is one of my favorite PC games in the 90s and arguably still the best Star Wars game ever made. Star Wars Dark Forces comes out in 1995. This was the Doom clone era of early FPS games. This was actually a pretty good game. I mean, shooting Gamorrean guards with a blaster and first person, very, very satisfying. It introduced the character of Kyle Katarn, who we'll come back to, but I don't know.

Starting point is 01:32:06 I mean, it was like, this was like a B game, but it was a well-executed B game and a good use of the Star Wars license. Star Wars Rebel Assault II, the sequel to the CD-ROM game comes out in 1995. I never actually played this, another rail shooter, more FMV footage, huge sales, and everyone who actually likes games

Starting point is 01:32:24 and played this one says it sucked. X-Wing versus TIE Fighter, this was the one where, hey, we had X-Wing, we had TIE Fighter, let's combine them into X-Wing versus TIE Fighter, comes out in 1997. The issue was this was multiplayer focused and kind of ahead of its time in this way, there was no actual single player campaign, at least in the base game. I mean, they just fucked it up. It was unfortunately kind of a bummer because that was part of what was cool. I mean that was the main thing that was cool about X-Wing and TIE fighters they had

Starting point is 01:32:49 these single-player campaigns. Star Wars Yoda stories comes out in 1997. We covered this in our old format. This sucked. This is just a top-down procedurally generated adventure. There was no real gameplay. It was meant to be basically a software toy like Solitaire or Minesweeper, a game you could play in a window at work, but it just had nothing to it. It was like a browser tab game. Just dog shit. Just really horrible. F-tier you are.

Starting point is 01:33:15 Okay, Star Wars Jedi Knight Dark Forces II comes out in 1997. Awesome game. Kyle Katarn from Dark Forces is back. He develops Force powers. For some reason it's fine, whatever. Through the course of the game, becomes a Jedi. from Dark Forces is back. He develops force powers. For some reason it's fine, whatever. Through the course of the game, he becomes a Jedi. You choose what kind of force powers to pursue. So it's kind of the first game that has that sort of thing, the light side and dark side to it. It has a lightsaber, some of the best implementations of both of those pieces of canon.

Starting point is 01:33:37 It's a really cool game and it was followed by direct sequel Jedi Knight 2, which dropped the Dark Forces title entirely and became its own series which was multi-platform but on the PC side Jedi Knight Dark Forces 2 really, really awesome. Star Wars Rebellion 1998, I was pumped for this because this was one of those 4X games like Civilization or Master of Orion or Alpha Centauri. I don't know if Alpha Centauri came out after this game, might have been the same year. The issue was they bizarrely made this real time instead of turn-based and so it just didn't play very well.

Starting point is 01:34:09 It's like trying to manage an entire empire. I know there are games like Crusader Kings now, you know, that are like this sort of sprawling sort of thing that are real time, but this one should have been turn-based with all the games that it was riffing on and it was just a really baffling decision that made it just unfortunately not work all that well in practice. Star Wars X-Wing Alliance 1999 was a sequel to X-Wing versus TIE Fighter. This was well received but I was just kind of over it. I was kind of over the series after the last game and I never actually played this one but I've heard good things. 1999 the Phantom Menace games most

Starting point is 01:34:42 notably episode one Racer and then there was also a Phantom Menace game just called the Phantom Menace That was like an action game Those were multi-platform and so the era of PC exclusive Star Wars games pretty much ended with the prequels As did our innocence there were there were a couple RTS that games that came out in the early 2000s Star Starcraft clones Star Wars Force commander and Galactic Battlegrounds that I think were of different qualities, but I never actually played either of those. I was never really into RTSs. And I also won't touch the MMOs because those were much later and they were obviously kind

Starting point is 01:35:12 of their own thing. But basically, I just want to chime in first off because I like to hear myself talk, but also because I just was like, if we're going to talk Star Wars games, we kind of have to acknowledge PC games because that was such a big part of the Star Wars video game canon for so long. And also it was a thing that was like, you know, these are the Star Wars games that I love. These are the Star Wars games that I remembered. And I was always hearing console gamers gushing over Rogue Squadron and Shadows of the Empire.

Starting point is 01:35:38 Very good games, games that I played, games I enjoyed. But on PC we had like the Jedi Knight franchise, the Dark Forces franchise, and the X-Wing slash TIE Fighter franchises. And they were just so much more fully realized executions of the space sim genre, the action adventure genres in the Star Wars universe. They felt like these weren't just licensed games, like these were like great games that had the Star Wars license. And I kind of wish they were more remembered

Starting point is 01:36:06 beyond just a PC master race enthusiast. All right, hey, that's the end of my little rant here. Yeah. Yeah, thanks for all that, Nick. Thank you, Jesus Christ, Nick. I know. I mean, we already started ending the show. We did the show already.

Starting point is 01:36:23 Oh my God. You know what? hearing that and Seeing how long he talked I think he didn't believe in us and I don't think he thought we could do it Yeah, and we actually did do it didn't we we did it we did do it and that's this week's get played our producer Is Rochelle Chan and sitting in this week for us is Sam Rogich Sam anything you want to plug your band Guk right? Yeah, my band Guk is playing the Observatory in Santa Ana in October. I think, I forget the exact date,

Starting point is 01:36:50 but it's gonna be a good one. Well, this episode comes out in October, so if that performance is after that, go see Guk. Otherwise you missed it. Otherwise you missed it, you fucking dipshit. You missed it. You fucked up, didn't you, by not going?

Starting point is 01:37:03 Because you missed it. Our music is by Ben Prunty. Benpruntymusic.com Our art is by Duck Brigade Design, DuckBrigade.com And check out our Patreon. Patreon.com slash get played For our entire pre-head come back catalog Plus ad free main feed episodes

Starting point is 01:37:18 As well as our Patreon exclusive show Get Animated Where by the time this is out Who the hell knows what we're watching? Who knows? We don't know! Who could say? we don't know who could say we're recording out of time we're recording out of time and you know what I feel free by that it's like who cares yeah it's okay but you know the only way to find out we're watching is by subscribing to get played to patreon patreon.com slash get played and Heather? Nick. Nick got played. Nick got played. Somehow. Nick got played. Somehow Nick got played. Next week it's somehow Nick returned.

Starting point is 01:37:58 This is a HeadGum Podcast.

Get Played - Star Wars Games

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