With how absolutely massive the Star Wars property has grown to be, it’s not much of a surprise that we’ve gotten a plethora of games for a variety of consoles over the years. While there have been plenty of amazing Star Wars games like Battlefront 2, Knights of the Old Republic, or the more recent Jedi games that have gotten their share of the spotlight, just as many have fallen through the cracks despite their high quality.
Even if they don’t get talked about nearly enough, several forgotten Star Wars games were hugely influential on not only future games in the series, but even the franchise as a whole. While there is no shortage of exciting upcoming Star Wars games to look forward to, it’s never a bad time to look back and appreciate some of the series’ forgotten cult classics.
Star Wars: Empire at War Deserves A Modern Re-Release
While 2006’s Star Wars: Empire at War is infamous in the real-time strategy genre and hard to call much of a hidden gem, it’s still relatively unknown by the greater side of the Star Wars community as a whole. Even if it’s not the most niche, Star Wars: Empire at War is a creative take on the property that deserves more than the occasional mentions it currently gets.
Several mods, like Thrawn’s Revenge and Republic at War, are excellent modpacks to start with, as they drastically expand the scope of units and progression to experience.
Offering control of a massive galactic war that included planetside skirmishes and large-scale space battles galore, Empire at War and its DLC were highly ambitious for the time of their release. Although some of Empire at War‘s gameplay mechanics are a little rough around the edges by today’s standards, it has a strong modding community that takes full advantage of its grand foundations to create a whole new experience.
LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars Is Painfully Overshadowed
It’s hard to say that any LEGO Star Wars game isn’t popular with how massive both properties are, but out of all the entries in the beloved sci-fi franchise, LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars definitely gets overlooked the most. While it makes sense that LEGO’s adaptation of The Clone Wars wouldn’t be nearly as popular, its gameplay advancements make it more than worth checking out.
On top of having a massive roster of characters similar to LEGO’s Skywalker Saga, The Clone Wars had more advanced gameplay systems than its iconic predecessors. The Clone Wars even included a large-scale battle mode that had elements of real-time strategy games thrown into the mix, making it by far one of the most mechanically ambitious games in the series at the time of its release.
Star Wars Episode I: Racer Is Still Just As Fun Years Later
Having been released in 1999, Star Wars Episode 1: Racer might be rough to look at visually, but its high-speed racing gameplay still holds up surprisingly well today. Offering tight controls, risk-based gameplay mechanics, and some explosive crash potential, each match of Star Wars Racer is an underrated thrill ride from start to finish.
Thankfully, even if it’s not a direct remake of the cult classic Star Wars Episode 1: Racer, we’re finally getting a spiritual successor in the form of Star Wars: Galactic Racer after all these years.
Star Wars: Dark Forces Pushed The FPS Genre Forward
Being one of the first Star Wars shooters that was even inspired by fan-made DOOM mods, Star Wars: Dark Forces was surprisingly innovative with its gameplay mechanics for the time. Despite being well-received at launch, even outside its ties to the Star Wars IP and introducing an exciting new protagonist to the series, Dark Forces is another absolute classic that has been somewhat lost to time.
Star Wars: Dark Forces did get a high-quality overhaul in the form of an official remaster, which was released on most modern consoles and PC in early 2024.
The Jedi Knight follow-up games didn’t do much to help Dark Forces‘ legacy either, as the third-person lightsaber games became much more popular over the years, which tends to overshadow Dark Forces and its effect on the Star Wars gaming IP as a whole.
Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance Is Well Worth Revisiting Today
Space combat was the bread and butter for many early Star Wars games, but the sheer number made excellent games like X-Wing Alliance fall through the cracks when compared to the more popular Rogue Squadron series. Despite even being outshone by the other entries in its own series, X-Wing Alliance is still a fantastic offering that holds up surprisingly well with its higher skill ceiling and large-scale battles.
Taken to even greater heights thanks to its small but incredibly dedicated community, there are several modding projects out there that make X-Wing Alliance look like a brand-new game, with improved controls to match its gorgeous visuals. Even if we’re unlikely to ever see a resurgence of this smaller Star Wars spinoff series, having its hurdles removed by fans makes it an excellent choice to play all these years later.
It’s Hard To Find An Experience As Unique As Star Wars: Yoda Stories
While it’s easy to see why Star Wars: Yoda Stories doesn’t get brought up anymore after taking a single look at its outdated visual style, the highly unusual game is just interesting enough to make it worth looking back on. Offering randomly generated adventures that act like mini RPGs in their own right, the gameplay loop is surprisingly fun, albeit more than a little simplistic.
Being only remembered as a charming cult classic rather than something to revisit, the experimental game design is one of the most unique we’ve seen from the series, which is something that Star Wars games as a whole should be taking more advantage of moving forward.
Star Wars Episode I: Battle for Naboo Is Massively Underrated
While you’ve likely heard of the widely popular Star Wars: Rogue Squadron games before, its spiritual successor, Star Wars Episode 1: Battle for Naboo is painfully overlooked despite offering the same addictive gameplay the series is known for. Being a prequel spinoff to its more popular cousin, Battle of Naboo entirely takes place during its namesake, but mixes up the gameplay by offering control over a handful of different vehicles.
Taking to not only the air, but also the land and sea through Speeder Bikes and Gunboats, the Battle for Naboo prequel game still has plenty to offer for fans of the series, even if it doesn’t have nearly as many features as some of Rogue Squadron‘s later entries.
Star Wars: Bounty Hunter Had More Than A Few Promising Concepts
Highlighting an underrated era of the prequel trilogy, Star Wars: Bounty Hunter isn’t exactly a game you’ll see brought up very often, even with all the high praise it’s received. Following the rise of Jango Fett as a legendary bounty hunter prior to the events of Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones, it also helped expand on the underworld of the series as a whole.
Even if the controls are a little clunky, and it struggles to fully flesh out some of its more unique concepts, the gameplay concept and missions of Star Wars: Bounty Hunter make the cancellation of its spiritual successor even more painful.
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire Was Impressively Ambitious
Being an attempt to expand the Star Wars universe through video games rather than movies, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire was a surprisingly ambitious game released for the Nintendo 64 all the way back in 1996. Acting as a multimedia project, the story of Shadows of the Empire also extended to several books, comics, and toys to make it feel like a fully fledged entry in the series.
Offering third-person shooting, open exploration, and even vehicle combat, Shadows of the Empire has plenty going for it, but its hardware limitations and controls severely held it back. Despite being somewhat of a cult classic for its cinematic presentation and overall atmosphere, Shadows of the Empire is painfully hard to revisit due to its clunky controls, leaving it mostly forgotten aside from its occasional mention by nostalgic fans.
Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds Is Far More Than An RTS Clone
Despite releasing 5 years before Empire at War, Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds holds up even better thanks to its more refined gameplay experience that borrows heavily from the more established Age of Empires games. Adapting the familiar style of isometric real-time strategy gameplay, Galactic Battlegrounds included several expansive campaigns that spanned across multiple eras of the iconic series.
With the potential for surprisingly intense battles through both its single-player campaign and multiplayer game modes, Galactic Battlegrounds has the potential to offer countless hours of fun even today, making it a shame the concept was never revisited or even talked about much since its popularity.
- Cast
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Mark Hamill, James Earl Jones, David Prowse, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Ian McDiarmid, Ewan McGregor, Rosario Dawson, Lars Mikkelsen, Rupert Friend, Moses Ingram, Frank Oz, Pedro Pascal
- TV Show(s)
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The Mandalorian, Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, The Acolyte, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, Lando, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars: The Bad Batch, Star Wars: Resistance, Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures, Star Wars: Visions
- Movie(s)
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Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi, Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi, Star Wars: Episode IX- The Rise of Skywalker, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi, Star Wars: New Jedi Order
- Character(s)
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Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Rey Skywalker, Emperor Palpatine / Darth Sidious, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka Tano, Grand Admiral Thrawn, Grand Inquisitor, Reva (The Third Sister), The Fifth Brother, The Seventh Sister, The Eighth Brother, Yoda, Din Djarin, Grogu, Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, Leia Organa, Ben Solo/Kylo Ren