It’s pretty common that Star Wars fans like to check out anything related to Star Wars. Whether it’s toys, books & comics, or video games, you can always count on fans of Star Wars to support anything and everything that takes place in a galaxy far, far away. But there are those few things that nobody should waste their time and money on because of how bad they really are. This is the unfortunate case with Star Wars video games because, for every great game, we have there’s another that is absolutely horrible. Search your feelings padawans, you know this to be true.
So rather than let unaware Star Wars fans fall into the trap of playing or buying a bad Star Wars game, here are five of the worst ones to avoid. These Star Wars video games are so bad that not even the vilest bounty hunter will waste time playing them. Even the jawas of Tatooine won’t take them for any reason, because they’re THAT bad.
Now if you still love these games because you grew up playing them or have a personal connection for some reason, then that’s fine. Don’t let our thoughts about these games stop you from enjoying what you love. They might be gold to some Star Wars fans, from a certain point of view. But one man’s gold might be trash to everyone else, and neither one should cancel out the other. But without further delay, here are five Star Wars games you should avoid playing whenever you can!
Star Wars: Masters of Teras Kasi
Having a fighting game based on the Star Wars galaxy may sound like a good idea, but this 1997 original PlayStation release proved otherwise. Star Wars Masters of Teras Kasi is a fighting game that features many of the original trilogy characters, as well as some extra Expanded Universe and original characters for the game. The 3D gameplay is very similar to the Tekken series, only each character has both hand-to-hand and weapon-based combat at their disposal.
It’s great to see multiple locations from the original trilogy films, as well as appearances from beloved characters, but much of it is overshadowed by many bugs and glitches. Not only was the fighting incredibly wonky and unbalanced, but many design choices for the difficulty and presentation of the game were insane. The ability to select a stage to fight on in Versus multiplayer required you to finish the arcade mode on the hardest difficulty setting with a specific character. On top of that, unlocking extra characters required similar criteria that were borderline unfair.
Many Star Wars fans love and appreciate the Extended Universe enough to push through some of these hardships, which is admirable. But it doesn’t excuse how terrible of a package this Star Wars game really was. The fighting was janky, the overall content was meager, and the experience just wasn’t worth the struggle everyone had to endure. The force was definitely not strong with this one.
Star Wars: Flight of the Falcon
Speaking of bad presentation in games, this Game Boy Advance game is another dud based on the original trilogy. Star Wars Flight of the Falcon was published by THQ and developed by Pocket Studios and was probably one of the worst Star Wars games for the GBA. It should be an easy fun time to be able to control the Millennium Falcon in stages that have you fighting TIE Fighters in space or escaping the Empire on Tatooine.
But what Star Wars fans got in here was a laggy, messy, and borderline unplayable experience that was far from anything representing fun. The visuals of the game are incredibly hard on the eyes, making a lot of what you need to see in front of you unbearable and annoying to look at. The pixel art of everything you see is muddied by the small screen on the Game Boy Advance, despite many other games for the platform looking nicer and a lot clearer. Each of the stages you played through overstayed its welcome and became real chores to see through to the end.
If there was ever a game that Han Solo would be proud to be associated with, this was DEFINITELY not it. You should avoid this Star Wars game like you were avoiding Imperial fighters in pursuit of you. It’s really that bad.
Kinect Star Wars
This failure is a hard one to face because the concept of having a motion-sensor Star Wars game is very interesting. Being able to use a lightsaber or control something using the power of a camera and having yourself be the controller is very ambitious and sounds neat. But your faith in Star Wars Kinect is misplaced, as this game is both a goofy gimmick and a middling experience. We can safely say Star Wars fans really didn’t Kinect with this game at all.
Star Wars Kinect has a variety of games to play, ranging from lightsaber dueling to a dancing game that remixes pop music with a Star Wars theme. As a family game, it would have been something that worked, and yet we ended up with a mediocre package. Like Admiral Ozzel coming out of light speed too close to the planet Hoth, this game was both clumsy and stupid in the end. And it’s not like the Xbox Kinect fared much better afterward, both the peripheral and this game were easily forgotten following its release.
Star Wars: Obi-Wan
Let us be very clear about something. We love Obi-Wan Kenobi out here, both young and old Obi-Wan is a beloved character that helped create the galaxy far, far away that we love. But this game for the original Xbox based on young Jedi Obi-Wan is a jumble of terrible gameplay and visuals. Though the early 2000s were a great time for Star Wars games with classics like Knights of the Old Republic and Battlefront getting released, there were major duds like this one that appeared as well.
The graphics of Star Wars Obi-Wan are far below par in comparison to many other Star Wars games fans remember from that era. Everything in the game looks as if it was built on hardware from years prior, and the sounds in it are just as unbearable. The developers didn’t even get Obi-Wan Kenobi actor Ewan McGregor from Episode 1: The Phantom Menace to voice the character in the game, but opted instead for a cheap knockoff sound-alike that doesn’t like Obi-Wan at all.
There are far better games that feature young Obi-Wan Kenobi that are both before and after the release of this game. Even if you’re curious and just want to see how much of a disaster it turned out to be, we strongly against playing it. That can be an easy step towards the dark side of the force, and we don’t need that with how bad these games have been!
Star Wars: Demolition
Another Star Wars game for the original PlayStation that was a good idea in concept, but absolutely bantha fodder in execution. Star Wars Demolition is what happens when you take the gameplay of Twisted Metal and put it within the Star Wars galaxy. Even though the game features many characters from both canon and the Extended universe, and takes place before the events of Return of the Jedi, it ends up being a disaster. The vehicular combat is buggy and very unbalanced, despite some of the vehicles you can control being derivatives of ships found in the original trilogy and the prequels.
The visuals of the game are arguably worse than the original Twisted Metal for the PlayStation. Many of the maps you fight on include places like Tatooine, Naboo, and a few other popular locations. But the blocky nature of the backgrounds and effects that get in the way of your view can make Star Wars Demolition hard to play. You’ll try to destroy the bounty hunters chasing you, only to be suddenly stopped by a random attack you couldn’t see coming that obscures your view as well.
Don’t believe us? Although we find your lack of faith disturbing, you can see it firsthand in any videos featuring gameplay. The idea of vehicular combat in the Star Wars galaxy isn’t necessarily a bad idea. But it definitely requires a better hand to execute the concept far better than this. Not even the coolness of Boba Fett as a playable character could save this cavalcade of failure.
Honorary Failure: Star Wars: Super Bombad Racing
We’re only including this because we know Kneon here on ClownfishTV likes this game. There is a goofy charm to Star Wars Super Bombad Racing on the PlayStation 2, the sad truth is that the game is pretty bad. Imagine taking the kart racing gameplay of the Mario Kart series, or any mascot racer, and putting in Star Wars characters and race tracks. That sounds like a fun idea, right? But what we ended up with was a mediocre pileup of shallow-kart racing that isn’t as fun as it should be.
The game features a number of racers from both the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy, rendered in a goofy chibi-like form. Everyone has big heads and drivers their own unique versions of what can be considered pod racers, despite some being smaller versions of iconic ships from the movies. The tracks in the game are partially interesting in some cases, but full-on annoyances in others. The weapons you pick up are almost exactly what you’d find in something like Mario Kart or Diddy Kong Racing, but with icons that are unclear until you use them and find out their effects. Some people might find some fun in this, but there should honestly be a better pod racing game made at some point down the line to fill this void. And no, Star Wars Racer and Racer Revenge aren’t those games to do so, those are mediocre games as well.
What are some of the worst Star Wars games that you have ever played? Which are the ones you think were better than expected? Tell us about it in the comments down below. And remember, the force will be with you, always…
