In the early 90's, the world of Star Wars fans was abuzz. There was a new story, Shadows of the Empire, that bridged the gap between episode 5 and 6. There was to be a book, comic, and a video game. Each would tell the same story from a different point of view. The book showed the perspective from the main characters of the movies and Prince Zizor, one of the chief villains. The comic tells Bobba Fett's side of the story, and the gamers would have the opportunity to play as Dash Rendar - he pretty much takes the place of Han Solo.
The book itself was great, and the action figures are cool. (Yes, I has some) I have not had the pleasure to read the comic, but I do own the game.
Is this starting to sound familiar? Yeah, sounds like The Force Unleashed.
Shadows of the Empire had the potential to be one of the best games for the N64. The level designs were impressive, the bad guys were fun to fight, and it had one of the best, albeit small, arsenals of any Star Wars game I have played. The 6 weapons included a basic blaster, seeker missiles, a flamethrower, pulse cannon, surprisingly fun stun gun, and the disrupter - think handheld nuke. There was even a jetpack. A JETPACK! And it was not painfully weak like in battlefront, you felt like Bobba Fett in that thing! Most levels were Third Person Shooters, but some were vehicle levels, including a very fun swoop bike sequence and a crazy rail shooter level. Overall, this game had it all, but it was sorely lacking in one department. Control.
There were about 4 different control schemes, and all of them sucked. Half of the difficulty in the game came from aiming and walking coherently. You would think that Dash was drunk!
Also, the game opens with the battle of hoth, where you have to use a snow speeder to fight AT-AT and AT-STs. That level is the opposite of fun. These two thing pretty much ruined the game for many people. (I was dedicated enough to trudge through until the last level...which was a x-wing battle that played out exactly like the first level.)
As a slap in the face, there is a cheat code that leads to a de-bug menu. This menu gives you control over everything in the game, which quadruples the play time...but entering the code will drive you insane.
First, pause the game on any stage and hold down ALL of the following buttons: Z, R, L, all the C buttons, and left on the digital cross pad.
Then, with all the buttons still held, move the control stick HALFWAY to the right, and hold it for about five seconds until you hear a donk.
When you hear the donk, then move the control stick halfway to the left, and hold for about five seconds until you hear a donk. Repeat to right again, and then again to the left. Now pink text should appear at the top of the screen. Use the L and R buttons to switch between options, the control stick up and down to change (where applicable) and to activate. When you use one of the options or leave the pause screen, the next time you pause the text will be gone. To get it back, hold all of the buttons you held to activate the code, and move the stick halfway either to the left or to the right.
IT TAKES 7 HANDS TO IMPUT THAT CODE. (yes, I managed it, but I had to use my nose to move the analogue stick, and it gave me a headache.)
Well, this post is getting really long so I need to make my point and quick. Shadows of the Empire had a lot of potential, and I would love to see that potential realize someday. Maybe the game could be remade for current generations or something, it would be awesome. Yeah...thats pretty much it.