Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
Description official descriptions
Set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire tells the story of Prince Xizor's quest to replace Darth Vader as the leader of the Sith, and wipe out the Rebels' chances of victory. The only man that can stop him is the interstellar bounty hunter Dash Rendar. The game is based on the novel of the same name, with locations including ice planet Hoth, Mos Eisley and the sewers of Imperial City, all in full 3D.
Levels each have very different objectives, ranging from piloting snowspeeders on Hoth and racing speeder bikes on Tatooine to shooting stormtroopers and droids on foot throughout the galaxy. Dash primarily uses a blaster with unlimited ammo, but can also find more powerful weapons with limited ammunition. Each level has optional "challenge points" that are hidden throughout the level, and finding all of them will unlock a cheat dependent on which difficulty setting the save file is on.
Spellings
- スター・ウォーズ 帝国の影 - Japanese spelling
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Credits (Nintendo 64 version)
139 People (88 developers, 51 thanks) · View all
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[ full credits ] |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 76% (based on 51 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.6 out of 5 (based on 76 ratings with 11 reviews)
The Good
Ok I got this game after seeing people play it at a store in some demo thing that had been made. The demo was playing the very good battle of Hoth level at the start. I later ate my words but we will gat back to this later. Firstly the good things about this game was, the Battle of Hoth level, The final level and the speeder bike level. Why? Apart from all of the other levels that were either on rails or boring TPS levels the game had little else that was fun. The shooting parts of the game were fun, once. The levels were ok in design but a little too blocky in my tastes. The lasers were also rectangles. The bad guys were ok in modeling but were pretty dumb. The weapons were ok as well but you often over hoarded all the guns untill you got to a big boss at the end.
The Bad
The game play was only fun once. The character had this lightweight feel about him when you jumped and it just did not feel right. Other problems was that the bosses were almost too hard to beat and some parts were too boring.
The Bottom Line
The first and last levels were good, the rest of the game can wait till you are either on drugs or drunk.
Nintendo 64 · by Sam Hardy (80) · 2001
The Good
- Successfully conveys the Star Wars feel
- Nostalgically reminds me of the (far superior) Dark Forces series
- Nice variety in level types
- Cool story and cut-scenes
**The Bad**
- Limited control over the camera
- Some very bland and empty levels
- Badly thought out level bosses
**The Bottom Line**
At the time of this game's release my PC did not live up to the minimum requirements. So even though I was quite a Star Wars fan I had to let this title slip by. I did have the chance to play the first level at a friend, but it stayed at that. Until 2010 when I finally got around playing this game. Interestingly for an early Windows 95 game it installed without any problems whatsoever on my Windows XP machine. I could just jump straight into the action. Unfortunately I was staying at my parents where I did not have a gamepad at my disposal, so I was forced to play the game with mouse and keyboard. I must say that I preferred playing it with just the keyboard. Except for the boss fights where quick circle strafing seemed to be the dominant strategy. More on this later. The game sucks you in immediately with splendid Star Wars music and sound effects. The menu interface is obviously designed for consoles, but hey we're kind of used to that in 2010. Might have been a shock at the time. The first mission is immediately one of the best. It's a re-imagining of the Battle of Hoth from Star Wars Episode V. The player controls a Snow Speeder and has to take out Probe Droids, ATSTs and ATATs (2 legged and 4 legged walking tanks). The controls are very easy and very arcade like. And even with the keyboard it's quite easy to aim at your targets even with the lack of a cross-hair. The Snow Speeder scene is the only level in which you get to fly on land. There are some other missions where you fight in space, but most of the missions are third person shooter levels. Although the camera is configurable. It is also possible to play in first person, top-down or with a stationary camera. But even though I'm a big fan of first person perspectives I found that 3rd person works best for this game. Mainly because you can't look up and down. Dark Forces and its sequel Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight count themselves as some of my favourite games of all time. And I think that in the end those games are the reason I started liking this game. Because in reality it is far inferior to those two games. Continuously throughout the game I was welcomed by warm nostalgia. Textures and 3D models that were reused in Jedi Knight, rooms which had a very similar layout to rooms in Dark Forces and other similarities forced my mouth into a smiley at a regular interval. But while there was a lot of recognition and the art was quite good for the time, there's not much positive to be said about the actual level design. Most levels are very straight forward and plain to look at. There are some interesting levels that try to do something completely different. For example a train level in which you need to jump onto passing cargo trains. And some levels feature slightly more elaborate switch puzzles. But nothing to tease the mind. The controls for the third person sequences work, but pale in comparison to
Windows · by vedder (70899) · 2010
Enjoyable but flawed gaming experience
The Good
It's Star Wars!
* Well-drawn cutscenes
* Variety
* Decent boss battles
* Nostalgia
* Fun stages...
The Bad
...And bland, boring stages
* Poor ground-level stage controls that requires getting used to each play
* Minimum camera control
* Occasionally frustrating
* Seeker camera... enough said.
The Bottom Line
'Shadows of the Empire' is a fun action game, but, as always, it's not without its flaws. The poor controls make certain segments more trouble than they're worth; certain jumps can seem real easy some times. At other times, they're hell. Still, I would call it one of the N64's finest titles -- which I guess isn't saying much, given the lack of games. It's certainly not up there with Ocarina of Time or Super Mario 64. That would be a blatant lie. But I would say it does quite well as simple action game, and it's a mostly fun experience that's only held back by minor flaws. It could have to do with the fact that I only had around 4 N64 games growing up, but I haven't gotten tired of this title yet, despite having had it since around the time it came out.
Some might not be as forgiving about the flaws as I am, but I would say the game is well worth giving a shot in spite of them.
Nintendo 64 · by Simoneer (29) · 2010
Trivia
Dash Rendar
Dash Rendar is the only character developed from the Star Wars franchise that actually made it "back" to the movies. You can see his modified starship, the Outrider YT-2400 lifting up and taking off from Mos Eisley as Luke and his gang enter the city in the new revised sequence featured on the Star Wars: Special Edition. Also, Dash Rendar in the Nintendo 64 cutscenes looked more like a brown-haired, younger and rougher George Lucas with a rough shave instead of a beard. In the PC edition, he looks more like the original concept art for the character.
Rogue Squadron inspiration
In the first level of the game, where you fly a snowspeeder in the Battle of Hoth, was the inspiration for Rogue Squadron.
Version differences
The PC version is a revised edition of the N64 version (the major difference between the two versions being 3D cutscenes for the PC).
Awards
- Electronic Gaming Monthly
- March 1997 (Issue 92) - N64 Game of the Year runner-up + Best Music runner-up + Action Game of the Year (Readers' Choice) + Best Music (Readers' Choice)
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Related Sites +
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Lucas Arts: Shadows of the Empire
Official site. -
Video review of Star Wars games (WARNING: Language)
The Angry Video Game Nerd, James Rolfe, reviews various Stars Wars-based games, including Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire on Nintendo 64.
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Kartanym.
Additional contributors: Apogee IV, chirinea, Joshua J. Slone, Alaka, LepricahnsGold, vedder.
Game added January 21, 2001. Last modified March 9, 2024.