Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire

aka: Star Wars: Teikoku no Kage
Moby ID: 3105
Nintendo 64 Specs
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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

Game Designer
Lead Artist
Lead Animator
Project Leader
Senior Programmer
Technical Lead/Programmer
Programmer/Lycanthrope
Aesthetic Technology/Robin's Dad
Level Designers
3D Artists
3D Animator
Texture Artist
3D/Background Artist
Storyboard Artist
Music Editor/Sound Quality Control
Sound Designers
Composers
Lead Tester
Production Manager
[ 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 Force is strong with this one…for the first level.

The Good
The best thing about Shadows of the Empire (SOTE) is that it is set in the “Star Wars” universe. Familiar characters and locations, like Han Solo and the ice planet of Hoth, help tie the new Shadows storyline in with the original trilogy. And, of course, SOTE would not be a real Star Wars game if it did not include the famous Star Wars sound effects and musical themes. Both are here, and they are delightful as always.

SOTE reels you in immediately by throwing you right into the midst of the spectacular Hoth battle scene we saw near the beginning of “The Empire Strikes Back.” As if it weren’t cool enough that you get to blast AT-STs and AT-ATs with your snowspeeder’s guns, you also get the chance to launch your tow cable and trip up those big bad Imperial Walkers, just like they did in the movie! It’s one of those things you have to see and do before you can understand how thrilling it really is – for Star Wars fans, anyway.

The Bad
The main problem with SOTE is that the game peaks with the very first level. Once you get past the Hoth battle, the action consists of nothing but average first/third person shooter stuff, with some arcade-like space battle sequences thrown in for good measure. It’s a classic bait-and-switch, and big disappointment.

While the Nintendo 64 has plenty of good FPS titles, SOTE is sadly not one of them. Our hero, Dash Rendar, plods along slowly and clumsily when you move the analog stick. The stick is a pain to use, too. It’s too bad they didn’t implement the control scheme from Turok, which feels much smoother and more intuitive. Dash doesn’t get many different kinds of weapons to play with, either. I love the old Star Wars laser blasters as much as anybody, but surely we deserve something more for our money here.

It’s bad enough that the post-Hoth sequences aren’t that much fun, but I’ll just add that they don’t seem all that important, either. Once you’ve stopped recreating that big scene from “Empire,” there just isn’t enough to motivate the player to push through it. If you are really interested in the Shadows story, then I recommend you read the book. As for the music, well, you could always buy the soundtrack…

The Bottom Line
Really fun for the first level, and then mediocre the rest of the way, SOTE was more about clever marketing than brilliant game design. Still, it’s probably worth playing once just for the Hoth battle.

Nintendo 64 · by PCGamer77 (3158) · 2013

Nice Ideas, Poorly Executed

The Good
The Hoth level is amazing.

The Bad
The 3D shooting is poor.

The Bottom Line
Shadows of the Empire was a big “Expanded Universe” multimedia event with this story getting a novel, soundtrack (for the novel), comic book, toys and, of course, a video game. Shadows of the Empire was released on the N64 on PC. I was originally going to use the PC version for this, as the game is identical, but it has video cutscenes with voice acting, but controller support is poor (and the HUD goes tiny). With the help of remapping buttons, I was able to create a good setup that uses modern using the strafe setup.

I played this as a kid and I do remember enjoying it.

The game starts off during the Battle of Hoth from The Empire Strikes back, with you controlling a snowspeeder. This section is great, with the snowspeeder feeling great to control and toppling AT-ATs with the tow cable is great. Unfortunately, the level isn’t very long and it’s the best part of the game (you may notice the large amount of lives – that’s more for the poor platforming in later stages). If the entire game was like this, it would be a great game, but most of the game is on-foot.

You play as Dash Randar, who in this game is essentially a Han Solo clone (the novel expands the character’s personality a lot). You’re armed with a blaster that recharges, and you can get special ammo for it (best saved for bosses). The game heavily relies on autoaim, which is especially necessary as you can’t really aim up or down in any reasonable way (the aim button lets you, but it’s far too sensitive).

Trying to setup so you can flee Hoth, you start by watching the Millenium Falcon leave (shouldn’t Vader be standing nearby?) then blast your way through the stormtroopers attacking the rebel base. The shooting isn’t very satisfying and the movement is wonky.

After blowing up an AT-ST, you make your way off Hoth and blast TIE fighters in an asteroid field in a dreadful turret section with awful controls. The game at least gives you plenty of time to react as the bombs from the TIE bombers are really slow, and you have infinite missiles – they just reload between batches of 5.

Hunting for Boba Fett, Dash heads to a junkyard planet to get information from IG-88. I absolutely hate this level as a kid due to the controls but I didn’t find it too bad – I think the ability to strafe helps a lot with lining up jumps, and I never figured that out the first time round. It’s still a very ugly planet, though – Shadows of the Empire was definitely ahead of its time for its use of greys and browns. At the end of the level you take out IG-88, who gives you information on where Boba Fett is.

This is where the platforming really does take a nosedive. Dash’s jump is incredibly floaty and not difficult to control, and the narrow paths of this level are built for you to fall off constantly. You get a jetpack half way through which helps a bit, but is not as fun as a jetpack should be due to being slow and only possible to use for short bursts.

You fight Boba Fett and the Slave 1 at the end. I ran out of ammo, but found a spot where Slave 1 couldn’t hit me, so was able to hit it a few hundred times to destroy it.

Some text explains that after this, Boba Fett escapes and an assassin tries to kill Luke, so it’s up to you to help protect him.

As Luke chills out at Obi-Wan’s home on Tatooine, Dash hears of a swoop gang heading to kill Luke. Speeding through this level is great, but it’s much better to go slowly to take out enemies. You find out information that an Imperial ship contains the necessary information.

As Luke waits outside in his X-Wing, Dash assaults the imperial ship on his own (this game makes Luke seem weak). Most of this level is messing with door switches in a large cargo hold. There’s some secrets to find, but you need to work your way, then fighting a big droid near the end. The jetpack you found earlier would have been handy, but Dash left it on his ship. On a side note, I do really like the Outrider.

In order to infiltrate a base, we need to go through a sewer. Dash has absolutely no issue diving though massive amounts of excrement as you have to find a few different items to progress. The boss fight at the end is a horrible experience, with respawning tentacles and the poor jetpack controls underwater.

Going through the base your job is to find a reactor to place charges to blow up a space elevator. Luke is also infiltrating this base to save Leia, but that’s just background information and you never get to see them during gameplay. This is another dull level.

After another bad ship turret section, we get to actually fly the Outrider, and it’s great. You don’t get to focus on shooting other ships, though: your mission is to shoot four turrets then fly into the base and blow up the reactor, Death Star 2-style. The game ends with Dash seemingly not making it (but then reveals his fate in the final cutscene).

Shadow of the Empire is not as fun as I remember. The genre has evolved a lot, and the controls are just strange and floaty. The full story is probably good, but this isn’t a good adaptation as important points are relegated to scrolling text.

Nintendo 64 · by Cube1701 (1) · 2024

Game Over before the Empire

The Good
The cinematic cutscenes in between chapters are in line with a Star Wars movie with great conspiracy plot elements put in for that epic thrill. The setting for the chapters brings both familiar territory like Hoth and fascinating new places in space to explore and complete your missions.

Level design is good and worth exploring. Your weapons do have an auto-aim to assist you. This game does put all the great stuff that we all know and love in the Star Wars franchise including TIE fighters, stormtroopers and Boba Fett. Fancy fighting a walker entirely on foot with a laser pistol. Sadly the game is only decent skin deep.

The Bad
This game is absolutely packed with some of the aggravating and problematic mechanics and gameplay in a Star Wars video game. The flying sequences are among the most awkward in the genre of space shooting, made only easier by the first person view. In the first chapter, the snowspeeder's power cable is useless against the AT-AT walkers, it looks like spinning a web around it. Your only chance is to shoot them down.

The third person shooter levels feel awkward. The wonky controls can do little to get you through. You can't strafe and shoot smoothly. The camera rotation and positions don't always give you time to target your enemy, while you're being shot at, unless you're really far away. Jumping is a major chore in the levels. If you don't aim the camera perfectly as you jump a gap, you'll most likely fall to your death. Falls are your number one enemy from beginning to end. The jetpack has a horrendous tendency to make you overshoot from exactly where you intended to land. Even worse are the slippery slopes that send you zooming off cliffs, even when you're being careful. Passing the later levels requires you to die and replay lots of times and stack on lives, before you can choreograph a successful level play, because you can't save your game anywhere mid-level. To top it off, there are virtually no health pickups to preserve your current life.

The choc-blocky graphics are lacking in both texture and colour variety, especially the level surfaces. Here and there presentation is lacking with overly bold text placed in some screens. The classic crawl opening sequence moves a lot slower than it does in the films. The resolution works for everything except the HUD, making it difficult to indicate the weapon you're using and how much ammo and health you have.

The Bottom Line
This game will certainly keep you playing for many hours albeit with frustration as you grind your playing skills to pass a level. It seems apparent that LucasArts took some ideas from their Rebel Assault series, but forgot to make them work well. This could've been a decent game if not for the existing issues. One has to wonder if this game was actually finished by the time of its release. It is what it is, with a nice amount of Star Wars lore. If you're accustomed to Tomb Raider and Syphon Filter, you won't be happy with this one.

Windows · by Kayburt (30393) · 2021

[ View all 11 player reviews ]

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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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.