Modern Era Games
After the release of Episode I in theaters in 1999, an onslaught of games from the prequel trilogy began to be released for most major platforms. The first was Star Wars Episode I: Racer, based on the podracing sequence in movie. Others, including Battle for Naboo and Jedi Power Battles, were released, but with little success. The first strategic game in the Expanded Universe was titled Star Wars: Rebellion and broke new ground in that it incorporated ships and planets not found in the original canon, such as the Rebel Assault Frigate and the Bulwark Cruiser. But for all its ground-breaking new looks, it was not as successful as would have been hoped. The second strategic title, Star Wars: Force Commander was also released, but failed to keep up with other RTS games, since it was more focused on battling (no resource gathering) and used a primitive 3D engine. About a decade later, resource gathering lost popularity in favor of faster-paced combat-centric RTS games.
In 2002, Attack of the Clones premiered in theaters, and another wave of Star Wars based games, including The Clone Wars, Star Wars Racer Revenge, and Bounty Hunter were released, this time focusing on events and characters from Attack of the Clones such as bounty hunter Jango Fett and the Clone Wars.
Also in 2002, Jedi Outcast was released and gave players the first chance to experience advanced lightsaber duels, and it also detached itself from the usual idea of movie tie-ins. Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter was released allowing the player to be a Jedi Master flying a Jedi starfighter. A third RTS game with a much more conventional approach to the genre's norms and using the Age of Kings engine, Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, offered a better alternative to those seeking strategy in the Star Wars universe. One year later, the last game in the Jedi Knight series, Jedi Academy, was released, as well as Knights of the Old Republic, a BioWare RPG that debuted on the Microsoft Xbox and PC. Knights (also known as KotOR among fans) was critically acclaimed, even winning "Game of the Year" at the Game Developers Choice Awards, (along with many other critics ) in 2003. The first MMORPG, titled Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided, was also released in 2003 and was subsequently followed in 2004 by its first expansion Jump to Lightspeed.
Adjoining the release of the final Star Wars movie, Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars: Battlefront, Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (both in 2004), Star Wars: Republic Commando, Star Wars: Battlefront II, and Lego Star Wars (2005) were released. A sequel to the latter, Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy was released during 2006. Two more games, Star Wars Galaxies: Episode III Rage of the Wookiees (a second expansion to Galaxies), and Episode III: The video game (action) were also released close to the premiere of the third movie, with various degrees of success.
After the films, more Star Wars titles are continually being released and developed. Empire at War (an RTS), was released in early 2006. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, recently released for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii, uses a new, detailed graphics engine. The Wii version utilizes the motion sensing and accelerometer capabilities of the Wii Remote (simulating the ability to swing a lightsaber) and its Nunchuk attachment (used to perform Force powers). Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Lightsaber Duels is also available for Nintendo DS and Wii. It is also to be noted that Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron was released on November 3, 2009 for the Nintendo DS and the PSP. This is the first Battlefront game to offer a transition from space to ground battles at the players choice. Another MMORPG titled Star Wars: The Old Republic was developed by BioWare, which released globally on December 20, 2011. Pre-Orders went up for sale in July 2011 and open beta weekends were confirmed for September 2011.
Angry Birds Star Wars was announced in October 8, 2012, and was released on November 8, 2012. The game is a crossover with the Star Wars original trilogy, and casts the Angry Birds as the Rebels and the Bad Piggies as the Empire. Merchandise related to the game will be released on October 17th, and October 28th. It is a puzzle game and the fifth game in the Angry Birds video game series. It is developed and published by Rovio Entertainment and is based on the franchise. Star Wars The Force Unleashed 2, Star Wars Republic Heroes, Lego Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars were released between 2009-2012, and at E3 2012, EA with Lucasarts announced Star Wars 1313, which focus more on the life of a bounty hunter as he descends to the level 1313 on Coruscant to unreviel a criminal plot. The game focus more on gunplay and bounty hunter gameplay rather than the Force users and lightsabers combat. It was set to release in Fall 2013 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows. Star Wars 1313 has subsequently been cancelled by LucasArts following its purchase by Disney.
On May 6 2013, Disney revealed that EA has the rights to produce Star Wars games for consoles and PC, while Disney will handle the games for other platforms, such as smartphones, tablets and browsers. The EA fee companies who will be responsible for creating games for the franchise will be DICE, BioWare and Visceral Games.
Read more about this topic: Star Wars Computer And Video Games
Famous quotes containing the words modern, era and/or games:
“Much of modern art is devoted to lowering the threshold of what is terrible. By getting us used to what, formerly, we could not bear to see or hear, because it was too shocking, painful, or embarrassing, art changes morals.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“I call her old. She has one family
Whose claim is good to being settled here
Before the era of colonization,
And before that of exploration even.
John Smith remarked them as he coasted by....”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“In the past, it seemed to make sense for a sportswriter on sabbatical from the playpen to attend the quadrennial hawgkilling when Presidential candidates are chosen, to observe and report upon politicians at play. After all, national conventions are games of a sort, and sports offers few spectacles richer in low comedy.”
—Walter Wellesley (Red)