"Shadows of the Empire": Game and Music CD Quiz

Answer: Hoth

The first mission is the Battle of Hoth in which you fly a Snowspeeder and destroy designated targets to buy enough time for the transports to escape. The second mission is in Echo Base, where you have to fight your way through a horde of Imperials to your ship. The third mission takes place in the Hoth asteroid belt, where you have to fight off TIE Fighters And Bombers until you're clear.

"Shadows of the Empire", by Steve Perry, was published in May, 1996. In the same year, a soundtrack was made for it (although the soundtrack was released a month before the book). Finally, in early December (still 1996), "Shadows of the Empire" the video game was released for the N64.

Answer: No

The music on the soundtrack was written and conducted by Joel McNeely (not John Williams), and performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. John Williams, though, still maintains a large presence in the video game's score.

Answer: Dash Rendar

You play through all ten missions as the smuggler friend of Han's, Dash Rendar. Although not in the book itself, Dash does explain that he fought in the Battle of Hoth, and that he went to Ord Mantell. He supposedly fried IG-88, although in "Tales of the Bounty Hunters", it says there were only four IG-88 droids, and it explained how each one was destroyed.

Answer: No

The game differs from the book at this point in the story. In the book, Luke calls in a favor from Rogue Squadron to act as a destraction while Lando, Leia, and Chewbacca follow Dash down to Gall to find Han. Both parties face peril, and the "Battle of Gall" depicts that mood very well.

However, in the game, Dash travels solo to Gall to rescue Han himself instead of just leading in his friends and letting them do the dirty work. As Dash travels along the canyons and through the base at Gall, a slightly more ominous track can be heard.

Answer: Yes

This is a fun mission. You don't have a blaster of any kind and you have to destroy every enemy before a single one gets to Luke at Ben's house. You travel through Mos Eisley, then a portion of the Dune Sea, and finally into Beggar's Canyon. You have to knock your enemies into buildings or the rock walls of the canyon to destroy them.

Only a portion on the "Beggar's Canyon Chase" can be heard, and it loops itself over and over until you complete the mission, but it is there.

Answer: No

The Southern Underground is a portion of Coruscant that Leia and Chewbacca went to in their quest to seek out Xixor. It's an eery piece that might give someone the impression that it is dark, dank, and the threat of an attack in omnipresent.

Joel McNeely said "The piece is meant to convey the quirky environment in which Leia and Chewbacca find themselves."

Answer: No

As you must be wondering, now, "Where do we ever hear Joel McNeely's score in the game?" Well, Joel's CD was made for the book and for scenes that you don't get to see in the game (who could make a mission out of something like wandering the murky depths of Coruscant where nothing happens anyway?)

Answer: Into the Sewers

"Into the Sewers" is a slow a ugly song giving the impression of a dank and rotten place laden with hidden traps and other threats (dianogas, for example, hide under the murky water). It's meant to make you fearful and cautious, and inadvertently, may make you jumpy whenever an enemy jumps out at you (it did to me the first time I played that mission).

Answer: Xixor's Theme

You may have thought that a song titled "The Destruction of Xixor's Palace" might have been more appropriate, as you are setting bombs to topple his tower. But no, instead, it plays the final portion (looped) on Xixor's Theme, which is threatening, but upbeat, unlike the previous mission.

This a long mission, so they're doing you a favor by playing this song, so you subconsciously move faster, or else you might end up spending half a day just trying to die, which, in turn, may get you killed.

Answer: The Destruction of Xixor's Palace

This is one of my favorite songs in the game. It's fast and really conveys that sense of a struggle happening between the massive factions and the Rebels' small squadron of starfigters and the Outrider (Dash Rendar's ship). This is where the game differs from the book more drastically.

In the book, Vader counted down, giving Xixor time to surrender, but Xixor refused and Vader ripped his Skyhook to pieces, whereas in the game, Dash flies into the Skyhook and blows up the power core.