Video Games of the "Star Wars" Legends Era [3] Quiz

Answer: Masters of the Teras Kasi (1997)

"Masters of the Teräs Käsi" was released only on the PlayStation, and was one of the worst received "Star Wars" games ever created. It was billed as a fighting game, similar to "Street Fighter" and "Mortal Kombat," but was not polished. Fighting games are fast-paced and very precise, so this poorly-tuned game did not match up well with other contemporary fighting games.

The term "Teräs Käsi" as a term for a particular type of martial art in the "Star Wars" universe would occasionally come up in other media.

Answer: Shadows of the Empire (1996)

"Shadows of the Empire", released on N64 and PC, was a part of the first major "Star Wars" multimedia project. There was a novel, a comic, a game, a soundtrack, action figures, and more.

The story linked "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi", with the heroes tracking down Han Solo and the Empire building the second Death Star. The novel even had Bothan spies help uncover plans for the second Death Star and then get murdered, explaining Mon Mothma's line in "Return of the Jedi". The video game let players play as Dash Rendar, who was basically a stand-in for the Han Solo character while the real Han was in carbonite.

Answer: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (2003)

"Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy" was released on PC, Mac, and Xbox. It was the last entry in the "Dark Forces"/"Jedi Knight" series. Players took control of a new character, Jaden Korr, who started the game with a lightsaber. Players could choose Jaden's species, gender, lightsaber hilt, and lightsaber colour.

The game was less linear than previous installments, with Jaden able to tackle self-contained missions in any order between major plot points. Like previous titles, players could pursue either a Light Side or Dark Side ending, though the Light Side ending was considered canon. Two novels, "Crosscurrent" and "Riptide," were released in 2011 featuring Jaden Korr as the protagonist.

In these novels, Jaden was a human male.

Answer: Dark Forces (1995)

"Dark Forces" was released on DOS, Mac, and PlayStation. Before the genre was called "first-person shooter," games like this were called "Doom clones." "Dark Forces" was a product of its time, with maze-line levels and puzzle solving. One improvement over "Doom" was the player's ability to look up and down. "Dark Forces" started with Kyle Katarn finding the plans for the first Death Star, and then working to stop the Empire's Dark Forces project, in which the Empire was creating battle droids that were much more lethal than Stormtroopers. Dark Troopers were featured in other games and media, and even made their way back into the canon in Disney's "Mandalorian" television show in 2020.

Answer: Episode I: Racer (1999)

"Episode I: Racer" was released on N64, PC, Mac, Dreamcast. A top-down version was released for GameBoy Color.

"The Phantom Menace" may be regarded as a weaker "Star Wars" film, but this game was very well received. When George Lucas started working on the prequel trilogy, he was excited to use powerful new computers to bring his vision to life. One of his first instincts was to do a race (from the special features interviews on "The Phantom Menace" DVD), and the story was written to incorporate one. It was something he felt he could not have done back in the 1980s (the closest being the speeder bike chase in "Return of the Jedi").

The pod race was indeed exciting in the film, so making a high-speed racing game was a natural fit. Players got to pilot all the different pods from the movie on racetracks across the galaxy.

Answer: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader (2001)

"Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader" was an exclusive launch title for the Nintendo GameCube, showing off the graphics capabilities of the new hardware compared to "Rogue Squadron" on the N64. "Rogue Leader" was very well received. Like its predecessor, players flew starfighters as Luke Skywalker in an arcade flight sim.

This game featured more battles from the movies than the previous installment, starting with the Battle of Yavin from "A New Hope", and ending with the Battle of Endor from "Return of the Jedi".

Answer: The Old Republic (2011)

The "Knights of the Old Republic" games were two of the highest-rated "Star Wars" games ever released. Fans were wondering for a long time if a third installment was in the works. Instead of a new single-player game, Bioware created "The Old Republic" for PC, a massively multiplayer online game set 300 years after the first game (long enough after the events of the first game to have a completely new story, but still thousands of years before the movies). Bioware was known for their strong narratives, which they felt were lacking in the MMO field.

They set out to make the first MMO with a compelling story. They wrote eight separate stories, one for each of the playable classes. "The Old Republic" was one of the few Legends properties to receive regular updates after Disney reset the "Star Wars" canon.

Answer: Rebellion/Supremacy (1998)

"Rebellion" ("Supremacy" in the UK) was a grand strategy game released on PC. Players took control of the Empire or the Rebel Alliance to coordinate their efforts across the galaxy. Players would build up infrastructure on planets, build fleets, and send out diplomats and spies. If two opposing fleets ever met each other, a simple real-time combat game was played (or could be auto-resolved if players did not want to bother).

A game with a similar premise, "Empire at War", was released in 2006.

Answer: X-wing vs TIE Fighter (1997)

"X-wing vs TIE Fighter" for the PC was the third installment in the "X-wing" series. The first two games were both single-player. This game focused on multiplayer, with loosely connected missions that could be played (and replayed) in any order.

The design team had to rework the old engine to make this game. In the previous games, the engine worked by keeping the player stationary and moving everything else around them when they moved or turned. This would not work with multiple player-controlled starships.

The other problem the development team ran into was making sure all players saw the same thing. Individual games would send player inputs to a server, and the server would update everyone. The team managed to make this work on a LAN, but ran into problems using the actual internet. The problem ended up being the internet in 1997 (which was mostly dial-up). It was just too unreliable to play most real-time games.

Answer: Jedi Starfighter (2002)

"Jedi Starfighter" was the sequel to "Starfighter", featuring the new Delta-7 Aethersprite that Obi-wan flew in "Attack of the Clones". It was released on Xbox and PS2 two months before the film, and took place just before the events of the film. "Jedi Starfighter" had two playable characters: Adi Gallia (Jedi Master from the movies) and the pirate Nym (returning from the previous game). Nym's ship was strong and loaded with lots of ordinance and gadgets. Adi Gallia flew the faster, simpler interceptor, but could use the Force during missions.