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An Unbalanced Game

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: June 30, 2002
Author: Amazon User

For the past few months I'd been picking up old N64 games that I didn't get a chance to purchase during their initial release, and when I saw Shadows of the Empire I immediately grabbed it, being the big Star Wars fan that I am.

Shadows was one of the launch games for the N64, and while it might have been a decent game in its day, maybe even a good game (I can't, however, believe it was ever considered a great game), it hasn't aged well at all. To compare, I also recently grabbed Super Mario 64, the original launch game, and still found plenty of charm left in that old cartridge.

The graphics are a mixed bag. Our hero, Dash, is rendered rather nicely, with more polygons than one might expect. The levels, however, have ugly textures that will remind the player of early pseudo 3-D games like DOOM and Dark Forces. Hardly the graphical quality the N64 is capable of. Enemies such as the Stormtroopers and mercenaries are fuzzy with blurred details. However, the graphics on the flying missions and the speeder bike level are exceptional. With regards to sound, John Williams score has never failed before, and fortunately, the music combined with classic Star Wars sound effects is just what Star Wars fans want.

Where the game really fails is the gameplay. Shadows tries to include many different modes of play, and not all of them work. The snow speeder level is a classic, as it inspired the game Rogue Squadron; the speeder bike chase is rather cool, as is the fight with Boba Fett. However, in other areas of the game, your craft is stationary and all you are required to do is shoot. It's not much different from the Super Nintendo Star Wars games, and the simplistic gameplay can only entertain for so long. Then there is the first-person levels, which unfortunately make up the bulk of the game. Though the game has multiple view modes, Dash is easiest to control in the first-person mode, but the player won't even see the tip of Dash's gun, as is customary with all shooters. There is no target reticle, making aiming irratic. The levels are too big and empty, and are too straightforward. It's a simple matter to walk from point A to point B, with few surprises. You'll find yourself rushing through most of the game to get to the better levels, but unfortunately they're few and far in between.

If you're a Star Wars fan, there's still enough here to warrant a purchase, but mostly it'll be for a piece of N64 Star Wars history. While I might have had different feelings about this game had I bought it at launch, I can't imagine feelings much more impressed by it. Shadows of the Empire is the most disappointing of all the N64 Star Wars games.

What the!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: April 08, 2000
Author: Amazon User

The flying levels are great and the Mos Eisley speeder bike level rocks, but overall the control and graphics are bad. The afore mentioned levels have good graphics and the different weapons are cool, but still the weak controls, awful cut scenes and un-involving story line make this have little replay value. But some of those flying levels are great but as a shooter its dull. Get Rogue Squadron for the flying, Pod Racer for the speederbike stuff and Dark Forces 2 for a great shooter.

Shadows of the Empire Review

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 06, 2000
Author: Amazon User

The game has it's good parts, including the amazing first level and the cool bosses (Boba Fett and AT-STs), but some levels become long and repetitive, giving it a low replay value. Overall, it is an average game, with a little bit of everything in it. You can swim, fly, shoot, and pilot spaceships all in one game. But still, if you are a hard-core Star Wars fan, you will probably be disappointed with this failed attemt at a fun game.

good game........ but time consuming

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: December 08, 1999
Author: Amazon User

I think that Shadows of the Empire is a great game, but it's very time consuming. If you have a lot of time and you like star wars, i think that this is the game for you.

good game but no Multi - player Mode

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: July 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

StarWars shadowsoftheEmpire is agoodgame and is very ongoing at some points but there is no Multi-playermode and the game is hard even in easy.The first threeLevels if you choose Easy are simple but it gets Little hard on LeveL4 and really hard at the end ofit the bosse is very hard but if you know the two items you need to beat him you won't have a problem or if you beat him by chance the games allows you to choose a diffculty LeveL and a name for your file.Although you can't swicth characters or use a lightsaber you get to pilot a snowspeeder and a ship called theoutrider which looks likes the millenumFalcon. you go to places like Hoth Tatoonie and other places Like ordMantell and GaLLspaceport. other than no Multi-playermode or characterswich this game is fun and might enjoy you.

This'll last a while...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: July 26, 2000
Author: Amazon User

If you buy this, it'll take a while to completely finish this game. The game itself is a good idea, it's a on-foot shooter and a space shooter. Unfortunatley, the graphics and movement don't exactly sparkle. I laugh at the way Dash jumps! They could've done a little more work on the graphics. The music perfectly suits a star wars game, and the sound effects are realistic. The envirorments were well thought out. I swear, I've never been in the inside of a space station going for the core. Well, I'll give a little bit of the story away. You're Dash, one of Han Solo's mercenary buddies, as well as a racing rival. You were hired by the rebelillion to take a position in rouge squardron. After the hoth fight, it centers around Dash, a forgotten character in the sw series. Shadows of the Empire takes place in the middle of Empire SB and ROTJ. They could've made a movie out of it, but ol' Georgie wanted it to be a trilogy. Like said in the title this'll last a while. Beat it in all dificultly levels, look for codes, collect all the challenge points. Warning: This gets old. You're on your own for buying decisions. I have a well balanced opinion about it. Rent it, see what you think, then decide.

Good for first generation

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 15, 2000
Author: Amazon User

If you grew up watching Mark Hamil, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher, this game will be a bit of a disappointment to because you're Dash Rendar from the not as popular book Shadows of the Empire. Not as many people are familiar with this character as nintendo may have thought. Despite a slight let down in the game's premise, the game itself is pretty fun. Try it out, but you should probably rent it before buying it.

Very depressing. Great for gloomy, rainy afternoons.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: July 06, 2001
Author: Amazon User

THIS GAME IS VERY DARK. Turn up the brigness on your tv before you play it. Never play if you're easily depressed:-( Ranges from very easy to very impossible. I don't even know if it's worth buying unless you're a collector. You could probably find it for very little because it's a Player's Choice awarded game.

This was an AWESOME game, made when N64 was just a prototype

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 14 / 14
Date: November 23, 1999
Author: Amazon User

Any fan of the Star Wars Series will love this game. True, it's not quite as thrilling as Rogue Squadron, but at least Shadows of the Empire allows for difficulty selections, from EASY to JEDI (Jedi levels are impossibly tough, just for the record). Also true, there ARE still-photo sequences in between levels with text for the characters' speech, but understand this, this game was designed by LucasArts WAY before the N64 went into full production. The gang at LucasArts were rushed to make deadlines, so they cut a few corners. Besides, how can programmers realize a system's full potential on their first programming attempt? The graphics, music and stormtrooper cries of pain & girly-girl screams when they fall off of steep ledges alone make up for the in-between sequences.With that in mind, ignore the critics who slam Shadows of the Empire. Gameplay takes a bit of getting used to, but you'll get the hang of it within 5 minutes. All in all, Shadoows of the Empire is an AWESOME game & if you love Star Wars, you MUST buy it. You'll be glad you did.

Childhood Game-Nostalgia

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: April 14, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I recently went crazy and bought an N64 system, an expansion pak, a memory card, and 13 games. Thing was, it all happened in less than 2 days and it happened cause the sweet memories I had when I was a child. I bought the N64 mainly for the game Zelda: Ocarina of Time (by the way if you've never played it, by all cost and means, do so). However, this game was also part of that sweet memory which I'm trying to relive again.

This game, from my experience a long time ago, was fun. The only minor problem is sometimes the lack of directions, camera angle can be changed but sometimes even with the change you don't exactly get just what you want still, and controlling is a little hard sometimes so jumping from one spot to another usually ends up in falling to your doom, but again not if you get use to it. Same for walking on ledges.

You start out with a small spaceship (don't know the names that well not much of a star wars fan) and you use your laser guns to kill the small two legged robots (at-st?) and these ropes to entangle and destroy the big ones. Than for the next two levels or so are first person shooters.

The thing about this game is that soon it gets boring so what you do is be creative in killing your enemies. For example: Level 2 or something, where you meet these hairy beasts haha, wow, anyways what I do is, they are locked in this room with some guys. So what I do is run in, save up my guns, and run around and open the cages and let them handle those guys. Afterwards you let the two beasts fight each other to save ammo. Trick is to not let them see you and don't disturb them while they are fighting each other. And in the first level I love killing the smaller robots with my own ship. Suicidal style.

This game is nice still. I think its quite replayable. It was hard for me to play it then cause I didn't have a memory card and each time I turned the game off I got to start in the beginning of that level again. I never beated the train level.
You really can't go wrong with this game. Just don't buy it for more than $15. I bought one that worked great for $7.50. Shop around. Nice day to everyone.

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