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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.

One of the best of all time

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: April 11, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Shadows of The Empire came out back when the N64 just came out. It was the first great game that I played for the Nintendo 64. I had Mario 64 and MarioKart 64 and they're good games, but this one was different than them in a good way. I've always been a major Star Wars fan and at times in this game, I actually felt like I was a part of the Empire Strikes Back movie. This game couldn't have been much better, and it's still a lot of fun to play. It has great graphics, a storyline between each level, and it is a lot of fun. When I first played some of the levels, such as the corridor shooting level with all the Storm Troopers, the one where you have to ride the Phantom Menace like bike and kill all your opponents, and the level where you're at the bottom of a canyon and you have to make your way to the top by means of flying with your jetpack while shooting your enemies on your way, I thought it was the most awesome game I had ever played at the time. I was in awe when I first saw these levels because they were the first I've ever seen of that calibur and some of the most awesome effects ever put into a game. This game might not get credit for it, but it revolutionized certain aspects of action/adventure games. There are not many games where you can have corridor shooting, action/adventure, swimming, and flying in outer space all in the same game.

As much as I hate to say it, this game isn't perfect. The control is difficult during some of the levels and the camera angles are not the best. But other than that, this game is almost flawless. It's a great game to get whether you're a Star Wars fan or not.

Groundbreaking Star Wars game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: September 13, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Shadows of the Empire was my first game when I bought the N64. At the time, it was the software that definately showed off what the N64 hardware could do the most. It was also the very first Star Wars game to have a realistic level devoted to the famous Hoth scene from Empire Strikes Back. Allowing you to participate in the backstory of this great film, the game is filled with a variety of different gamestyles (from 3rd person adventure, to racing through the streets of mos Eisley, to blasting enemy ships in space) As part of the Shadows of the Empire multimedia blitz (the story continued in both novel, comic and CD soundtrack form) the game also stands as Star Wars continuity and is an integral part to the Expanded Universe. A classic game, definately pick it up if you see it.

Hooked On Lucas !

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: December 13, 1999
Author: Amazon User

This game is without a doubt, one of the best games I've ever played,(of any kind). The graphics are great and the adventure is very thrilling. The more you play the game,the more skilled (hopefully),you become. I would like to see the staff at Lucas Arts come out with a Shadows Of The Empire II. They would be "hard pressed" to top this one, but if we're lucky they would be up for the challenge! Rogue Squadron is also a great game.

Classic game that requires a lot of skill to beat

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: July 19, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is one of my favorite games of all time, it stands next to Conker: Live and Reloaded, Mario Kart 64, and San Andreas. And for its time, it was groundbreaking. When I was about 8 or 9, I went to my local market to rent a game, I then saw this, I said "This looks cool, I'll give it a try". It met my expectations, and then shattered them. I really cant explain how astonishing this game was and still is today. Now I'm 15, and I still love playing this game, it is one that will stand the test of time.
Right, this game can be either the easiest thing you've ever done, or a hellish nightmare. It all depends on the difficulty. On easy the enemies are weak and your vehicles are practically invincible. On medium the enemies are more numerous, but still you take a while to kill. On hard enemies are tough, and you arent that great. On Jedi enemies are weak, but so are you, you can die very fast if you're not careful.
Battle of Hoth: 9/10 - This is great to start, but gets boring after a while. I still really like killing the AT-ST's though.
Escape from Echo Base: 9/10 - On jedi this levels a b**ch! But its very fun to see those damn snowtroopers fall into oblivion!
Asteroid Belt: 10/10 - Now we're talkin! Its really fun blasting the TIE fighters and bombers into space dust!
Ord Mantell Junkyard: 10/10 - This whole level takes place on hover trains (except the boss) and its very fun to kill enemies on moving vehicles.
Gall Spaceport: 7.5/10 - This level carries on for way too long, but the fight with Boba Fett rocks!
Mos Eisley and Beggars Canyon: 10/10 - Yes, finally star wars gets into racing. Kill the swoop jockies before they reach Luke, but dont crash!
Imperial Freighter Suprosa: 10/10 - Fun level thats swarming with stormtroopers. The final boss is pretty long and monotonous though.
Sewers of Imperial City: 10/10 - Fun, but is hard as hell on Jedi. You fight huge spider-like creatures called dianogas here.
Xizors Palace: 10/10 - The hardest level in the game, but really fun and the Gladiator Droid is very tough.
Skyhook Battle: 100000/10 - By far the BEST DAMN LEVEL in the entire game, and star wars series even! You get to fight Xizors fighters which are very tough, and also destroy an enormous sopace skyhook too!
In conclusion there are minor flaws here and if you like Star Wars, first person shooters and adventure games then buy this! NOW!

The Best Game in History

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: January 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Star Wars, Shadows of the Empire, is the best action game in the history of gaming! The levels are extremely challenging, engaging, and action packed!

Honestly, if you enhanced the graphics to new standards, this game would be the best game on the market right now!

If you love Star Wars, intense fighting, puzzle solving, and difficult gameplay, you will love this game! I beat it around 6 times! I never replay games that many times, so that is saying a lot.

Buy this, now.

A great game-even if it isn't for a Star Wars fan!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: April 10, 2003
Author: Amazon User

As much as I like the Star War films, this game is in the same league. You seem to go through every aspect of Star Wars: fighting in Space, fighting on ground, suspense, pod racing, I could go on and on. Although the camera angles aren't the best, you can choose from four, giving you at least an understanding of what is going on to your top, bottom, left, and right. The graphics are good, and about the best you'll get for when it came out, and for a cartridge. My favorite level was "Gail Spaceport," where you get your jetpack. I wish that this was divided more; for instance, I like the ending of Gail Spaceport, but I don't want to have to play half and hour to get to it, right? Oh, well, this game is definately worth your money. As superior systems come out in repects with space, durability, picture, levels, and sound (Such as Playstation 2, Xbox, and Game Cube), I keep onto my Nintendo 64. Why? Games like this. Thank you for taking the time to read my review and feel free to leave me a helpful/not helpful feedback. God Bless America!

Under-rated Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: May 25, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I've owned every other Star Wars game on the 64, and without a doubt, nothing surpasses Rogue Squadron. But Shadows Of The Empire is not to be over looked.

I had my doubts about this game. I started off playing Rogue Squadron, then Naboo, and Racer, both Racer and Naboo lost their reply value after a week for me, but RS is one I will always go back to now and then... So I thought I might give Shadows Of The Empire a go. I had low expectations for it, but actually comparing it to RS is useless because this version is completely different to RS and BFN! It surprised me when I got to the 2nd stage and it had gone Golden eye style! You run around as a guy named Dash, you start with a laser, but you can find missiles, proton thingies, stun guns and my favourite that just blows half the room away, I dunno what it was called but it's great...oh, and a flame thrower!!! Would have been nice if the enemies caught fire or something, instead of act like the where shot, but it's still cool.

Half the game is on foot in a Goldeneye/Duke Nukem kind of way. You open doors, collect things, can fly around with a jet pack, and have to do things to get to certain area first before moving on the level and things like that. The rest of the game is flying and shooting in your ships.

Level one is the battle of Hoth, and where this games story begins. It is almost like the Battle Of Hoth in RS on one of the bonus missions. The graphics aren't RS, but that didn't matter. You gun down the probe droids, go after the Chicken Walkers, and then trip the Walkers. Then the story begins, what's happening is this game starts from Empire Strikes Back (the movie) and after the Battle Of Hoth, it's following the story of another Rebellion, Dash. And what it leads to is the events that have happened in between Empire Strikes Back & Return Of The Jedi.

From the movies, you only see the end of Empire as they go looking for Han, then the next movies starts with his rescue. Well this game is what happened in between then.

The graphics are decent, there not RS but it's still fun. I know it's the original, but it felt good to actually get out of the crafts and vehicles and do some running around for a change.

Only 3 negative things I have to say.
1) You kill Boba Fett in this, so that makes no continuity sense.
2) No multiplayer :( would've made a great 2 or more layer game I reckon.
3) it would have been nice to be able to do a custom edit to the controls, and be able to choose what button you want to do what with. Because of the 100's of other shoot' em up games; every time I went to shoot I was pressing the Z button by mistake. There's no programmed control setting to use the Z button to fire. Which makes no sense, because the Z button is known as the trigger button, but all it does in this game is either view, or run left, depending on what control setting you have set.

So, basically, the graphics aren't superb, it was one of the 1st games for the 64, and you can see the many advancements they made for RS. But this game is still good. SOFE & RS are 2 completely different games. If you love RS or BFN, and you haven't played this one 'cause you think it is inferior, then think again. It holds its own and stands up still. There is even a level on speeder bikes! Reminded me a bit of Racer, but not quite the same; it's hard to go fast and stay in control in this. There aren't any ships to choose in mission like RS, basically you start with the Snow Speeder, go onto Dash's ship that is much like the Falcon. And apparently there's a code to fly an X wing in the last level, and cheats to play as the AT-ST, but I didn't try them.

I found it tougher then you'd think to stay alive, so I recommend you enter the Debug code.

What you do is start a new game in a fresh slot, (erase if you none free) then enter your name as ".Wampa..Stompa" and note the case sensitive, and the . before and in the middle of the words. There is a space at the start, and 2 between Stompa. It is case sensitive, so make sure you press the L button to change from upper case to lower case. Then ok it all and start the game. Press pause as soon as the level starts, and on the pause menu, hold down all the c buttons, the L, R, & Z buttons and left on the arrow pad (hold them all at once together. Then while holding them down, move the control stick to the left for about 5 seconds, you will hear a noise. Then hold it right for 5 seconds. Then left, then right, then left for the same time. And you should get pink writing come up.
(TIP: the way I did it was used my finger to hold the button, then used my lips to hold the stick left and right)
That pink writing you can toggle through by press L or R, and then Start to enable it. You basically just need the invincibility and all weapons. Maybe the level skip or teleport (to another location of the level your on). Have fun with it. Each time you want to use it again, hold all the buttons down again (all C's, L, R, Z, left) and then tap the analog to the left and the menu will display again whenever you want it.

May the Schwartz be with you.

Better than it's given credit for

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: March 10, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Shadows of the Empire was one of those Star Wars games that had a few strikes against it before it was ever released. First it was a game based off a book and not a movie, so right away the casual fan was a little lost. Second, although you come in contact with characters from the movies, you play as an original one from the book. So It didn't suprise me when the game was released that people treated it a little too harshley.

So is the game as bad as they say? No. True the game isn't perfect, but it is still a pretty fun game. I found the control scheme easy to use and the graphics were some of the best on the N64 at the time. Also it featured both on foot missions and flight sim-styled combat missions. Both gave you the option of playing in a first or third person perspective. Now while a majority of the missions were on foot, the game really shined during the flight levels. The final level was a fast paced space battle that included dozens of ships on screen at once, all well rendered with a minimum amount of slowdown.

If I had to gripe about anything in this game I'd say that the on foot missions get a little boring. You'll spend alot of time going back and forth solving puzzles that only slow the game down. On the plus side you do get to fight one of the most popular villians from the films, Boba Fett, in an all out shoot out includind dueling jet pack action.

So if you're a Star wars fan and own an N64 but never played this game, you might be suprised how fun it is!

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