Top 10 Best Star Wars Video Games

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Top 10 Best Star Wars Video Games 

10: Tie Fighter

Released in 1994 Tie Fighter is the only game on this list that I really did not play all that much, somewhat before my time I was not one of the dedicated devotees of this game however it deserves a place on this list as one of the first and best Star Wars games of the nineties and early two thousands. Tie Fighter paved the way for solid storytelling and quality gameplay in the Star Wars universe and showed that games bearing the Star Wars logo were not just cheap cash-ins but could be solid and genre defining experiences. In many ways Tie Fighter set the standard for a whole series of Star Wars themed space combat games including one that I did play a lot of, Jedi Starfighter. Eventually space combat would wind up getting folded into larger gaming experiences in the Battlefront series and it has been a long time since we have seen a dedicated dogfighting Star Wars game and that is a real shame. Space combat is easily one of the most popular features of the Battlefront games and with such enthusiasm it is a real shame that Lucasfilm has left the genre of aerial combat simulators dormant for so long, in fact flight sim and aerial combat games have been a real scarcity of late and it would be fantastic if Star Wars could pave the way for a revival of the genre with a new Tie Fighter or Rogue Squadron game.


9: The Force Unleashed

The Force Unleashed was a game that saw phenomenal and wildly unexpected success when it released in 2008. So successful was the game that it kicked off a whole program at LucasArts that was supposed to include games, toys, books and all kinds of merchandise. Yet for some inexplicable reason the whole thing was effectively self-immolated when a sequel was rushed out with a mere nine months of development. Although there were some very solid improvements in the sequel the game was really half or even a third of the length that it should have been and sorely lacking in content and wound up a financial failure, prematurely ending the Force Unleashed franchise before it could really get off the ground. Nevertheless The Force Unleashed was a real standout of its day, the combat in the game was fluid and satisfying, Starkiller was a likable and interesting protagonist who went through a surprisingly well crafted arc through the story of the game, starting out as the beaten down personal assassin of Darth Vader and eventually learning to break free of Vader's control, take control of his destiny and help protect the fledgling Rebellion against the Empire. Unlike in past Star Wars games Starkiller was a force wrecking ball, he was not merely throwing rocks or picking up lone stormtroopers he was pulling Star Destroyers out of the sky. Never before had fans seen the force ramped up to such a degree and it was really fun and engaging to let loose with everything Starkiller had against a huge variety of doomed enemies. The boss battles against other force users were a particular standout of the game and there were quite a few. Starkiller winds up crossing Lightsabers with Rahm Kota, Kazdan Paratus, Shaak Ti, Maris Brood and Vader himself. Each fight forces the player to draw from a variety of force powers and lightsaber attacks as well as mixing in cinematic quick-time events periodically and at the end of each fight. Level design was hugely varied with players jumping from the clean interiors of a Tie Fighter factory to the jungles of Felucia and the vast garbage dump of Raxus Prime.

One of the most memorable features of The Force Unleashed were the "what if" bonus levels where dark side Starkiller was set to fight through Tatooine and Hoth to hunt down Luke Skywalker and the rebels. Fighting against Luke Skywalker and Boba Fett as a twisted and monstrous version of Starkiller were absolutely fantastic gaming experiences and yet another reason that the Force Unleashed remains one of the most memorable and well liked Star Wars games ever produced.

8: Republic Commando

Republic Commando oh where oh where to begin with you? Oh I know, how about the fact that the game centers around playing as elite Clone Commandoes equipped with wrist blades and an electric visor cleaner to wipe the blood and gore from your helmet display as you play? Yea lets start there. Republic Commando is easily one of the most unusual games ever produced under the Star Wars banner. Gritty and brutal, even terrifying at times, Republic Commando tells a story about soldiers fighting a war, but instead of the brutal sprawling battles of Battlefront the clone commandoes go on small scale but high risk missions that require the skills of elite soldiers to complete. There are no lightsaber slinging Jedi around to save the day, no propaganda vids, just four battle-hardened soldiers grinding their way through a wide variety of nasty, mean and deadly enemies to accomplish vital missions against impossible odds. The player takes command of a four man team of Republic Commandoes who can be given a wide array of commands, can stack up to breach doors, be ordered to take cover or position themselves as sniper cover. The commando primary weapon can be swapped between different firing modes to suit changing battlefield conditions and can be supplemented by picking up a variety of enemy weapons and turning against their former owners. The clones are likable and relatable and each has their own personality and style. Through the campaign the player really gets to know the team and come to like them and grow concerned when they are put in danger. The game even ends on a cliff-hanger where one of the team members has gone missing and the squad wants to rescue him but is ordered not to. I wound up picking up Republic Commando cheap to play on a friends Xbox and was really surprised when the story and the characters got me invested in the game. The AI was great, the settings memorable, the weapons satisfying and the combat challenging. Republic Commando really stands as one of the more under-appreciated gems within the broader Star Wars franchise and even today is well worth picking up and playing.

7: Empire at War

I must admit when this game first came out in 2006 I really thought it was going to be a cheap Age of Empires clone, probably some fun but ultimately not that memorable. Boy was I wrong. Sure the ground combat sections are not all that remarkable, good but not great. Yet it is the space combat that really, really makes this game stand out. Players are given command of huge fleets of ships from the Rebellion or the Empire and in a later expansion the Black Sun. The criminal underworld fleet remains to this day my favorite of the three with some of the most interesting and unique ships of the three. In addition to a campaign players can engage in a galactic conquest mode, raising armies and dispatching them across a galaxy map to capture planets, destroy space stations and replace them with your own defensive installations. The satisfaction of repelling an enemy fleet using nothing but your space station and the ships it can call in as reinforcements is still one of the most satisfying and challenging gaming experiences I have ever had. Players are even able to target specific systems and weapons on enemy ships. Irritated that the enemy cruisers keep outrunning you? Target their engines. Outgunned? Take out a few weapon systems first. Struggling to deal with overwhelming fighter and bomber attacks? Blow up some hangars. A good enough player can pick apart the enemy fleet with surgical precision, targeting those elements of the enemy that are their greatest strength first and leaving them crippled and powerless to stop you as you mop them up at your leisure. Star Wars strategy games have been a real rarity but I would love to see a modern rendition of Empire at War.

6: Jedi Knight 2 Jedi Outcast

Kyle Katarn stands as one of the more popular game protagonists within the Star Wars franchise for a reason. From his first appearance in Dark Forces to his eventual rise as a lightsaber wielding Jedi in Jedi Knight the gruff and reluctant hero Kyle was a relatable and well developed character that players could really get invested into. His struggles felt sincere, his enemies felt dangerous and his achievements felt well earned. Though really showing their age all of Kyle Katarn's games are well worth the effort to play if you can bring yourself to do so but the real height of the series is Jedi Knigth 2: Jedi Outcast. Here Kyle is at the height of his powers and the mechanics of the series are running at their best. Platforming, lightsaber combat, puzzle solving, interesting level-design, engaging enemy variety and combat difficulty there are few Star Wars games that are as well put together as Jedi Knight 2. Nothing feels particularly unwelcome or poorly designed, the game is generally free of bugs or glitches, everything runs smooth and feels great to play. The story is one of the best ever crafted across all Star Wars games and holds up even today.

5: Battlefront 2

Don't get me wrong, the original Star Wars Battlefront was great, but the sequel released in 2005 took everything great about Battlefront and made it even better, plus adding a ton of awesome new content. I am also not in any way referring to the loot box filled abomination that was EA's Battlefront 2 released in 2017. Despite being fifteen years old the original Battlefront 2 still has vastly more content, more characters, game modes and features than the 2017 game and I find that simply astounding. Awesome ground battles across the Clone Wars and Galactic Civil War, epic space battles, a huge number of playable hero characters, a galactic conquest mode, lots and lots of bots, Battlefront 2 is and was amazing to play. Unlike the modern version the battles in Battlefront were larger and more frenetic, thanks in large part to the inclusion of bots that help fill out the maps with more combatants and give players something to shoot at other than each other. Heroes were more balanced and could not be broken through the use of Star Cards. Vehicles spawned in at set locations and could be crewed by multiple players. Space combat allowed players to defend their ships on foot, man defensive weapons, jump into fighters or bombers and dogfight or cripple the enemy fleet from space or fly into enemy hangers and destroy critical systems from the inside. All of this was brought together in a galactic conquest mode where up to four players could work together to build their forces, capture planets and slowly but steadily conquer the galaxy. To this day I shudder at the memory of the brutal fighting to clear the access corridors on the Polis Massa Medical Facility map. Oh my goodness those were the days, and good luck if an enemy Destroyer droid set up in those narrow hallways, shifting that thing was hugely difficult. The game even offered players the ability to engage with heroes against other heroes on the Tatooine map and these were not the janky, poorly animated heroes from the 2017 game these characters were fast, slick and deadly. Jedi could zoom along with force speed, moving across the map at lightning speed, jumping huge distances and attacking from any angle. So often I would wind up speeding past other saber wielders like some sci-fi knightly joust, each of us passing within a hairs breadth of each other, slashing as we went. One character would die and the other would move on looking for another target, sometimes both would drop. Lightsaber combat was brutal and quick, with one player or the only requiring a few strikes to down.



Yet the most gripping thing in Battlefront 2 was the campaign. Centered around the experiences of the 501st Legion, later known as Vader's Fist. The campaign followed the 501st through the Clone Wars, the execution of Order 66 and the Galactic Civil War culminating on Endor. So many times throughout that campaign, narrated by the ever-awesome Temuera Morrison, I found myself absolutely engaged by what was going on and the narrative around it. The battle for Felucia was brutal, with visibility at a minimum, hostile wild-life constantly getting in the way and an endless horde of battle-droids to blast through and the concluding cut-scene talking about Ayla Secura really got me in the feels man. But nothing, nothing compares to attacking the Jedi Temple as part of Order 66. Man that whole battle was a whirl of conflicting emotions and stress. On the one hand the entire thing was horrifying, shooting and exploding your way through the Jedi Temple, slaughtering the peacekeepers of the Republic in their own home was shocking and terrible. At the same time you are playing a poor, blaster armed Clone Trooper, with no force powers or special abilities to command facing off against a large number of energy sword wielding super-powered death machines. Every Jedi was a terrifying opponent, capable of chopping you down in a heartbeat if you let them get anywhere near, every room and corridor a nail-biting exercise in trying to catch the Jedi defenders in a cross-fire, keep them at a distance with grenades and overwhelm their defenses with sustained blaster fire. The whole thing was a brutal slog. Not until the wildly controversial Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 airport scene did I encounter a scenario as deeply impactful to play through. For that alone Battlefront 2 is worth playing.

4: Jedi Fallen Order

Ok I'll just come out and say it, Jedi Fallen Order is the best Star Wars game to be produced in a decade... but then again it is also one of the only Star Wars games to be produced in a decade. With a ten year long exclusive contract to publish Star Wars games Electronic Arts has somehow manage to almost completely squander that exclusivity by producing a mere three games, two awful Battlefront games and then Jedi Fallen Order. I still do not know why EA is not putting out one to two Star Wars games a year. RTS, RPG, racing, space combat games, there are a ton of long neglected genres with tons of Star Wars fans chomping at the bit for new games and Jedi Fallen Order I think definitively proves that. I do not think many at EA expected Jedi Fallen Order to do well and yet it vastly exceeded all sales expectations and has been very warmly embraced by the Star Wars fanbase and for good reason. Unlike the cringe and janky lightsaber combat from EA's Battlefront 2 the combat in Jedi Fallen Order is smooth and satisfying. While I still think Jedi Knight Jedi Academy is the best lightsaber combat in any Star Wars game Jedi Fallen Order comes really close. Sort of a combination of Dark Souls and Tomb Raider or Uncharted this game has players take control of Kal Kestis, a survivor of Order 66. Kal is not like Starkiller, he is not Luke Skywalker or Obi-wan, really he is not all that powerful or all that well trained. He was just a Padawan when Oder 66 happened and has forgotten or suppressed most of his capabilities. Stormtroopers are a threat to Kal whereas they were less than nothing to the protagonist of Force Unleashed and honestly not all that threatening to Kyle Katarn either. Yet here in Jedi Fallen Order sometimes Stormtroopers will talk smack, promising to push Kal's face in and then well, they do. Especially on the harder difficulties squads of Stormtroopers can make for a serious challenge, combining melee and ranged capabilities they can pelt Kal with laser bolts while your trying to parry or dodge the blows of electro-baton wielding scout troopers and keep an eye on that rocket trooper lining up his next shot. There is a ton of enemy variety as well from native creatures of all shapes and sizes to a whole host of humanoid enemies including deadly Purge Troopers, whose black and red armor is just plain cool looking. Honestly I much prefer the Purge Troopers to even the sinister Death Troopers from Rogue One. The game even throws in a trio of different Bounty Hunter classes, two humanoid and one droid that possess a variety of powerful abilities and are a serious threat.

Much like in Force Unleashed though the real highlight are the lightsaber battles. The two Inquisitors, the Second and Ninth Sisters, and Taron Malicos, are hugely engaging and challenging fights. The Ninth Sister is brutal and powerful, attacking in sweeping arcs that do massive damage but are slow and cumbersome and often the player needs to dodge and roll to evade her strikes and hit her when she's distracted. The Second Sister is a slick and agile opponent who often strikes from different angles and the player has to combine a mixture of parry's and dodges to avoid her variety of attacks. Malicos combines savage dual-lightsaber melee combos with the occasional barrage of ranged force attacks that keep the player on their toes but he can certainly be engaged close up combining a series of strikes and parry's to wear down his guard and get in some damaging strikes against him. Not since Jedi Academy have I had so much fun wielding a lightsaber or been forced to strategize and consider my approach to combat as carefully. Of note here is that for the first time ever the player is given the option to wield a double-bladed lightsaber but switch between single and double-bladed combat styles. After repairing his master's damaged double-bladed lightsaber Kal can wield the weapon with both blades active or you can choose to switch to using only a single blade, switching off the second blade and wielding the lightsaber as a traditional one-handed weapon. Both combat styles offer strengths and weaknesses, the single blade is better for dueling single opponents and does more damage while the double bladed strikes faster and is better for engaging crowds. Eventually the player can unlock abilities that let you switch from one mode to the other smoothly in combat and unleash powerful attacks while doing so. Especially towards the end of the game as Kal has regained most of his abilities I really found myself fluidly engaging in combat, slicing through opponents with style and lethality, blocking a series of blaster bolts with the double-blade then unleashing a switch attack to take out a pair of stormtroopers and switch to a single blade to duel a Purge Trooper, combining strikes and parry's to wear him down and deliver a cinematic death blow animation finishing with Kal spinning his lightsaber hilt, blowing on the emitter like it's the barrel of an old six shooter and then holstering it with a flourish. Simply awesome.

And that's all without mentioning the story or characters, I will happily take any or all of Jedi Fallen Order's characters over anything the sequel trilogy gave fans, all of them are well crafted and relatable. Greez, Cere, Kal, Merrin, they are all fantastic and I look forward to seeing them again in a sequel or other medium... hopefully. Still as awesome as Jedi Fallen Order is there are still a few titles out there that beat it out.

3: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords Restored Content


I know, I know, this game was rushed, broken and unfinished on release and stands as one of the biggest screw ups of Lucas Arts as a studio. Still a dedicated team of fans have spent years painstakingly reconstructing the missing content to this game and the Restored Content Mod, now easily downloadable through Steam, is an essentially component to playing this game. Even if you have played through the Sith Lords before I highly recommend replaying it with the restored content mod, it is a totally different experience. Some worlds are barely changed but the bulk of the missing content revolves around the later stages of the game and boy is there a lot of restored content, the entire ending sequence is much improved, bugs are fixed, broken quests and dialogue have been made functional and the result is a massive improvement that makes this game really stand out as one of the enduring greats of the Star Wars franchise. Even before the restored content mod the Sith Lords was one of my favorite Star Wars games and with the mod it has only gotten better. No matter how broken at release the story and setting is just beyond compare and in particular the character of Kreia is easily one of the all-time best written and most interesting Star Wars characters ever created. The Sith Lords really makes the player think about the nature of the force, good and evil, destiny and consequence. Few other games, books, movies or TV shows produced by Star Wars have done anywhere near as much to flesh out the force, the philosophies of the Jedi and Sith and really add depth and complexity to the Star Wars universe. Crafted by one of the best video game writers ever, featuring an incredible setting, stellar combat, excellent characters and solid visuals that I still think look alright even today, the Sith Lords is one of the few games I think is a must play for serious Star Wars fans.

Perhaps my single favorite component of the Sith Lords is that it allows the player to not only recruit an interesting cast of companion characters but over the course of the story the player can gain influence with these companions and eventually train a large number of them as Jedi. Atton Rand and Mira start out as Scoundrels but can be trained as a Jedi Sentinels. Bao-Dur and the Handmaiden start as Soldiers but can be trained as Jedi Guardians. The Disciple starts as a Scout but can be trained as a Jedi Consular. The player can further recruit Visas Marr and combined with Kreia and the player themselves this can put a total of seven lightsaber wielding force users on the Ebon Hawk by the end of the game, not eight because the player depending on their gender recruits either the Handmaiden or the Disciple but not both. This process of evolving player companions into new classes and abilities is one of the most engaging and interesting mechanics I have ever seen in a game and was simply an awesome addition to the game. Few things are as fun as running around with a full party of Jedi and even more so when, in one of the later stages of the game, the player forms two squads and sends them simultaneously against two objectives and both squads can be composed entirely of Jedi carving through traitor Onderonian soldiers and Sith and it is absolutely fantastic.

2: Jedi Knight Jedi Academy

A highly unexpected sequel to Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast, Jedi Academy does not follow the exploits of Kyle Katarn but instead has the player create their own young recruit to the Jedi Academy on Yavin IV. Players can pick their gender and choose from a wide variety of different species and appearances, customize their lightsaber hilt and choose whatever color they wish. Right from the get-go that is awesome and the chance to sling a lightsaber across the galaxy as a character of your own creation and as a student in Luke's academy was just awesome. I was sold on that alone. But this is not just a phoned in sequel. Admittedly the story lacks the heights of Jedi Outcast but it is certainly serviceable. Yet while the story may not have been an improvement most of the other features of the game are a step up from Jedi Outcast which was already very solid. Lightsaber combat, force powers, platforming, puzzles and level design have all been improved notably. Lightsaber combat in particular gives the player the choice of a variety of different styles and ultimately the choice of single, double or dual wielding sabers which all come with their own strengths and weaknesses. Unlike in some other games lightsabers are not just glowing rods that you beat enemies with until they fall over, they are lethal and brutal weapons. You will be chopping through enemies like a beast and sending limbs and heads flying, though if you are not careful the flying extremities might be your own. Charging into combat with lightsaber wielding Sith acolytes is a terrible idea in this game as they are quite capable of slicing and dicing you to pieces in a split second, instead these encounters very much feel like actual duels where you have to size up your target, maneuver for advantage and time your strikes carefully. Is the target moving from the left? Try striking from the right. Depending on the direction the player is moving will change how you strike with your lightsabers. Moving right to left causes you to strike differently from moving back to forward or left to right. You can also crouch to strike low or jump to strike high and changing your stance can also switch things up and slip a strike past your opponent's guard. Although you have a wide variety of blasters and explosives to work with I always find myself playing through this game relying mostly on my lightsaber and force abilities and reveling in every engagement against a lightsaber wielding dark disciple. The ending in particular provided a wealth of encounters with dark Jedi all battling against dozens of students from Luke's academy. I always play through those levels in a frenetic rush, desperate to reinforce the various dueling Jedi and keep them alive and raging anytime I lose one of my fellow Jedi students to some nefarious red lightsaber wielding jerk!

Though perhaps not as griping as other entries in the series the plot of Jedi Academy is nevertheless fun and seeing Luke and Kyle as Jedi Masters and teachers raising the next generation of galactic peacekeepers never ceases to please. This is not the grumpy, alien-milk drinking Luke of Episode 8, this is Luke at the height of his powers from the original, George Lucas authorized extended universe. Luke is a calm, collected Jedi Master, offering words of counsel and wisdom, guiding and teaching young minds while refraining from getting in the way or stifling growth and when you occasionally see him draw his lightsaber it is always for a good reason. Every time I play this game, and I have played it many times, it makes me want to go back and read through some of the old books featuring the new Jedi Order and Luke Skywalker and relive my favorite moments from those stories. If you have not played Jedi Academy I strongly recommend picking it up on Steam, whether you like the new canon or not Jedi Academy is Star Wars gaming at its finest and deserves to be experienced by anyone who is a fan of the franchise.

1: Knights of the Old Republic 

Would you kindly, Aerith's death, Revan, these are in my opinion easily the three biggest twists in gaming history. To this day Revan is my all time favorite Star Wars character. Complex, nuanced, careful and calculating and brutally ruthless when necessary Revan is the absolute best creation of famed game story writer Drew Karpyshyn. Honestly I really don't want to talk all that much about this game, I don't want to ruin it. If you have played it you probably agree with me already and if you haven't, I don't want to spoil it for you, just go and play it for yourself. This is the game that first really explored the different ideologies of the Jedi and the Sith and is, to my knowledge, the first instance of a written and outlined Jedi and Sith codes. As a player you undergo both Jedi and Sith training and see both of these orders from the inside and the outside. The conflict between these two groups is existential and eternal, a constant conflict of control and chaos, peace and violence in a galaxy riven by war and strife. You get to explore Tatooine, Kashyyyk, Dantooine and even Korriban the ancient homeworld of the Sith. You will explore tombs and underwater research stations, you will fight bounty-hunters, Tusken Raiders, fallen Jedi and shielded battle droids, you will defend someone in a trial and hunt monstrous beasts. Knights of the Old Republic is not just a great Star Wars game, it is really one of the best western RPGs developed by Bioware at the height of its creative powers. Seriously, if you have not played this game and are a Star Wars fan or even a fan of western RPGs like Dragon Age or Neverwinter Nights you owe it to yourself to play this game. Pick it up on Steam and take it for a whirl, you will not be disappointed.





There you have it, that is my list, what games are on your top 10 Star Wars games list? Let me know!