I am a big fighting game fan.
One-on-one combat is such a thrilling experience, knowing that through reading your opponent you clutch a win or deliver a flawless victory…it can’t be topped.
I’ve dabbled in all types of fighting games; the traditional martial arts of Street Fighter, Tekken, and Virtua Fighter, to the sword fights of Soul Calibur, and the magical fantasy of Fantasy Strike.
My first proper fighting game though has been a single release, never got a sequel or a re-release, but is still one of the most fun games I played as a child. It is the movie tie-in game for Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
The mid-2000s were a goldmine for licensed games, being some of most fondly remembered gems of their generation.
Spiderman 2 from 2004 brought physics-based web-swinging into gaming.
King Kong brought one of the best first-person immersive survival games ever.
And X Men Origins: Wolverine brought a level of gore and violence hardly seen in any previous or following incarnation of the character.
And then on top of those greats, Star Wars comes out with one of the best sword-fighting simulations of all time. So today I want to talk about it.
An Elegant Weapon, A More Civilised Age – Star Wars and Lightsaber Duels
Episode III is for the majority of the time a brawling game. Playing as either Anakin Skywalker or Obi-Wan Kenobi, you fight droids, clones, and a few low-level Jedi through the locations of the film.
But every so often, these two will enter a duel with other fighters such as Count Dooku, General Grievous, Mace Windu, other Jedi Masters, and eventually each other in spectacular one-on-one fights.
Alongside the game’s storyline, you can participate in one-on-one fights either against an AI opponent, or in couch co-op.
While you only start out with Anakin and Obi-Wan and one location (the Jedi Temple), with each duel in the game’s storyline unlocks a character and the location.
By the final credits there are nine fighters to choose from: Anakin, Obi-Wan, Count Dooku, Mace Windu, General Grevious, Jedi Masters Cin Drallig and Serra Keto, and finally Ben Kenobi and Darth Vader from Episode IV.
While it would have been easy to give all of these characters the same general moves and only a few signature moves, each one plays totally differently, giving players a proper choice in regards to playstyle.
Anakin is fast and powerful whereas Obi-Wan is slower but has the better defensive option. Count Dooku is based more on parries and thrusts, similar to a fencer.
Mace Windu is slower but has good reach and strong attacks, while General Grievous can overwhelm opponents with his four lightsabers and get a few cheap shots in with his concealed blaster.
Non-canon Jedi Serra Keto and Cin Drallig (the latter being SW combat choreographer Nic Gillard, his name reversed) are two unique styles, with Keto employing two lightsabers and multiple acrobatic moves, and Drallig being able to literally blur himself during combat.
And finally, Darth Vader is the strongest but one of the slowest fighters in the game, and Ben sacrifices some speed with stronger attacks and Force powers.
The combat is similar to your standard string-based fighting game like Tekken or Guilty Gear, meaning that inputting the attack buttons in specific orders will net you different attacks and sequences. As I said previously, each string gives a unique animation, which elevates the game higher than a standard movie tie-in.
Attacks are broken into light and heavy varieties, but what gives Star Wars a bit of flair is the Force, which adds a whole new system of control and power into the combat.
Despite eight of the nine characters being able to use the Force, it’s actually the thing which is most standardised across the fighters.
Every fighter has two variants of Force Push, one as a general move any objects around you, but then a more controlled version where they pick up a singular object and throw it, which can also be used on opponents.
All fighters can throw their lightsaber like a boomerang and can even heal themselves using the Force. The only main difference is the Force Stun (for the Jedi) and Force Lightning (for the Sith).
Force Stun…well, stuns the player, leaving them vulnerable for a few seconds to be attacked or for the opponent to heal, whereas Force Lightning is purely offensive, draining the health of the opponent. It’s an interesting trade off, going with a more offensive option or one that can be both offensive or defensive.
Anakin in the Duel Mode actually changes between the two as you progress in the story mode, using Force Stun until he falls to the Dark Side, where he will then start using Force Lightning.
General Grevious is the only outlier being a non-Force User, but he gets some additional help, with a rapid fire blaster replacing his Force Push and a charged-up shot replacing Force Lightning. His signature four-armed attack takes the spot over the Saber Throw.
The stages are all taken from the story mode, being unlocked at the same time as the other characters.
Since they are all focussed on Episode III, the locations span space-stations, landing platforms, the Jedi Temple, and the impressive vistas of both the sinkholes of Utapau and the volcanic rivers of Mustafar.
The locations in the game are broken up by area into smaller chunks as well. Take Mustafar for instance.
The first section is the landing platform that Anakin and Obi-Wan first clash sabers. It’s a wide area with several explosive crates to throw at your opponent.
The second area is the control room, with command tables splitting the room, allowing a player to be out of range of lightsaber attacks, and either regain some health or use a long range attack to keep their opponent back.
Out from the control room onto the third section, the balcony. It’s cramped and linear, the complete opposite of where the fight started. To add even more to the mix, the explosive crates are back, but since the area is so small any explosion could impact you as well.
Dropping down from the balcony onto the “Control Arm”, again a linear section, but extremely long, not the cramped quarters of the balcony.
And while there are no more explosive canisters, the control arm is constantly getting rained down on by lava, stopping players from either retreating or advancing, having to riskily jump towards their opponent or wait until the magma has cooled.
Finally, the fight culminates on the Lava Platform, the smallest map in the game, barely big enough for the two fighters to deliver their most devastating moves.
That’s just one planet and it gives such a variety of locations that either compliment or hinder certain styles of combat, with every other location also containing environmental hazards, barriers, or extremely linear or cramped fighting halls.
In research for this piece I wanted to look at other players and see how they related to the game and found a small but thriving community that still plays the game competitively today.
Using a PlayStation 2 emulator, players have been continually hosting tournaments even up until a few months ago, with rulesets to keep things interesting (the main ones being no Force Heal and no Mustafar Lava Platform stage).
The fighting game tech has gotten so meta that players will use a particular save state that allows them to choose Anakin with Force Stun instead of Force Lightning.
It’s amazing to watch, with clutch matches and spectacular finishes, and the added bonus that it is a Star Wars game, with the characters, fighting styles, weapons, locations, and music that we all know and love.
***
When I wrote about my brief but fun time playing Star Wars Ep. I Racer recently, I lamented the lack of Star Wars games in recent memory. Since that post the only new game was Jedi Survivor, the sequel to 2019’s Fallen Order.
There has been a brief upsurge in announcements, with names such as Quantic Dream, Zynga, Ubisoft, and Skydance all developing some sort of game and a wide range of genres including strategy and interactive drama.
And while there were Star Wars games dedicated to duelling before (Masters of Teräs Käsi for PS1) and after (The Clone Wars – Lightsaber Duels for the Wii) neither have had the impact and staying power of Episode III.
Just like with Ep.I Racer, you can see the outline of a game that would sell great today. Having duellists from all three eras, different and expansive locations, selectable force powers and fighting styles, customisable lightsabers, and of course online play. But sadly I think the time has passed.
In my research I found several players reminiscing on playing the duel mode and wishing for more. Even I bought the game nearly fifteen years after it released because I hadn’t found anything that simulated lightsaber combat so well.
It was the duelling game that did Star Wars well, and it deserves to be remembered and played to this day.
Banner Photo Source: moddb.com
TOM CLEMENT | GAME PRODUCER | NARRATIVE DESIGNER 