Gaming

The Dark Side: The 10 Worst Star Wars Games Ever

Posted by Jim Tanous on May 15, 2014

The feedback from our recent list of the 10 Best Star Wars Games of All Time was great. Many compelling arguments were made as to why certain games should or shouldn’t be on our list, but our primary takeaway from the discussion was that we have been incredibly lucky to experience so many fantastic Star Wars games. And with EA now in charge of future games, and new games rolling out already, the future looks bright.

But what about the stinkers? The games that publishers tried to shove down our throats based solely on some vague Star Wars branding? Or the well-intentioned games that just couldn’t make it work? Behold the opposite of our first list, the 10 Worst Star Wars Games Ever. Read on and let us know if this list will be even more controversial than the last.

Matt says:

April 26, 2017 at 4:48 pm

Yeah.. I think Star Wars Obi-Wan is pretty good. No, it’s not KOTOR, but I think it offered a lot in the world of Episode 1. The camera controls are quite easy, a flick of the left thumbstick will rotate it. There’s a ton of content packed into this game, from the Black Heth and the cortosis mine, to the Federation ship, being a stowaway down to Naboo, the entire Naboo plot which is beautiful and fun, to rescuing the queen from tuskan raiders which is a pretty clever side-plot from the movie. Lots of stuff along the way. Also the A.I. is quite good, I always love fighting next to Qui-Gonn. The voice acting for Obi-Wan is pretty vague and there can be some glitches depending on your disc, but overall I don’t think it’s a bad game at all and I’d love to see it touched up and released on Steam.

Soul Stälker says:

January 17, 2017 at 9:00 pm

Everybody hating on Jedi Power Battles makes me laugh. Yes, some parts of it were pretty wonky and there were some glitches here and there, but overall the game was fun and very challenging; you rarely felt like the controls were bad, you just had to strategize your movements and reflect the shots at the right time. And when you did, it felt accomplishing.

Anonymustard says:

December 20, 2016 at 8:54 am

Rebellion is one of the best Star Wars games ever made and Force Commander wasn’t great but it was still miles above the standard of most shitty modern strategy games.

nikoliy says:

October 19, 2016 at 6:48 pm

How did Rebellion make it into this list?
Whoever put it in their is an idiot.

Noah Schmitz says:

November 6, 2016 at 10:37 pm

They have obviously never played it. One of my favorite strategy games in general.

Vader the White says:

February 17, 2016 at 11:48 pm

I can’t imagine Masters of Teräs Kasi being worse than The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels for the Wii. You know how very, very few third party developers could make good use of the motion controls? Yeah, this sums up the problems with this sad excuse of a fighting game.

SeTTi says:

November 27, 2015 at 5:33 pm

You are kidding me? SW Rebellion is one of the best PC games ever.

Sammy Moore says:

November 3, 2015 at 8:52 am

Rebellion’s a great game that unfortunately has a very poor interface. Once you get used to it, it’s fun and challenging.

Allen says:

October 21, 2015 at 7:26 pm

Star Wars Rebellion was one of the best games of my child hood. I would stay up into the early hours of the morning playing that game.

Why no Star Wars Kinect is on this list is beyond me.

Robert Parker says:

September 7, 2015 at 11:31 am

Star Wars: Rebellion was an awesome game. I wish my modern PC would still run it. Perhaps the developers should make a vastly updated Rebellion 2!

Youngie76 says:

August 25, 2015 at 11:05 pm

Rebellion was awesome. Even better against a human player. By far the best SW strategy game. Get with the program

William Thomas says:

August 22, 2015 at 12:52 am

Screw Tekrevue for its ridiculously annoying pop up asking me to subscribe with each page in the article. You can shove a light saber where the sun don’t shine

TekRevue says:

August 22, 2015 at 12:55 am

Hey William, I’m sorry about that. The popup should only appear once, on the first page, and not keep reappearing. I’ll check with our Push Notification service ASAP.

By chance are you blocking cookies or running an ad blocker (or any other setting that would prevent the code from remembering that you already dismissed it)?

James Tompsett says:

August 21, 2015 at 8:11 pm

Saying Empire at War is better than Rebellion is like saying the prequels are better than the original trilogy.

The effects might have been prettier, and the lightsaber battles flashier, but where was the soul man, where was the soul?

Mark Becker says:

April 30, 2015 at 9:34 am

I disagree with #5. Jedi Power Battles was and still is one of the best Star Wars games ever made. Sure it had some bugs…but what PS1 game from 99 didn’t? I still play that over Battlefront 2 sometimes. 16 years still going strong? That’s more than you can say about other games. JPB deserves to be on the Best Star Wars Games list. No doubt.

Michael Duquette says:

April 29, 2015 at 3:45 pm

What is judging this games on? If he is comparing them with games of today, that is pretty foolish. Fella should judge things with games of their time. Jedi power battle was a pretty game for its time.

Oranji Juusu says:

April 20, 2015 at 12:42 am

Star Wars Episode I: Gungan Frontier is at least close to earning a place on this list.

Sean Roberts says:

April 16, 2015 at 4:56 pm

How is EA taking the rights for Lucas Arts games in anyway a good thing? You do realize EA is the most hated game publisher on Earth right?

TekRevue says:

April 17, 2015 at 5:29 am

Sean, I hate to break it to you (because nobody hated EA more in the past than me), but the company has changed a lot in the past year or two. New leadership (Andrew Wilson), more consumer-friendly return policies, more engagement with consumers (i.e., the multiple Humble Bundle charity events), and the fact that they seem to be taking their time with their first major Star Wars game (the EA of old would have rushed Battlefront) all point to a company that is certainly improving.

On top of all of that, please tell me the last time that Lucasarts did something positive with the Star Wars franchise. The studio was effectively dead, and had let the IP languish for years. The fact that new Star Wars games were announced within weeks of the Disney purchase and EA license agreement underscores the disparity in priorities between Lucasarts (what was left of it, anyway) and its successors.

I loved Lucasarts games during the studio’s golden years, and sure, I wish that it could have remained strong and kept pumping out quality titles. But it was dead, long dead, by the time it was official dismantled. And you’re free to go on hating EA (they’re far from perfect, of course, and they’ll need to prove they can sustain their improved policies). But to argue that Star Wars fans eager for new games aren’t better off now than they were three years ago is objectively absurd.

Treyvon Darnell Morant says:

April 9, 2015 at 7:05 pm

I found power battles fun but that was back when I was young that I played it. I’d love to give it another try just to see if I still find it good.

Richard White says:

April 6, 2015 at 11:08 pm

I did actually enjoy Rebellion, but more for the novelty than anything else.

Nate Barrett says:

April 3, 2015 at 2:15 pm

I really don’t know how anyone could write “the future is bright” with a franchise in the hands of EA, a notoriously greedy company who have all but destroyed every franchise they’ve absorbed.

John Casey Dean says:

April 2, 2015 at 10:49 am

I really enjoyed Jedi power battles when I was younger. I feel like going back yi it would be rough, but that can be said for most games we loved as kids. Other than platformers most genres don’t hold up well over time, at least from my observations.

Iain Mac says:

March 13, 2015 at 2:43 am

I’ve heard the non dreamcast versions weren’t as good, but from my experience jedi power battles was fantastic. I went out and bought a dreamcast the second I played it. My friend and I have a save file @ 99%(I think there’s a glitch, qui gon won’t max out). Survival mode was brutal hard to finish but it unlocks ultimate saber so the one hit kills thing adds to the realness. Not to mention it was really the only thing before cline wars that had adi gala, ki adi mundi and plo koon(i was super bummed watching ki adi mundi get taken out in ep 3).

Republic heroes has a similar feel but lacks the difficulty.

I had high hopes for rebellion, but the only way to play without being bored to death which made the computer near impossible, and multiplayer games took longer than risk. So I get why it made the list.

No dark forces jedi knight? Come on it was far better than jedi outcast(as was jedi academy, but they’re all worthy)

Johnny P says:

January 30, 2015 at 11:38 am

Honestly surprised Force Unleashed II wasnt in here…graphics were okay, but repetative enimies, and a story that took 4.5-6 hrs to beat was terribly disappointing.

Paul Peterson says:

January 28, 2015 at 9:36 pm

Yoda stories? A random generating ultimately replayable star wars adventure? awesome to me

Johnstradomus says:

January 26, 2015 at 2:50 pm

First Obi Wan and then Jedi Power Battles? I respectfully agree to disagree. Perhaps it was poor marketing to be faulted here for their lack of commercial success.

Johnstradomus says:

January 26, 2015 at 2:43 pm

I figured Star Wars Obi Wan would be on this after it failed to make the best games list. The lightsaber combat, multiplayer and story were fun and one of the only drawbacks was the camera at times.

Miles Hilario says:

January 24, 2015 at 5:36 pm

It’s funny that one of my most memorable Playstation games is Masters of Teras Kasi and it was impossible to find when I repurchased the first playstation many years later. Granted when I got the game I was only 7. Viewing a youtube clip of the game makes me realize that I’m glad I never found it or I would have been disappointed. 😛 I think I was too excited over the fact that I could play as Darth Vader and I always kicked my older brother’s ass at it. 😀

Franklin Sherwood Holland III says:

January 17, 2015 at 7:48 pm

Rancor Rampage was pretty fun too

Shannon says:

January 17, 2015 at 4:13 pm

I’d have to add Star Wars Arcade for the Sega 32x. No plot, horrible voice acting & incredibly tough level design. I’m a die hard star wars fan & with unlimited time on my hands but I still couldn’t stomach this game.