Shadows of the Empire Published: 1997 Originally designed for the Nintendo 64 console for late 1996, Shadows of the Empire is a 3D action shooter that most closely recalls the Rebel Assault games, although it has first-person elements of Jedi Knight in it as well. Shadows is the story of Dash Rendar, a mercenary commissioned to save Luke Skywalker from an assassination plot, and whose action takes place around the same time as The Empire Strikes Back. The story was developed simultaneously as a book, a soundtrack, and a video game. The game was designed exclusively for use with 3D graphics accelerators, and so, much like its ancestors Rebel Assault and its sequel, its most noteworthy feature was its absolutely stunning visuals. But also much like the Rebel Assault games, Shadows of the Empire suffered from being too simple for its own good, an amalgam of distinctive levels which wouldn't make very good games in their own right. click to enlarge At least it got off to a good start: Its famous first level recreated the AT-AT walker attack on Hoth, with Dash in the cockpit of a snowspeeder equipped with a towing cable he could trip up the lumbering imperial machines with. This beautifully designed segment of the game helped sell more than a few Nintendo 64 consoles and offered fans a chance to relive one of the most spectacular scenes from the film, but Shadows of the Empire didn't get any better from there on. Levels often felt too straightforward, as when Dash was confined in a gun pod in his ship, the Millennium Falcon-esque Outrider, and forced merely to gun down any enemies that appeared on screen. Other levels played like a cross between Jedi Knight and Tomb Raider, only not nearly as good as either one, thanks to underwhelming level designs that had Dash jogging from place to place more often than anything else. click to enlarge But Shadows of the Empire, thanks to its 3D engine, offered a sense of freedom that was markedly absent from the Rebel Assault games. And because it situated the player in an all-new Star Wars storyline and let him take on everything from AT-ATs to Boba Fett, Shadows of the Empire pleased those fans who were willing to accept Shadows as an action game and not anything too much more complicated than that. Read GameSpot's review of Shadows of the Empire. Next: Star Wars Rebellion