Graphically a little rough at times, Shadows of The Empire falls just short of classic status on the Nintendo 64.
Coming out of the gates, the game leaves you floored and wanting more. The introductory mission; defending the Rebel reactor from the Empire's walker attack is a brilliant moment in gaming history. Brilliant explosion graphics and realistic model movement bring the scene to life like nothing else. Its not until the second mission that everything settles in to a not-so-spectacular niche.
The interior of the Rebel Base introduces Dash Rendar's on-foot sections, complete with funky camera angles and slippery controls. First person works well enough, although your view is somewhat limited. Third person opens up your field of view, but makes timing the game's many jumps difficult. The "Cinematic" view is a gimmick and entirely useless. The controls leave much to be desired, as Dash runs like hes on ice all of the time. Jumping is difficult and hard to time; you will surely frustrate over falling to your death by no fault of your own. Regardless, you eventually acclimate yourself to these controls, as frustrating as they may be at first.
You start with a basic laser gun, which has endless ammunition and will be your primary weapon throughout the game. Dash's arsenal isn't exactly something to write home about; as most weapons are boring and predictable, save the Destructor. Enemy AI is simple, predictable, but adequate. Enemies have the intelligence to pick you off from a distance; but do no more than just stand and shoot upon approach. Enemies have little variety, with just different skins on the same Imperial trooper. Dash looks alright, and enemies look good and move fluently from a distance. Its when you get up close that the graphics show their age. Non-humanoid enemies (Read: Robots) look painfully generic and just slide around or awkwardly fire lasers without moving any other part of their body. I will digress to say Probe Droids look good, but thats about all there is to praise in the graphics department.
The musical score is very fitting and has plenty of Star Wars flair to it. Sound effects are a bit generic, and the same almost comical punch noise associated with laser gun shots can grow old over time. The flying sections are just head-and-shoulders above the rest of the game, complete with lasers whizzing by, and the chaos you'd expect from a Star Wars dogfight. The speeder bike stage is also a must see.
Several difficulty modes are offered, and theres enough secrets to warrant a couple of playthroughs; as the game is pretty short. Some levels are unnaturally massive (Boba Fett's stage) but SoTE should keep even casual Star Wars fans busy for a weekend. A solid release.