There are many good Star Wars video games to advocate for Star Wars Day 2024, simply not many true classics impressed by the prequel trilogy. With The Phantom Menace now 25 years outdated, we’ve seen copious quantities of prequel spin-offs however few genuinely nice video games in that blend. 2001’s Galactic Battlegrounds, nonetheless, is without doubt one of the few must-plays and, unfairly, additionally one of the vital readily forgotten. On the floor, it’d look like a reskin of the beloved Age of Empires 2, albeit one with far much less long-term official help, but it surely’s a essentially nice technique recreation in its personal proper, and its followers have made it all of the extra important to play proper now.
From Wipeout-style racers to conventional action-adventure video games, the Star Wars prequel trilogy has loads of videogame tie-ins. Few of them are outright poor, and a few of them are even first rate enjoyable. Nostalgia actually performs a component in overlooking their flaws, although, on condition that the prequel period was in some ways an era-defining cultural occasion. Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds is a good tie-in, then, as a result of it provides greater than a visit down reminiscence lane and by no means merely rode the coattails of a selected film.
Anybody who has performed Age of Empires 2 will acknowledge the core gameplay: a frantic loop of gathering sources, defending your city, and prepping for battle. It’s no dangerous factor that Galactic Battlegrounds lifts lots of its mechanics from a genre-defining, extremely revered supply; actually, a few of the finest Star Wars video games are firmly rooted within the megahits of their time, but convey the price range, boldness, and fervour for Star Wars’ pulpy nature to create one thing new and memorable.
Within the case of Galactic Battlegrounds, acquainted gameplay components have excitingly obtained science fiction twists. Monks have change into Jedi, who in addition to looking for relics are actually capable of decimate enemy forces. Defend mills can now assist shield buildings from assault and, in some instances, even guard items as they assault enemy bases. Airborne fighters are additionally launched, which might make an ill-prepared base weaker than ever. AoE 2 at its worst seems like a determined race to collect sufficient forces to crush the enemy, whereas Galactic Battlegrounds offers you such a variety of offensive and defensive choices that it turns into a pleasant cat-and-mouse expertise.
A bit disappointment will be present in the sport’s skinny story, which is particularly unlucky given the liberty of the pre-Disney franchise to discover the customarily wildly imaginative Legends content material. The tales are very a lot minor expansions of what we’ve seen elsewhere, resembling Vader attempting to get revenge after Episode 4 and Qui-Gon utilizing his species-uniting method to guide a Wookie rebellion. There’s, nonetheless, high quality voice performing and even some gentle intrigue, harking back to the narrative-led AoE 2 enlargement pack The Conquerors. And there’s additionally the small mercy of exploring acquainted eras from Star Wars while not having to fudge a movie narrative into a unique medium.
Regardless of what Galactic Battlegrounds has to supply, it’s at all times felt truncated because of its solely follow-up being a tiny Episode 2 tie-in. Increasing Fronts is the identify of a long-gestating fan enlargement that lives as much as its identify, a lot in order that the time period ‘mod’ seems like a disservice. It brings in a complete host of recent civilizations, planets, an expanded rating, and even balances out mechanics in methods followers have desired for years. It’s an immensely thrilling expertise main Gungans on Naboo in a single second and following up on Crait because the Resistance. Followers have given the sport a brand new lease of life and made it a staggering tribute to the collection at massive.
It’s properly price in search of out in any case. There’s nothing in Age of Empires fairly as spectacular as sending your Gungan military to assault a base together with your mammoth, movie-recalling mounts defending your troops with huge shields. There’s fairly merely little else that feels so enjoyably and unapologetically like a celebration of all the pieces Star Wars, each in being fittingly nice and paying tribute to the franchise in its then-entirety. Prequel followers could have a blast and, because of the continuing efforts of a devoted fanbase, so will everybody else. It’s price noting {that a} small variety of gamers may have to make use of workarounds to get it operating. Nevertheless, should you’ve acquired a number of hours to spare, there are few extra thrilling methods to have fun Star Wars Day than by taking part in Galactic Battlegrounds.