#EPISODE ONE THE PHANTOM MENACE PC GAME MOVIE#

So I bought the Phantom Menace game without reading any reviews from the local WH Smith. I didn't notice any plot issues or the dull dialogue, though I did find Jar Jar faintly annoying my mind was instead entranced by the Darth Maul lightsaber fight, the pod race, the CGI spaceships. I was 13-years-old when it came out in 1999 and enough of a Star Wars fan to see it twice in its first day, once in a daytime showing with a friend and a second time in the evening with my family. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.Д¬onfession: I liked the film. If you have any retro-themed projects or scoops youвЂ™d like to send my way, please contact me.Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. The RetroBeat is a weekly column that looks at gamingвЂ™s past, diving into classics, new retro titles, or looking at how old favorites - and their design techniques - inspire todayвЂ™s market and experiences. Or maybe youвЂ™re just a big retro gaming nerd like me who loves seeing a low-poly version of a film as divisive and weird as The Phantom Menace. But If youвЂ™re a fan of LucasArts adventure games, this game may be worth checking out just for that Tatooine sequence. Unlike with Episode I: Racer or other classic Star Wars games, this one is a bit harder to play these days. Eventually, this practice became much too expensive and difficult to create with a release date guaranteed to coincide with the release of a film, so now we see movies flock to the mobile space for their licensed games. ItвЂ™s a snapshot of a much different time in the history of licensed video games, when developers were struggling to make 3D experiences that felt like true interactive versions of the moves they were based on. It also has some glaring problems, such as an awkward camera angle that is positioned far too high above your character and some lazy voice-acting.Д«ut The Phantom Menace also has a lot of merit. It has not held up as well as other Star Wars games from that era, such as Episode I: Racer and Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. Look, IвЂ™m not trying to suggest that the Episode I game is some massive hidden gem. If you played the 3D LucasArts adventure games from this era, Grim Fandango or Escape from Monkey Island, this sequence will feel familiar. As Qui-Gon, you explore the city and talk to its denizens as you search for a way to fix your ship. Here, the experience plays a bit more like an old-school LucasArts adventure game.

But what really stands out is the Tatooine section.

You have a mix of melee and ranged combat along with some puzzles. You can best describe Episode I as a third-person action-adventure game. The Jedi focused on their Force abilities and lightsaber combat, while Amidala and PanakaвЂ™s sequences had more of a third-person shooter vibe. You also got to play as several characters: the Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jin, along with Queen Amidala and even her bodyguard Captain Panaka.

#EPISODE ONE THE PHANTOM MENACE PC GAME MOVIE#

It retold the entire story of the film, often spending time on extra details not explored in the movie (including some extra screen time for Jabba the Hutt, who really just had a cameo appearance in the film). But there was still something impressive about the Episode I game, especially with its scale. Yes, this is 1999, when polygons were limited, characters were blocky, and textures were blurry. Now, if youвЂ™re looking at the screenshots or videos in this story, you may be surprised by how primitive the game looks. It all felt like a big deal, and the game was a part of that. You couldnвЂ™t even go to a Pizza Hut without seeing giant Jar Jar Binks cardboard cutout. Audiences were starved for new Star Wars movies, and the launch of The Phantom Menace was a cultural event. Part of that is just because of the incredible state of Episode I fever that was everywhere. I played it on PC back in the day, and the experience has still stayed with me.

Episode one the phantom menace pc game