Into the Vault: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (Xbox)

It’s Star Wars month, and the 25th anniversary of the final chapter of the Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith! While licensed Star Wars games are still a regular occurence today, tie-in directly related to a movie release are almost unheard of. But there was rarely a time when, for better or worse, Star Wars games were more prolific than during the prequel trilogy era.

You had many different versions of games based on the movies for various systems, you had games loosely based around the characters and eras featured, etc. Just a huge glut of games. Some of them were pretty good no doubt were any of these the ones most directly based on the actual movies though?

This brings us to the videogame adaptation of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Multiple versions have been released on PlayStation 2, the original Xbox, Gameboy Advance, Nintendo DS, and even a long-extinct mobile platform. Is the Xbox version (which is essentially the same as the PS2 version) one of the better outings for a tie-in Star Wars game?

The positives of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith are definitely mostly in the presentation. They arguably could’ve gone for a more stylized look that held up better over time, but for a game that came out 20 years ago, it still looks pretty decent.

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith does also feature music straight from the movie and even the worst of Star Wars usually features great music so it’s easy to enjoy and evne occasionally get swept up in. One other feature that I kinda miss since tie-in games or this sort aren’t really a thing anymore is that the levels or broken up by clips straight out of the movie. Not the greatest quality video but a fun little reward for getting from chapter to chapter.

Unfortunately, the actual gameplay is where Star Wars Episode III starts to fall apart some. Developers The Collective, which at the time had a history of making well-received licensed games (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Fallen, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Indiana Jones and The Emperor’s Tomb) seem like the ideal developer around this time to make such a game, but it just falls flat. You can gain experience that unlocks extra abilities and moves but the combat isn’t complicated enough for them to really matter. The much bigger sin is the combat.

Even before controller vibration was a thing, it was common for good combat to have heft and feel to it. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is completely lacking in this and it just makes the combat feel lifeless, dull and incredibly monotonous. And at the end of the day, some good presentation isn’t going to save that without some bigger hook to it. Maybe die hard fans won’t be bothered and just will want to be able to play through some of their favorite sequences and story bits, and that’s fine. Still, The Collective has a record of pulling off some very compelling action on their games, and it could’ve really raised Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith to the next level had that been achieved.

Ultimately Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith comes off as a decent enough action game that fans of the movie might want to spend an afternoon enjoying for nostalgia’s sake (it’s only about 5 hours long and available on the Xbox store for $10) but given the pedigree it could’ve been more and that is disappointing.

That’s it for today, definitely expect another entry sometime next week which may or may not be Star Wars related. See ya real soon!