A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… An American gaming company named LucasArts developed fun and innovative adventure games primarily based on popular films created by George Lucas. Some where between the rise of the Playstation and anticipated release of The Phantom Menace, LucasArts reached it’s peak — the ceiling of its own empire. The E3 demo for Kinect Star Wars further proves the declining age of LucasArt’s progressive gaming.
It has been a long, dark time for those who grew up playing LucasArts games in the late 80’s to early 90’s. Talk of Full Throttle, Dark Forces and Grim Fandango have become whispers from a dead generation. What became of Lucas and the Arts and why has it never improved?
It all started when the George Lucas wanted to expand his reign throughout all media. Video games were becoming incredibly popular so he created the “secret service video game team” to create a game based on Labyrinth in 1986. Yes, the G. Lucas produced Labyrinth starring David Bowie, his crazy eye, and the muppets. Why was it so successful? Well, it certainly wasn’t the graphics or gameplay. You don’t need gimmicky graphical interactive interfaces when you have Douglas Adams and Christopher Cerf at the writers helm. (hint, hint)
“LucasArts” practically became a household name. Then The Phantom Menace came out and it all went to hell. For some reason they felt the need to release a plethora of games based on episode one — the worst prequel of them all.
Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace – 1999
Star Wars Episode I: Racer – 1999
Star Wars Episode I: Jedi Power Battles – 2000
Star Wars: Episode I: Battle for Naboo – 2000
Star Wars Episode I: Obi-Wan’s Adventures – 2000
Star Wars: Obi-Wan – 2001
For two years, LucasArts spewed out a shit show of six different episode one games. What I don’t understand is why did they felt the need to use so many colons on certain titles. Whatever, they all sucked the sweet secrets off of a Bothan spy. Thankfully the partnership with BioWare lifted them out of a sinking boat — Knights of the Old Republic proved that LucasArts still had it in them. After that, it became “roller coaster roullette” with every other game released being complete garbage.
Speaking of complete garbage, did you get a look at the new E3 footage of Star Wars Kinect? If you haven’t, check below.
LIGHTSABER, ON!
Why does LucasArts have this fixation on the prequels and Clone Wars? (From what I hear they’ll also be taking levels from the older movies) Why are they playing it safe instead of creating an innovative story like they did with Labyrinth or better yet Grim Fandango? As you can see, the gimmick of the Kinect gameplay and animation alone will not help Star Wars Kinect stand on its own two feet. In fact, it will end up hurting itself because of how slow and responsive it is to move around. Look, the story of Star Wars isn’t going to blow peoples minds like it did decades ago. Plus that’s not how I imagine a Jedi moves around in the heat of battle.
Well, ladies and gents, it appears that we’re at the very bottom of the roller coaster barrel. I wish I could have some positive things to say about this game but the video above makes it incredibly difficult to do so. The only good news I can spare — we can only go up from here! Huzzah?
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