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Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
Reviewed by Frank Marano I got Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire for the Nintendo 64!! After spending most of the day looking for it I finally found it at Electronics Boutique in NJ for $79.99. All I can say is that it was worth every minute I spent looking for it. The graphics are about on par with any other Nintendo 64 game so they look real good, they all have that Star Wars feel to them. As far as the sound goes it is pretty much the best I've heard so far from a Nintendo 64 game. There are four levels of difficulty that you can choose from in the beginning (Easy, Medium, Hard, and Jedi) and 10 levels in all to play, six of the level are a Dark Forces perspective (you can change the camera angle on these levels to In-head (Dark Forces), Follow (Mario 64), Movie(looks really cool but hard to play on) and Overhead) and two levels you take flight in the Outrider, one level you play on a speeder bike and one level you play on a snow speeder. The game opens up with the classic A LONG TIME AGO IN A GALAXY FAR FAR AWAY... and proceeds to tell you the basic story (In short: it's tell you about the beginning of Empire Strikes Back, later on they will tell you that Xizor (the main villain) wants to become the emperor's right hand man in the empire, but to do this he must get rid of Darth Vader, so he comes up with this plan that basically is kill Luke Skywalker make it look like Darth Vader did it have the Emperor take care of Vader for him.) after the basic story a huge Star Wars logo appears and the classic Star Wars theme music plays, and you are ready to start the game. The game starts with a short animated clip (which is nothing spectacular but it is entertaining) and you are thrust into the Battle of Hoth, where you man a snow speeder and are thrown into the middle of this huge dogfight that the Empire and Rebels are fighting, this level is great there are guys on your side and huge AT-AT's trying to destroy you, so far this is my favorite part of the game. After the Battle of Hoth you go to Escape from Echo Base which is a doom type level in which you try to activate the emergency generators, the best part about this level is battleing the huge AT-ST at the end, After you escape from Echo Base you enter Asteroid Chase where you man the Outrider's gunnery and take on over sixty TIEs at once not to mention you have to dodge asteroids too, oh and there's that pesky Star Destroyer too. After Asteroid Chase you begin your search for BOBA FETT, your first stop is the Ord Mantell Junkyard where you must find IG-88, most of this level you ride on a train and dodge and shoot things, at the end of the level you confront IG-88 in this junkyard which you have to wade through junk while battleing him, this is pretty much where I got up to so far. After Ord Mantell Junkyard you fight Boba Fett and then race a speeder bike through the streets of Mos Eisley, find the super computer on a Imperial Freighter, wade though the sewers under Xizor's palace, set bombs in Xizor's palace, and finally there is this huge battle in the sky where TIE fighters, Xizor's Star Vipers, and X-wings fill the sky. Scale 1 to 5: Graphics: 4.7 SOTE graphics have a very Star Wars feel to them. Sound/Music: 5.0 This game in my opinion has to have the best sound of any of the N64 games thus far. Control: 4.5 Get the game at Amazon.com!
The control in this game is pretty good, it seems a little sluggish though at some points. Reply Value: 4.9 This game is lots of fun I have already played the first level more times then I can count. Overall Score: 4.8 The game overall is pretty good there is still a lot of it I haven't seen yet though, but I think that it will become one of those must buy games for the Nintendo 64.
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