No Star Wars Game Starts as Strong as ‘Shadows of the Empire’ for N64
Shadows of the Empire is a classic Star Wars game and the opening Battle of Hoth level is outstanding. The rest of the game is fine.
If you weren’t playing games during the late ’90s, you might have missed Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire. It’s a third-person shooter where you essentially play as a background character while the rest of the Star Wars story is playing out around you.
You run into iconic characters, get alternate viewpoints of major events, and get some more insight and detail about the scenes between the scenes. That sort of thing. Overall, it’s a fine game. But like restarting Tony Hawk Pro Skater until Superman by Goldfinger is your backing track, there’s one level we all played over and over.
Battle of Hoth is Amazing
The first level of Shadows of the Empire is Battle of Hoth and it’s broken up into multiple stages. In the first stage, you break some turrets. Then you move on to shooting down some AT-STs. Finally, you wrap up the level by taking down the monstrous AT-ATs with your tow cables.
The level isn’t particularly difficult, but it’s enough of a challenge. You have to stay focused and be alert to your surroundings. And can run out of tow cables which makes the level much more difficult.
Shadows of the Empire just drops you into one of the most iconic battles in all of Star Wars. Especially at the time, considering the game was released for the Nintendo 64 in 1996. Plus, the Nintendo 64 had only been released a few months prior! The idea that games could look this good was still mind-blowing to the entire world.
The Rest is Ultimately Forgettable
It might feel dated now. But, at the time Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire was the pinnacle of gaming. Unfortunately, the rest of the game is a fairly standard third-person shooter with a mostly forgettable main character. Look at every review of the game from that time. They can not say enough praise about the Battle of Hoth. Only to follow up with lackluster and uninspired “Doom levels” throughout the remainder of the game.
