When Bad films make Good games
- Martyn Young
- Sep 7, 2017
- 2 min read
Star wars month has given me a chance to play over some lesser known star wars games., Battle for Naboo and the Clone Wars. Neither of these games are anyway near awful, far from it. Hell clone wars is one of my favourites. Yet the films they are based on are met often with contempt. With Attack of the clones often regarded as the worst star wars film ever made. So why are the games so much better?
First they focus on the best parts of the films, even episode one racer did this too. With Battle for Naboo it is the end battle, the liberation of Naboo from the evil trade federation. Drawing you into the war with out the politics. Same goes for the Clone wars even though it set after Attack of the Clones it uses the best part to draw inspiration. The battle against the droid army. The part you actually want to remember. Again with out any of the filler the film wanted to cram down your throat. We know Padme and Anakin are going to get together, well aware where babies come from. Let's get back to the action please.
Second they either expand or fill in the story. In Battle for Naboo you play as Gavin Sykes a Lieutenant in the Naboo security force trying to save your home planet. The Phantom menace only focuses on the Gungan and battle for Theed. Obviously it would have been a lot more. The war was planet wide, so battle for Naboo gave you a chance to experience these other battles. Clone Wars takes place after Attack of the Clones and during the clone wars. This gave gamers and star wars fans a chance to take part in what they had only heard about in the books and films, six years before the cgi movie and series was released. The Clone wars wasn't a minor event and was important enough to shape the star wars universe. You also got to play as Mace Windu and see the star wars universe through a smaller characters eyes and giving them a bigger part in the overall story. As for episode one racer it gave you chance to race on other worlds as Qui gonn said "I saw a pod race one on Malastare, very fast and very dangerous."
Finally the low expectations. Because the films were overall critically and fan bashed. Anything that was attached had a very low bar. So people either ignored them altogether or just didn't expect to much. So while playing them, it brought the feelings that the film should have. Immersing you in the star wars universe the way the films have. But you were already willing to give it a chance in spite of the films reputations.
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