{"id":2094,"date":"2013-01-16T16:24:39","date_gmt":"2013-01-16T16:24:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=2094"},"modified":"2013-01-16T16:24:39","modified_gmt":"2013-01-16T16:24:39","slug":"my-top-100-33-star-wars-shadows-of-the-empire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=2094","title":{"rendered":"My Top 100: #33 &#8211; Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_2101\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?attachment_id=2101\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2101\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2101\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2101\" alt=\"1996 - LucasArts (Nintendo 64, PC)\" src=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Shadows-of-the-empire-cover1.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"445\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Shadows-of-the-empire-cover1.jpg 640w, http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Shadows-of-the-empire-cover1-300x208.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2101\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">1996 &#8211; LucasArts (Nintendo 64, PC)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Star Wars<\/em> Expanded Universe, which is comprised of novels,\u00a0TV shows and comic books, contains characters and situations that are tailor-made for video games.\u00a0 Most of the time, however, the games based on the sci-fi franchise are entirely new stories, and insert themselves into canon in various ways.\u00a0 <em>The Force Unleashed<\/em> and <em>Knights of the Old Republic<\/em> are prime examples of this\u00a0&#8211; both were\u00a0fantastic games, but were\u00a0somewhat awkwardly worked into a\u00a0pre-existing storyline that had been established in another medium.<\/p>\n<p>In the mid-90&#8217;s, the folks at LucasFilm had the idea of crafting a multi-platform storytelling machine that would explore a\u00a0rarely talked-about\u00a0chapter in the saga.\u00a0 They wanted to see how many units they could move, and how many toys,\u00a0trading cards and role playing material\u00a0they could sell, if they released everything BUT a new movie.<\/p>\n<p>This all new chapter, placed between the events of <em>The Empire Strikes Back<\/em> and <em>Return of the Jedi<\/em>, would be\u00a0told through\u00a0a graphic novel, video game, and a paperback novel by Steve Perry (NOT the ex-Journey singer).\u00a0 On top of that, Joel McNeely (one of John Williams&#8217; proteg\u00e9s) would write an entirely new orchestral score to complement the visual material, and was to be\u00a0featured in the video game.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, <em>Shadows of the Empire<\/em> was definitely something worth getting excited about.\u00a0 Maybe it was time for me to actually\u00a0get excited about reading a book!\u00a0 None of this &#8220;book report&#8221; stuff&#8230;\u00a0 just reading, only\u00a0for the sheer enjoyment of reading.\u00a0 What a crazy concept that was to me, at the time.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BkrLejDUadE\" height=\"480\" width=\"640\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not even sure if there are any video retailers that do console rentals these days, but I do remember doing that a few times with both the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation.\u00a0 Renting a game was great fun, but when you were treated to renting a console, your weekends usually consisted of doing nothing but playing games.\u00a0 Those are definitely times I look back on quite fondly.<\/p>\n<p>The second time I rented a Nintendo 64 was right before Christmas break in &#8217;96, a couple months after it was released.\u00a0 I had my choice of two games to rent with it, so I chose <em>Super Mario 64<\/em> and <em>Shadows of the Empire<\/em>.\u00a0 As I walked out of Blockbuster Video with that &#8220;console briefcase&#8221; in hand, I had to temper my excitement.\u00a0\u00a0We\u00a0had\u00a0an extra stop to make &#8211; at the liquor store &#8211; and then we could go home.<\/p>\n<p>I didn&#8217;t want to go into the store once we got there; I just wanted to stay in the car and read the instruction manuals!\u00a0 The liquor store was for adults anyway.\u00a0 Nothing for me to see in there!<\/p>\n<p>As I was reading up on <em>SotE<\/em> enemies, I noticed there&#8217;s a car parked next to us.\u00a0 In the back seat were two\u00a0girls (around my age, probably), and out of the corner of my eye,\u00a0I could see them both staring at me, making faces, acting ridiculous.\u00a0 I was too focused on my reading to pay them any attention, but at one point, I could tell the car was bouncing up and down from them acting like such idiots.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, I\u00a0did\u00a0one of those\u00a0slow head turns, and\u00a0gave them the most\u00a0annoyed\u00a0glare I\u00a0could give them.\u00a0 They quickly stopped and acted like they hadn&#8217;t been doing anything, but of course, they went right back at it when I turned back to my manual.<\/p>\n<p>Some people&#8217;s kids!<\/p>\n<p>When my mom finally came back, she said &#8220;Those girls in the car next to\u00a0us are quite hyper, aren&#8217;t they&#8221;.\u00a0 I just said &#8220;I didn&#8217;t notice&#8221;, and kept on reading.<\/p>\n<p>I actually started working at that same store six years later, and every time I&#8217;d look out at the parking lot,\u00a0I couldn&#8217;t help but think of those annoying girls in the car next to me that day.<\/p>\n<p>Another memory about the game was finding out about the PC version, which was demo&#8217;ed at Computer Village, the PC retailer in the mini-mart next to our school.\u00a0 After lunch at Subway or Pizza Twice, we had time to kill, and usually ended up there.\u00a0 So,\u00a0whenever they had the store&#8217;s demo PC set up with <em>Shadows of the Empire<\/em> (complete with CG cutscenes), I made sure to make the most of my lunch break on those days.<\/p>\n<p>About the game, I was so\u00a0amazed by the fact that I was IN <em>Star Wars <\/em>that it quickly became one of my favourites<em>.\u00a0 <\/em>By that, I mean that I&#8217;d explore Hoth&#8217;s\u00a0Echo Base and other levels, imagining that this is how the\u00a0characters\u00a0actually\u00a0saw these locales in the movie&#8230;\u00a0 if that makes sense.<\/p>\n<p>Not only that, but we were finally introduced to a visual representation of the Imperial City of Coruscant!\u00a0 Cool!\u00a0\u00a0Also,\u00a0they explained the events that prompted Mon Mothma&#8217;s\u00a0&#8220;many Bothans died to bring us this information&#8221; line from <em>Return of the Jedi<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Bothans are kinda bastards, anyway.<\/p>\n<p>I really wish there were more <em>Star Wars<\/em> games based on the novels&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2105\" style=\"width: 622px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?attachment_id=2105\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2105\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2105\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2105\" alt=\"...because it really goes downhill (and gets interesting) after Return of the Jedi.\" src=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/starwarsbooks.jpg\" width=\"612\" height=\"612\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/starwarsbooks.jpg 612w, http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/starwarsbooks-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/starwarsbooks-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 612px) 100vw, 612px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2105\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8230;because it really goes downhill (and gets interesting) after Return of the Jedi.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; The Star Wars Expanded Universe, which is comprised of novels,\u00a0TV shows and comic books, contains characters and situations that are tailor-made for video games.\u00a0 Most of the time, however, the games based on the sci-fi franchise are&#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=2094\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,28,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-64","category-star-wars","category-top-100"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2094"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2119,"href":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2094\/revisions\/2119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}