Darth Maul almost got the Star Wars game he deserved. Not a cameo. Not a bonus skin. Not another appearance where he shows up, looks furious, ignites the double-bladed lightsaber, and leaves before the game remembers what to do with him. A full game. And 15 years after Red Fly Studio’s Darth Maul project was cancelled, it still feels like one of the most painful missed opportunities in Star Wars gaming. The project, often discussed under the working title Battle of the Sith Lords, was in development at Red Fly Studio before being cancelled in 2011. Over the years, reported details and prototype footage have painted a picture of a game that could have been a darker, sharper, more aggressive kind of Star Wars action title. Maul was not just a villain with a cool design. He was a perfect video game character hiding in plain sight. Fast. Violent. Silent….
Author: Soeren Kamper
George Lucas Joining Minions & Monsters Is the Weirdest Star Wars-Adjacent News of the Week
George Lucas is back in Hollywood. Sort of. Not with a new Star Wars trilogy. Not with a secret Indiana Jones project. Not with a surprise return to Lucasfilm where he walks into a boardroom, says “midichlorians,” and makes half the internet immediately choose violence. No. George Lucas is lending his voice to Minions & Monsters. Yes, that Minions universe. The man who gave us Jedi, Sith, the Force, droids, lightsabers, podracing, THX 1138, Indiana Jones, Industrial Light & Magic, Skywalker Sound, and enough franchise architecture to keep pop culture arguing until the heat death of the universe is now stepping into Illumination’s yellow chaos machine. And honestly? That is kind of wonderful. This Is Not the Comeback Anyone Expected Entertainment Weekly reports that Lucas has a voice role in Minions & Monsters, Illumination’s upcoming animated film set for release on July 1. The detail that makes this especially funny…
Fate of the Old Republic Proves the KOTOR Fantasy Still Has a Pulse
There are some Star Wars game titles that do not need much explanation. Say Knights of the Old Republic near a certain kind of player and you can almost hear the dialogue wheels opening in their soul. The moral choices. The companions. The ancient Sith drama. The feeling that Star Wars could be a proper RPG without needing to chase the movies every five minutes. That is why Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic is immediately interesting. Not because we have seen gameplay. We have not. Not because it has a release date. It does not. But because Casey Hudson, game director of the original Knights of the Old Republic and the Mass Effect trilogy, is back working with Lucasfilm Games on a new single-player, narrative-driven Star Wars RPG through Arcanaut Studios. That alone is enough to make the old KOTOR part of the brain sit up like someone…
The Best Star Wars Games to Play With Friends in 2026: Co-Op, Multiplayer, Couch and Online Picks
Some Star Wars games are perfect solo experiences. You sit alone, choose the dark side “just to see what happens,” and suddenly your Jedi has become a walking HR complaint with lightning hands. But Star Wars is also brilliant with friends. Sometimes that means online squads. Sometimes it means couch co-op. Sometimes it means MMO guild nights. Sometimes it means one person flying an X-wing directly into a Star Destroyer while insisting, very loudly, that “the controls are weird.” So if you are looking for the best Star Wars games to play with friends, this guide breaks down the strongest options in 2026. Not just the best Star Wars games overall. The best ones for co-op, multiplayer, couch chaos, online battles, long-term guilds, strategy nights, space dogfights, and friendship-ending hero picks. You can also explore the wider history of playable Star Wars in our Complete List of All Star Wars…
20 Years Ago, George Lucas Officially Became Science Fiction History
On June 17, 2006, George Lucas was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Which feels obvious now. Of course he was. This is George Lucas. The man did not simply make a popular movie series. He built a galaxy, broke the toy aisle, changed visual effects, rewired blockbuster filmmaking, and accidentally created the kind of fandom argument machine that may outlive civilization itself. But the 2006 induction still matters, because it placed Lucas exactly where Star Wars had always belonged: not just in pop culture, but in science fiction history. Star Wars Was Never “Just Space Fantasy” For decades, Star Wars has carried a strange label problem. Some people call it science fiction. Others insist it is fantasy with lasers. Some call it mythology. Some call it pulp adventure. Some call it a merchandising empire with excellent sound design. The annoying truth is that it is all of…
Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1993): The Sequel That Made the SNES Trilogy Even Meaner
If Super Star Wars (1992) was the moment Star Wars finally found the right kind of 16-bit violence, then Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back was the sequel that looked at that formula and said, “Good. Now make it colder, harder, and just a little bit crueler.” That was a solid creative choice. Released for the Super Nintendo in 1993, the game was developed by Sculptured Software and LucasArts and published by JVC Musical Industries. It was the second entry in the Super Star Wars trilogy, based on The Empire Strikes Back, and it would later be followed by Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi in 1994. As part of our Complete List of All Star Wars Games Ever Made (1979–Present), this is one of those games that really earns its spot. It also sits naturally in the Star Wars Games (1990–1999) hub, right next to the games…
Star Wars Galactic Racer Might Be Weirder Than Simple Podracing Nostalgia
At first glance, Star Wars: Galactic Racer looks like the easiest nostalgia pitch in the galaxy. Fast ships. Dusty tracks. Dangerous turns. Sebulba lurking around like a small, angry insurance problem. But the latest story trailer suggests this is not just Episode I: Racer with modern lighting and a shinier menu. Galactic Racer may actually be doing something stranger: mixing Star Wars racing with a runs-based structure that sounds suspiciously close to roguelite design. And honestly? That might be the smartest thing about it. This Is Not Just “Go Fast, Win Race” The new Star Wars: Galactic Racer story trailer introduces Shade, an up-and-coming racer trying to take down corrupt Galactic League champion Kestar Bool. That is already a solid racing-game setup. New challenger. Big villain. Personal grudge. Dangerous circuits. A sponsor probably pretending this is all very safe. But the gameplay structure is where things get interesting. The game…
Star Wars Zero Company’s Best Idea Is Making Your Squad Actually Matter
The easiest way to describe Star Wars Zero Company is still “a Star Wars tactics game.” That is also the least interesting way to talk about it. Yes, Bit Reactor’s upcoming turn-based tactics game has cover, classes, tactical decisions, squad builds, and all the lovely battlefield panic that comes with telling four people to survive a Clone Wars mission with a plan that sounded much better in your head. But a new Xbox Wire interview with Creative Director Greg Foertsch and Lead Designer James Brawley suggests the game’s most important idea may not be the tactics. It may be the relationships. Zero Company Is Leaning Into Found Family Foertsch says Star Wars is at its best when it is about relationships and found families, pointing to Star Wars Rebels as one example. That is not just a cute quote for the trailer crowd. It appears to be a real design…
Super Star Wars (1992): When Star Wars Went 16-Bit and Lost Whatever Mercy It Had Left
If Star Wars (1991) on NES felt like A New Hope had been turned into a weird, hard platformer, then Super Star Wars felt like somebody gave that idea more horsepower, more color, more explosions, and absolutely no intention of making your life easier. Released for the Super Nintendo in 1992, the game was developed by Sculptured Software with Lucasfilm Games / LucasArts involvement and published by JVC Musical Industries. It adapted the original 1977 film into a 16-bit action game full of side-scrolling blaster fights, platforming, landspeeder stretches, and the inevitable Death Star trench run. As part of our Complete List of All Star Wars Games Ever Made (1979–Present), this is one of those games that really feels like a line in the sand. It also belongs naturally in the Star Wars Games (1990–1999) hub, because this is where Star Wars on home consoles stopped looking merely ambitious and…
On This Day: Star Tours Turned One Ride Into a Randomized Star Wars Multiverse
On June 3, 2011, Star Tours: The Adventures Continue opened at Disneyland and quietly changed what a Star Wars ride could be. The original Star Tours was already a landmark: a motion-simulator trip through the galaxy before Disney owned Lucasfilm, before Galaxy’s Edge, before Star Wars became a full theme park land. But The Adventures Continue did something smarter than just making the ride shinier. It made Star Wars unpredictable. The Same Ride, But Never Quite the Same Trip The big hook was randomization. Instead of sending every guest on the same fixed adventure, The Adventures Continue mixed different destinations, characters, transmissions, and action beats into multiple possible ride combinations. Wired’s 2011 preview of the upgraded Star Tours: The Adventures Continue noted that the ride could produce 54 different story combinations. For a theme park attraction, that was a brilliant little trick. You were not just riding Star Tours. You…
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1992): The Sequel That Made the NES Star Wars Games Meaner
If Star Wars (1991) took A New Hope and turned it into a weird, hard platformer with a surprisingly personal grudge against the player, then The Empire Strikes Back (1992) looked at that formula and decided it needed more snow, more punishment, and a slightly darker mood. That was not a terrible instinct. Based on the 1980 film, the game launched on NES in 1992 and later came to Game Boy, with the NES version credited to Lucasfilm Games and Sculptured Software, and the Game Boy version credited to NMS Software. As part of our Complete List of All Star Wars Games Ever Made (1979–Present), this one matters because it continues a very specific and very early-90s idea of what Star Wars should feel like on home hardware. It also sits naturally in the Star Wars Games (1990–1999) hub, right after Star Wars (1991), because together they form a sort…
Ashley Eckstein Is Right: The Clone Wars Helped Save Star Wars
Before Star Wars became a Disney+ machine with Mandalorians, Ahsoka, Grogu, Boba Fett, Thrawn teases, animated spin-offs and enough interconnected lore to make a Jedi archivist quietly resign, there was a much stranger period. There was just The Clone Wars. Ashley Eckstein, the voice of Ahsoka Tano, recently reflected on that era during a Clone Wars cast reunion, saying that when the show was on the air, it felt like Star Wars might genuinely be over. As covered by GeekTyrant, Eckstein said the animated series was basically the only Star Wars thing keeping the flame alive before Disney bought Lucasfilm. And honestly? She has a point. The Clone Wars Arrived When Star Wars Felt Finished It is easy to forget now, because modern Star Wars never really stops moving. There is always another series, film update, game rumor, book release, comic arc, convention panel, or suspiciously marketable alien child waiting…
Obi-Wan Kenobi Premiered Four Years Ago and Still Feels Complicated
Four years ago today, Obi-Wan Kenobi arrived on Disney+ carrying one of the heaviest backpacks in modern Star Wars. The series premiered on May 27, 2022, with its first two episodes launching together, bringing Ewan McGregor back as the exiled Jedi Master and Hayden Christensen back into the shadow of Darth Vader. That alone was enough to make it feel like an event. But four years later, Obi-Wan Kenobi still sits in a strange place. It gave Star Wars some genuinely powerful moments, a few unexpected emotional punches, and one of the most anticipated rematches in the franchise. It also remains one of the Disney+ shows people still argue about like the fate of the Republic depends on it. Ewan McGregor Was Never the Problem The easiest part to agree on is Ewan McGregor. He understood exactly where Obi-Wan was supposed to be: broken, guilty, exhausted, and hiding from the…
Christopher Lee Gave Count Dooku the Class Star Wars Needed
Some Star Wars villains enter the room like a thunderstorm. Count Dooku entered like a man who had already judged the furniture, the wine, the government, and your lightsaber technique. Christopher Lee, born on May 27, 1922, brought something unusually sharp to the prequel trilogy when he arrived as Dooku in Attack of the Clones. Star Wars already had monsters, tyrants, masked nightmares, cackling Sith Lords, and bounty hunters with jetpacks. What it did not have, at least not quite like this, was a villain who felt like aristocracy had personally discovered the dark side and decided it was better managed with a cape. Dooku was not loud. He did not need to be. A Sith Lord With Manners The official Star Wars Databank describes Dooku as a former Jedi trained by Yoda, later disillusioned with the Order and drawn into Darth Sidious’ grand design. On paper, that is already…
Star Wars (1991): The Game That Made A New Hope Weird, Hard, and Weirdly Memorable
There are Star Wars games that feel elegant. Clean. Heroic. Cinematic. And then there is Star Wars (1991), which looks at A New Hope and decides the best way to honor one of the most beloved films of all time is to make Luke Skywalker jump over bottomless pits, fight a surprising amount of hostile wildlife, and occasionally take on giant enemies that feel like they wandered in from a different genre entirely. And somehow, against all odds, that version of Star Wars stuck. Released in 1991 for the NES and later adapted for the Game Boy in 1992, this was one of the first really visible Star Wars console action games of the 1990s. It was published by JVC Musical Industries and developed by Beam Software, taking the broad story of A New Hope and reshaping it into a side-scrolling action-platformer that was much stranger, harder, and more game-y…
Mando and Grogu’s 88% Audience Score Splits the Room
Star Wars is back in theaters, and yes, the galaxy is arguing again. The Mandalorian and Grogu currently has an 88% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, based on more than 1,000 verified ratings. That is a strong early sign that regular moviegoers are responding much more warmly to Din Djarin and Grogu’s big-screen adventure than many critics did. Because naturally, Star Wars could not simply return to cinemas quietly. It had to bring a scoreboard. Audiences Are Much Kinder Than Critics At the time of writing, Rotten Tomatoes lists the film at 64% on the Tomatometer and 88% on the Popcornmeter. That gap is the story. Critics have been more cautious, with several reviews describing the film as fun but familiar, charming but light, or closer to a supersized Disney+ adventure than a major cinematic reinvention. Audiences, apparently, are less bothered by that. For many viewers, “Mando and Grogu go…
The Empire Strikes Back Turns 46, and Hoth Still Owns Star Wars Gaming
The Empire Strikes Back turns 46 today, and somehow Hoth is still doing unpaid overtime in Star Wars games. Released in the United States on May 21, 1980, The Empire Strikes Back did more than make Star Wars darker, colder, and emotionally meaner. It gave the franchise one of its most endlessly reusable gaming scenarios: Rebel snowspeeders versus Imperial AT-AT walkers on a frozen battlefield. That sequence is so clean, so readable, and so instantly interactive that it basically arrived pre-packaged as a video game level. Big walkers.Small ships.A generator to defend.Tow cables.Lasers.Snow.Panic. What more does a game designer need? Hoth Was Star Wars Gaming Before Star Wars Gaming Knew Itself The first licensed Star Wars video game was Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, released by Parker Brothers for the Atari 2600 in 1982. And what was it about? Hoth, naturally. Players controlled Luke Skywalker in a snowspeeder, fighting…
Star Wars: Droids (1988): The Odd Little Cartoon Tie-In That Took Star Wars Somewhere Else
Not every Star Wars game begins with a trench run, a lightsaber, or an exploding space station. Some begin with R2-D2 and C-3PO wandering into another problem, which is more or less the permanent condition of their lives anyway. That is what makes Star Wars: Droids such an interesting little side road in the archive. Released in 1988 for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, and Commodore 64, the game was published by Mastertronic Added Dimension and developed by Binary Design as a tie-in to the animated Droids series, also known as Star Wars: Droids – The Adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO. As part of our Complete List of All Star Wars Games Ever Made (1979–Present), this is exactly the kind of title that deserves more attention than it usually gets. It also sits comfortably in the Star Wars Games (1979–1989) era, because it shows how strange and flexible Star Wars…
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: Ewok Adventure — The Weird Lost Star Wars Game That Should Not Be This Interesting
There are cancelled games that sound boring the second you describe them, and then there are cancelled games that make you stop, blink, and say: hang on, they were going to let us play as an Ewok in a hang glider? That is Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: Ewok Adventure. Planned in 1983 for the Atari 2600, developed by Atari Games for publication by Parker Brothers, Ewok Adventure never made it to store shelves, even though the game was reportedly completed. It later became one of those fascinating lost corners of Star Wars gaming history — the kind of title that sounds half ridiculous, half brilliant, and somehow ends up being both. As part of our Complete List of All Star Wars Games Ever Made (1979–Present), this is exactly the kind of side road worth stopping for. It also fits naturally beside our recent looks at The Empire Strikes…
Return of the Jedi: Death Star Battle (1983): When Star Wars Games Were Still Built Around One Big Scene
There is something very pure about early Star Wars games. They did not try to retell entire trilogies. They did not promise open worlds, branching morality, or a hundred hours of side content. Most of them just looked at one great movie moment and said, more or less, “Right, that bit. Let’s make that playable.” That is exactly what Return of the Jedi: Death Star Battle does. Released by Parker Brothers in 1983 for the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, and Atari 8-bit computers, and later bundled for the ZX Spectrum+ in 1985, it was one of the earliest Star Wars video games and the first one based on Return of the Jedi. And if The Empire Strikes Back (1982) showed how early home consoles could turn Hoth into a tiny, scrappy war, then Death Star Battle is the next logical step: same early-console ambition, same movie-to-game instinct, just with the…
Michael Pennington, Return of the Jedi’s Moff Jerjerrod, Has Passed Away
Sad news from the Star Wars galaxy: Michael Pennington, the British actor who played Moff Tiaan Jerjerrod in Return of the Jedi, has passed away. Pennington was 82. For Star Wars viewers, he will always be remembered as the Imperial officer overseeing the second Death Star — the man who had to stand in front of Darth Vader and explain that construction was not moving fast enough. A bad work meeting, by any galactic standard. The Man Who Had to Explain Delays to Darth Vader Pennington’s Moff Jerjerrod appears early in Return of the Jedi, nervously overseeing construction of the second Death Star above Endor. The official StarWars.com Databank entry for Moff Jerjerrod describes him as the commander responsible for completing the battle station under impossible pressure from both Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine. It is a small role, but a memorable one. Jerjerrod is not Grand Moff Tarkin. He…
Sam Witwer Says Maul: Shadow Lord Season 2 Has Pressure – Good
Sam Witwer knows Maul better than almost anyone in Star Wars. That is exactly why his latest comments about Maul: Shadow Lord Season 2 are worth paying attention to. The first season did not just bring Maul back for another round of snarling, scheming, and red-lightsaber therapy. It reframed him as a broken would-be liberator, a criminal strategist, and a dangerous mentor figure for Devon Izara. Now Season 2 has to deal with the fallout. In an interview with The Direct about Maul: Shadow Lord Season 2, Witwer said fans will not have to wait “too, too long” for the next chapter, adding that the team feels real pressure to keep discovering new things with the story. That is probably the best possible sign. A comfortable Maul story would be a bad Maul story. Maul Is Not Just Angry Anymore The smartest thing Maul: Shadow Lord has done is avoid…
The Empire Strikes Back (1982): The First Real Star Wars Game Was a Tiny Hoth War
Before Star Wars games became sprawling RPGs, online sandboxes, or massive shooter franchises, they had to solve a much simpler problem: how do you squeeze one of the biggest sci-fi universes on Earth into a home console that could barely keep its own snowstorm together? The Empire Strikes Back for the Atari 2600 is one of the first answers to that question, and it is still a fascinating one. Released by Parker Brothers for the Atari 2600 in July 1982, with an Intellivision version following in 1983, the game is widely recognized as the first officially licensed Star Wars video game. It was programmed by Rex Bradford, based on the Battle of Hoth, and built around one very clean fantasy: you are in a snowspeeder, Imperial walkers are marching toward Echo Base, and your day is getting worse at speed. That makes it a perfect follow-up to Star Wars: The…
Return of the Jedi Comes to Disney SpellStruck With New Star Wars Maps
Star Wars has invaded shooters, RPGs, racing games, LEGO adventures, card battlers, mobile strategy, and Fortnite islands. Naturally, the next battlefield is spelling. Disney SpellStruck has added new Adventure Mode maps inspired by Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi, giving the Apple Arcade word game another dose of galactic scenery. The update also adds Boba Fett and Wicket as playable characters, which is a gloriously specific pairing: one fearsome bounty hunter, one brave Ewok, and presumably several very stressed vowels. Apple’s own April Apple Arcade update listed the new Return of the Jedi-inspired maps and characters as arriving on April 23, 2026, while StarWars.com also highlighted the update as part of its Star Wars Day gaming round-up. A Word Game With a Star Wars Detour For anyone who has not been tracking Disney SpellStruck between lightsaber duels and Holotable panic, the game is a word-based puzzle battler…