Monopoly has always been less of a board game and more of a slow social experiment. How long can a group of people pretend to be friendly while rent, bad dice, and suspicious trade offers gradually turn the room into the Galactic Senate? That is why Monopoly: Star Wars Heroes vs. Villains makes more sense than it probably should. Star Wars is full of betrayals, power grabs, doomed alliances, and people dramatically overcommitting to terrible plans. Monopoly just adds property values. Ubisoft and Behaviour Interactive have not simply reskinned the old board with Darth Vader and called it a day. This is a much bigger remix of the format: team-based play, hero and villain squads, character abilities, dice battles, Dynamic GO Events, unlockable cosmetics, and 2v2 or 3v3 competitive modes through online play or couch co-op. The official pitch is very clear that this is Monopoly with a bolder Star…
Author: Soeren Kamper
Star Wars Zero Company Sounds Less Like XCOM With Blasters and More Like a Squad Drama
The easiest way to describe Star Wars Zero Company is still “Star Wars XCOM.” It’s useful shorthand. Everyone gets it. Turn-based tactics, cover, squad management, bad decisions, probably at least one mission where you stare at the screen and whisper, “I’ve ruined everything.” But the more EA, Bit Reactor, and Lucasfilm Games show of Zero Company, the less that comparison feels complete. Yes, this is a tactics game built by people who know the genre inside out. Bit Reactor was founded by former Firaxis developers, and creative director Greg Foertsch and lead designer James Brawley both worked on modern XCOM projects. The bones are there. The experience is there. The danger of losing someone because you got greedy with a flank is almost certainly there too. But Zero Company is starting to sound like it wants players to care about the squad in a much more personal, messy, BioWare-ish way….
Star Wars: Rebel Assault II – The Hidden Empire (1995): The Sequel That Let Star Wars Get Even More Cinematic
If Star Wars: Rebel Assault (1993) was the moment LucasArts looked at the CD-ROM era and said, “what if Star Wars tried to feel like a movie now?”, then Rebel Assault II – The Hidden Empire is the sequel where that idea got bigger, shinier, stranger, and much more convinced it could pull the whole thing off. And to be fair, sometimes it really did. The first Rebel Assault was already built around spectacle. It wanted movement, drama, music, explosions, and that early-90s “look what this machine can do now” energy. But Rebel Assault II pushed that vision further. It did not just want to feel cinematic. It wanted to feel like Star Wars had stepped directly into the era of live-action CD-ROM ambition and decided subtlety was for weaker franchises. That makes it one of the most fascinating Star Wars games of the 1990s. As part of our Complete…
Star Wars: Rebel Assault (1993): The CD-ROM Star Wars Game That Wanted to Be a Movie
There are Star Wars games that want you to learn systems. There are Star Wars games that want you to master mechanics. And then there is Star Wars: Rebel Assault, a game that mostly wanted you to slam a CD into your computer, stare at the screen, and say, “Wait, games can do that now?” That was the magic of it in 1993. Star Wars: Rebel Assault arrived at exactly the right moment: the early CD-ROM era, when developers were suddenly drunk on storage space, cinematic ambition, and the exciting possibility of making players feel like they were inside a movie instead of just standing near one. It was developed and published by LucasArts, and more than almost any Star Wars game before it, it sold itself on spectacle. Not depth. Not freedom. Spectacle. And honestly, that was enough. As part of our Complete List of All Star Wars Games…
SWTOR’s Nar Shaddaa Nightlife Returns June 30 With New Casino Rewards
SWTOR is opening the casino doors again. Nar Shaddaa Nightlife returns to Star Wars: The Old Republic on June 30 and runs until August 11, giving players another chance to test their luck at the Star Cluster and Club Vertica Casinos. The event begins and ends at 12:00 PM GMT, so do not blame Lady Luck if you show up late. The event is also returning to Mek-Sha, which is still one of the better ideas SWTOR has had for Nightlife. Nar Shaddaa has the classic casino energy, but Mek-Sha adds exactly the right amount of “this establishment may not be legally inspected” flavor. Perfect. New Rewards Are Coming to Nar Shaddaa Nightlife The big new rewards this year are two decorations: the Hazard Toss Table Decoration and the Card Shark Table Decoration. Both can be earned from the Emperor’s Grace and Emperor’s Grace Max Bet machines. That means stronghold…
Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1994): The Finale That Turned the SNES Trilogy Into a Proper Monster
If Super Star Wars (1992) was the moment Star Wars found its 16-bit swagger, and Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1993) was the sequel that sharpened that swagger into something a little colder and much meaner, then Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1994) is the finale where the whole thing stops pretending to be a respectable movie adaptation and just becomes a beautiful, aggressive, mildly unhinged SNES beast. And honestly, that was probably the right move. This was the third and final game in the Super Star Wars trilogy, and by the time it arrived, the formula was fully locked in. Big sprites. Loud action. Movie scenes remixed into game logic. Enemies everywhere. Bosses where there really did not need to be bosses. Platforming with opinions. A soundtrack doing its best to drag John Williams through the SNES sound chip and come out swinging. As part…
The Cancelled Darth Maul Game Still Hurts 15 Years Later
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….
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…