Not every Star Wars game becomes a classic. Some become legends. Some become cautionary tales. And some become tiny Game Boy Advance cartridges trying very hard to squeeze an entire blockbuster movie into your hands. Released during the busy 2002 wave of prequel-era Star Wars gaming, Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones for Game Boy Advance is a perfect little artifact from the wild age of movie tie-in games. Was it the definitive interactive version of Episode II? No. Was it extremely 2002? Absolutely. When Every Big Movie Needed a Handheld Game The early 2000s were a different galaxy for licensed games. If a major movie landed in theaters, a handheld tie-in was almost guaranteed to follow. Sometimes those games were surprisingly good. Sometimes they felt like a developer had been handed a poster, a deadline, and a very nervous thumbs-up from marketing. Attack of the Clones on…
Game Boy Advance
On This Day: Revenge of the Sith Turned Star Wars’ Darkest Movie Into a Brutal Action Game
Before Revenge of the Sith reached theaters and emotionally ruined an entire generation of prequel kids, LucasArts let players swing the lightsaber themselves. On May 4, 2005, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith launched for PlayStation 2 in North America, according to MobyGames and GameFAQs listings, with the Game Boy Advance version also listed for the same date. The wider multi-platform rollout is often cited as May 5, but May the 4th gives the PS2 and GBA releases a perfect little Star Wars history stamp. A Movie Tie-In From the Last Great LucasArts Rush The early 2000s were a very different era for Star Wars games. LucasArts was still firing out titles with the confidence of a studio that owned half your childhood: Knights of the Old Republic, Republic Commando, Battlefront, Rogue Squadron, Jedi Knight, and then this — a full action-game adaptation of the final prequel…