During last year's Game Awards, a brand new Star Wars title from the developers of Heavy Rain and Detroit: Become Human was announced. Titled Star Wars Eclipse, details around the game are still pretty scarce, with its High Republic setting essentially being the only confirmed aspect.
But, according to a recent report from renowned industry leaker Tom Henderson, Star Wars Eclipse may not end up in gamers' hands until as late as 2027-2028, apparently due to some hiring difficulties at Quantic Dream. Although Star Wars fans are going to have plenty of opportunities to get their fix over the next few years, with titles like LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga landing soon and Respawn's trio of games being in development, there's always room for more Star Wars, and reviving some old classics may be a good way to fill the time before Eclipse's release.
Star Wars Games That Deserve a Revival
Over the last few years, Aspyr has released a handful of ports of older Star Wars titles to modern consoles. Beginning in 2019 with a port of Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast to the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4, Aspyr has continued to release a Star Wars port every year, with classics like Episode 1: Racer, Jedi Academy, and Republic Commando all being playable on PS4 and Switch with some remastered visuals and quality of life improvements.
In Nintendo's February Direct, Aspyr announced that fan-favorite Star Wars: The Force Unleashed would be heading to the Switch in 2022. While these titles obviously don't offer any new experiences for those that have already played them, porting these older games to newer consoles does bring them to a fresh audience, and helps to tap into the nostalgia of long-time Star Wars fans. When it comes to sheer abundance of Star Wars games, Aspyr has barely scratched the surface, and there's plenty more Star Wars games that deserve a revival.
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, originally released on the Nintendo 64 and PC in 1996, had a lot of great ideas for the time, but its slow, tank-like controls can make the game a bit of a chore to revisit today. The first Star Wars game to really experiment with third-person shooting along with vehicle sections, Shadows of the Empire deserves to be played by Star Wars fans, but could definitely use a few quality of life improvements.
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 is another title that hasn't aged too well. Despite its laughably out-of-place live-action cutscenes, Jedi Knight is one of the first Star Wars games that put an emphasis on lightsaber combat and unlockable force powers. With its sequels already on the Switch and PS4, porting this rough gem seems right.
Star Wars: Obi Wan may not be the most refined Star Wars game, but its arena multiplayer mode and its experimental lightsaber combat mechanics are at least worth a try. Unfortunately, Obi Wan was Xbox exclusive, and it can be pretty hard to track down a copy nowadays. Porting this game to modern consoles would help to preserve the history of Star Wars games, if nothing else.
On a similar note, the original Episode 1 tie-in game is also quite difficult to play in 2022, due to most PCs not being compatible with it. Again, it isn't the best Star Wars game, but there's some interesting open-world-like mechanics on display, with some nice environmental design to boot.
Modern Star Wars has a tendency to take itself a little too seriously at times, so a revival of the absurd Star Wars: Demolition game could give the franchise some levity right now. This game gives players a handful of iconic Star Wars vehicles to control, and tasks them with destroying the other vehicles, like Twisted Metal with a Star Wars overlay. While none of these games are considered to be the best Star Wars titles, all have their upsides and could be a great way to keep fans busy until Star Wars: Eclipse resurfaces.