Star Wars characters who deserve their own game
Now that Disney owns Star Wars and we’re entering into a new era for the franchise, one that embraces different characters and themes, we should get more video games. Of course, we have Ubisoft’s Star Wars Outlaws coming later this year, but there’s not much else on the horizon.
So, who deserves their own game? If we were to mine the extensive history and character roster from the Star Wars universe, who is standing head and shoulders above others for a chance to get a game? Who can lead a title and offer new ways to play? Let’s spitball some ideas.
The Mandalorian
We’ve had many rumours and mods that have given the man of few words his own game but there’s nothing concrete on the horizon as yet. A bounty-hunting game has already been done before, but to have one in the modern era of gaming with all the gameplay mechanics we’ve learned over the years would be a blessing.
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The Mandalorian has so many tools in his arsenal and the Mandalorian people have a long and rich history just waiting to be explored further. Of course, Grogu would make an appearance and could offer some great help via the Force, but this would primarily be an action game with plenty of jetting around and utilising that toolbelt.
Lando Calrissian
Having Lando as the central character of his own game gives someone the opportunity to write out his whole life in a game. Let’s show what he went through with Han Solo, have him smuggling goods, running for his life, coming into contact with the rebels, and taking the lead in Cloud City.
Or, we can see him travelling the galaxy on various missions for shady companies bumping into characters we know and love, crossing over with several other stories in the wider universe. All while stopping off at random planets to play a game of Sabacc. He has a cameo in Star Wars Outlaws, so there’s more crossover potential.
Ahsoka Tano
If you want another game about a Jedi, give it to Ahsoka. She’s one of the best characters in the whole Star Wars universe, but let’s stick to her travels between The Clone Wars and the Disney+ Ahsoka show. I want to see what else she got up to when she was mourning her old life with Anakin. I’ll even take this game with a visual style that matches the cartoon.
We can even have another action game like Fallen Order, with galactic exploration and tough enemies that have to be outmatched by those dual lightsabers. The wonderful thing about Ahsoka is her humour and light-hearted attitude which wasn’t conveyed in the live-action show, so it would be great to lean into her younger character here.
The Bad Batch
Top-down arcade brawler with gunplay. Think of a 3D Contra, with these soldiers who all have passive powers that change up the play of each level. Fill it with subtle puzzles that accompany the action, add in online and local co-op and you’re onto a winner.
The fact that the show is so highly regarded and features a troop of soldiers whose lives took them across the galaxy, there are plenty of story options to throw in here too. It doesn’t need to be adapted from the show, we can just have us some all-out action with explosions, laser blasts, and some brawling hand-to-hand combat thrown in for good measure.
Cassian Andor
Right, here’s my pitch to Disney. Take Cassian Andor, put him on a huge star destroyer and his goal is to infiltrate command and steal a datachip. No, it’s not the Death Star plans, it’s a slow-burning long con. Think of it like Hitman, but perhaps with a touch less violence. Let him talk his way out of each situation.
There would still be some shoot outs though as our boy is handy with a blaster, but a stealth game with Andor slowly moving from floor to floor, through war rooms, training suites, barracks, and even the food hall, would bring us a tense adventure with a huge mystery at its heart. Plus we just get more Andor and that’s never a bad thing.
General Grievous
Two words. Hack. Slash. Properly old school, aim for a PlayStation 2 AAA title with Grievous on a quest to collect as many lightsabers as he can get his grubby cyborg hands on. I want to play as a properly nasty piece of work. Let’s battle Jedis and take their sabers as trophies, working through the galaxy on the rise to his position as General.
Seeing as we know his origins now, we can journey from an innocent man and his turn to the dark side before getting chaotic and violent. We’ve had games where you can choose light or dark, but having another shot at pure dark side evilness would be superb.
Doctor Aphra
Doctor Aphra is relatively unknown to the great audience unless you’ve been a fan of comics. She’s a sassy adventurer known for seeking out treasures across the galaxy. Think of her as a Lara Croft or Nathan Drake, but with her own spaceship and she gets into scraps a lot. She’s often good, sometimes bad, a bit of a rogue, really.
We can go full-on adventuring with each level being a different planet and you’d have to plan out your expeditions in between, running into familiar faces as she has met Luke Skywalker before. The main levels would feature plenty of platforming, lots of shoot-outs with random civilisations, and treasure waiting to be grabbed at the end. Space Tomb Raider, if you will.
BB-8
Okay, hear me out. Droid puzzle game. So, it’s not just BB-8, it’s a whole cast of droids from across all the shows and films. They have to work together to solve environmental puzzles with each one requiring a different skill from another droid so they can be paired up and work together. BB-8 can squeeze through small gaps, R2D2 can hack terminals, C3PO can use his language skills to talk to guards, while K-2SO does all the heavy lifting or any minor fighting. There doesn’t have to be a story, just some interesting level design filled with puzzles.
Fill it with long sections of juggling droids, throw in some mini-games, and make it gorgeous so the 3D models look awesome. I’d play it. But then it was my idea.
Knights of Ren
I think there are plenty of people who want to play games as bastards. Squad-based bastards. To be honest, this gang is only on the list because they were done dirty by the films. Look how cool they look, yet they were left floundering and unused. They’d make for a very cool Ghost Recon style of game, with each member having a set of skills.
Of course, there would be Kylo Ren overseeing the whole thing, dishing out missions to raze this town or hunt for a force-sensitive teenager. Perhaps it doesn’t have to be all bad, maybe every other mission has you play as a good guy trying to thwart what you did while playing as the Knights. Just give these Knights a chance, someone, please.
Topics: Star Wars, Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order, Star Wars Outlaws , Disney, Marvel, TV And Film, The Mandalorian