Xbox gamers can play the best Star Wars game for a steal

May the Fourth be with you for all Star Wars fans, and what better way to mark this special day than playing one of the best Star Wars games ever made?

I’m not going to beat around the bush here; it’s Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith, the video game that not only retells the tale of Anakin’s fall as a Jedi, but also adds in deleted content and even a ‘What if?’ ending.

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith celebrated its 20th anniversary last week with a cinematic re-release.

If you play on Xbox, you’ll be able to acquire this game on modern platforms through the Xbox store, but if you don’t fall into that category, you’ll have to find an original copy on the OG Xbox or PlayStation 2. The best way to play is definitely on the Xbox Series X/S though, where you can benefit from enhanced visuals, frame rates, and loading times.

What makes this game so good? It’s arguably the best film tie-in game since Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie and no, I’m not kidding.

In summary, it’s a hack-and-slash game following the events of the film, where the player controls either Anakin Skywalker or Obi-Wan Kenobi depending on which part of the story you’re up to. The levels themselves are good fun, as you navigate through various in-universe locations like a Separatist capital ship, the Jedi Temple amidst Order 66 and, of course, Mustafar, but it’s the combat that truly shines.

When you’re not thrashing droids/clones, you’ll be going toe-to-toe with some of the most deadly duelists in the galaxy, like Count Dooku, Mace Windu, and my personal favourite, General Grievous. These are challenging encounters, let me tell you - even on the ‘normal’ difficulty, they’ll test your patience and skill. As much as I love Grievous, his boss battle had me holding my head in my hands at points, because the game isn’t generous when it comes to checkpoints.

To stay ahead of the enemy, you’ll need to truly master the game’s combat and unleash your inner Jedi, pulling off devastating lightsaber combos and learning when and how to use your force abilities. There’s also a parry you can learn, but in my experience, the inputs required are very finicky so it’s a good thing you don’t need to learn it.

Lucasfilm Games/Electronic Arts

So it’s a solid fighting game and you can take the fun to your friends with some local multiplayer which is always a laugh, but what else is there? As I said before, it retells the story of Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith, but it also expands upon it. For example, one of the opening missions in the belly of the Separatist ship was actually taken from a deleted scene in the film. Where it truly differs though is right at the end, during Anakin and Obi-Wan’s climactic duel amidst the fiery lava pools of Mustafar.

In the film, Obi-Wan is victorious, goading Anakin to attack him on the high ground which allows him to get the perfect sweep on his former padawan’s legs, defeating him completely. In the game, however, you play as Anakin for this final battle, and upon victory, the chosen one successfully leaps over Obi-Wan and stabs him in the back, before later meeting Palpatine and stabbing him too. This ‘What if?’ encounter builds on Anakin’s plan in the films to overthrow the emperor of the new Galactic Empire and replace him, but I’d imagine Padme would still bite the dust regardless.

There are other similar new moments too like Anakin being the one to duel and defeat Mace Windu, and you can even play a level from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope between Darth Vader and Ben Kenobi. It’s a brilliant twist of the Star Wars canon to better suit a video game format, and I’m especially fond of the decision to give Anakin force lightning as a character ability, something I think we’d have all loved to see in live-action.

It’s a phenomenal Star Wars game, with a steep learning curve at first but one that’s incredibly rewarding to master. It costs less than a tenner to play it on Xbox right now so what are you waiting for?