[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Star Wars Demolition
January 3rd, 2011 by Benj Edwards
I don’t remember this from the films.
Despite the fact that I scanned this ad from a magazine that I religiously pored over some 10 years ago, I have no memory of Star Wars Demolition (PSX and Dreamcast) whatsoever. It appears to be a vehicular combat game (ala Twisted Metal) with a Star Wars license slapped onto it. When I came across this ad earlier today, my first reaction was: “Man, that’s bizarre.” And it is.
Has anyone out there played it?
Discussion Topic of the Week: What’s your favorite vehicular/car combat game of all time?
January 3rd, 2011 at 5:29 pm
Absolutely! Played the heck outta this on the PS1.
My favorite part was the droids that you could pick up. Each one gave an ability. Power droids increased shield and main weapon generation, R2-D2 repaired combat damage, and the combat droid gave you an edge in close-quarters combat.
Gotta dig out the PS now.
January 3rd, 2011 at 6:42 pm
Heck yeah! Boy, this takes me back a few years. So many nights spent ramming “Star Wars” vehicles into one another on the PS1. At the time, the ability to select vehicles from Episode I was thrilling; here is an attempt to fuse the trilogies!
January 3rd, 2011 at 11:37 pm
Can’t say I ever played this one, nor have I ever heard of it. When I saw the title, I thought you were talking about Star Wars: Episode 1 Racer…
I’d say my favorite car combat game has to be either Vigilante 8: Second Offense (Dreamcast port) or Twisted Metal: Black for the PS2.
January 4th, 2011 at 11:46 am
DeathTrack!
DeathTrack was an old-school PC game, with VGA graphics and primitive polygons. It was exactly what it sounds like: a racing game in which you outfit your car with guns, mines, rockets and spikes and try to win the race by any means necessary. You started with one of three cars, each suited to a different initial style of racing. By the time you fully upgraded all your weapons, engine, wheels, fins, etc, of course all the cars were the same. You could take a pre-race contract to take out a specific racer, so even if you don’t win the race you get something. Definitely use a utility like MoSlo for this one, as it’s tied to CPU clock cycles, and is unplayable on anything remotely modern.
Honorable mention: AutoDuel, that classic road warrior quasi-RPG.
January 4th, 2011 at 6:03 pm
Twisted Metal 2 on the PS1 is still my favorite.
January 5th, 2011 at 5:33 am
Haven’t played that many to be honest, but I’m actually one of the few people who likes “Streets of SimCity.” I always thought the weird glitches and corny music and advertisements on the radio were part of its charm.
January 5th, 2011 at 10:11 am
Not a fan, but I’m one of those old grumps that hates what I consider a bad use of the Star Wars license. Then again, what isn’t a bad use of the license these days (we won’t even talk about the prequels)?
January 7th, 2011 at 12:16 am
Interstate ’76 is by far my favorite automotive combat game. It was an especially intense gaming experience for me because it was the first video game I’d played in about five years after having taken a long hiatus from gaming. But it stands the test of time well, with an elaborate alternate-history setting that combines elements of Mad Max and 70s and 80s action television shows). Great voice acting, superb music, and a well-considered art direction considering the game engine’s limitations added up to a wonderful single-player campaign. It was also the first online game I played, and I remember having a blast and being amazed by the experience. It has a pretty robust physics and salvage system, with important choices to make about armor and weapon placement. The Vigilante 8 series was spun off from the world of Interstate ’76, but nothing else matches the charm of the original… not even its own sequel, Interstate ’82, which ambitiously advanced the story into an homage to early 80s punk and new wave trappings, but oversimplified the gameplay and ultimately got surpassed by GTA III’s fluid transitions between driving and on-foot gameplay. Good Old Games re-released Interstate ’76 a bit less than a year ago… be prepared to spend a good while tweaking the settings (took me about an hour) to get it to play right, but it’s worth the effort.
January 13th, 2011 at 6:40 pm
I remember this game. I spent a great deal of time wanting to play it before it came out. Then never bought it when it did come out because I had forgotten about it. Weird.
January 29th, 2011 at 5:03 pm
Are you f#@&ing kiddin’ me? Carmageddon 2, by leaps and bounds! (Then Twisted Metal 2).
February 2nd, 2011 at 9:51 pm
Yeah great game, absolutely loved the ps1 & ps2 age of gaming.
February 3rd, 2011 at 8:24 am
Glad someone said Carmageddon, couldn’t believe people were rating Vigilante 8, Twisted Metal and Interstate ’76 over Carmageddon…
And yes, I’ll raise my hand and admit to owning this too.
Dreamcast version. It’s as poop as you’d expect it to be.
Lucasarts shamelessly cashing in on Starwars yet again by just slapping characters/vehicles into a game regardless of whether the story fits? How could it fail?
God, I wish they’d go back to doing adventures again. They’d probably mess them up as well though now, wouldn’t they?
May 24th, 2012 at 12:16 pm
It was a pretty cool game when it came out. I have the Dreamcast version, played it recently and it hasn’t aged well at all.
December 21st, 2012 at 7:41 pm
It wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the awful AI that manages to pile all opponents in a single corner after just a short while.