Line #12 YMMV/ShadowsOfTheEmpire


1	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The [[https://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=52216F97F15A201A soundtrack]], composed by Joel [=McNeely=]. Special mention should be given to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekEUCI_9L2A&p=52216F97F15A201A Imperial City]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_deMfDs9jY&p=52216F97F15A201A The Destruction of Xizor's Palace]]. The video game's soundtrack (which has a mixture of music from John Williams' soundtracks from the original trilogy, [=McNeely's=] sountrack and other original pieces of music also composed by [=McNeely=]) is no slouch either, with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ffgl2FcU4L8 an incredibly dark and foreboding main theme.]] The Nintendo 64 version of the game is one of the few games on the system to have a fully-orchestrated soundtrack!
2	* BestLevelEver: The Battle of Hoth had already gotten a decent rendition in ''Super Empire Strikes Back'', but this game just took it to the next level. While the rest of the game has aged like milk, this one still holds up, as the level's flight controls are a lot more suitable for the game's engine. The last mission, the Skyhook Battle is a close runner-up for this title. Hoth was such a well-received level that they spawned [[VideoGame/RogueSquadron a whole other series]].
3	* BreatherBoss: While most of the bosses in the game are pretty brutal, the Loader Droid is a walk in the park by comparison. Its attacks are much less damaging than those most of the other bosses, assuming it ever gets the opportunity to actually attack you in the first place, as circling around it makes it all but impossible for it to hit you. Any difficulty in the battle tends to come more from the clunky aiming controls than the droid itself.
4	* BreatherLevel: On [[HarderThanHard Jedi difficulty]], the Asteroid Field level is ''much'' easier than the downright brutal Battle of Hoth and Echo Base levels you just completed, and serves as a nice change of pace before you're thrown into Ord Mantell and Gall.
5	* EnsembleDarkHorse: Go [[EnsembleDarkHorse/StarWarsLegends here]].
6	* EventObscuringCamera: The game boasts a "Cinematic" mode which has no practical application whatsoever besides allowing you to see Dash's face. Even the normal camera modes are hellish when it comes to the game's platforming segments.
7	* FridgeBrilliance: In ''[[Literature/XWingSeries Wraith Squadron]]'' a disease research center has a plasma bomb array capable of wiping out the entire center and the city blocks around it ready to activate the moment a leak is detected, and it's considered a ''sensible precaution''. Considering the bacteriological research outpost on Falleen did ''not'' have one and Vader had to resort to [[OrbitalBombardment heavy turbolaser fire from orbit]] to stop the contagion from spreading to the whole world, killing 200,000 people in the process, one may realize ''why'' the disease research center had the plasma bomb array...
8	* HarsherInHindsight: Go [[HarsherInHindsight/StarWarsLegends here]].
9	* HeartwarmingInHindsight: [[spoiler:When Guri is defeated by Luke, he spares her and asks her to come with them in order to reprogram her. She rejected the offer, responding that she'll die if they try. Later, Guri decided to, and her effort [[HeelFaceTurn was successful]]. Well done, Luke!]]
10	* HilariousInHindsight: Go [[HilariousInHindsight/StarWarsLegends here]].
11	* MagnificentBastard:
12	** [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal Gunnery Sergeant Wrenga Jixton]], aka "Jix", was an Imperial trooper court-martialed after his failure to [[EvenEvilHasStandards participate in the destruction of a city]] on the world of Falleen. Later saving the life of [[Characters/StarWarsDarthVaderAndServants Darth Vader]] to become an Imperial Agent in return for leaving his friends alone, Jix infiltrates Jabba the Hutt's palace and swoop gang to safeguard [[Characters/StarWarsLukeSkywalker Luke Skywalker]], keeping Luke alive even after being forced to kill one of Jabba's men. After planting the dead man's code book on [[FramingTheGuiltyParty an injured swoop member]], Jix departs with his mission complete and his enemies none the wiser while remaining in Vader's service.
13	** ''Evolution'', by Ron Randall, Steve Perry, and Tom Simmons: [[DaddysLittleVillain Savan]], the niece of Prince Xizor, seeks to [[AvengingTheVillain avenge her uncle and take over Black Sun]]. Disguising herself to gain a seat on the council of Vigos, Black Sun's lieutenants desiring Xizor's position as Underlord, Savan [[ManipulativeBitch plays the Vigos against one another]]. Exploiting their differences to cause strife and borderline wars to keep them from allying against her, Savan disguises herself as an antiques dealer to operate in secret. Savan intends to obtain the Human Replica Droid Guri as an assassin and [[TheStarscream take over the criminal organization for good and all]].
14	* NightmareFuel:
15	** IG-88, and his horrifying alien speak. The introduction cutscene to his boss fight in the video game scared many a young player back in the day.
16	** The sewers. It's entirely possible to be instantly killed by dianogas in an early stretch before fighting them on a regular basis. The level is hell for people with a fear of underwater creatures.
17	*** And the music. The dark, dank sewers were scary enough without it.
18	*** The video game only had parts of the regular soundtrack, but parts of it are fairly foreboding as well, ''especially'' the title theme, which is used for many of the cutscenes, which is possibly one of the darkest and foreboding theme tunes in Star Wars history.
19	*** The dianogas are able to sneak up on you on numerous occasions, but there's nothing worse than the fight with the giant dianoga at the end. The doors shut, the water rises, the music spikes, and you see [[OhCrap the giant tentacles]] [[ThisIsGonnaSuck of the beast]]. Even worse, you ''know'' it's going to happen but [[ButThouMust the game won't proceed otherwise]].
20	** The Gall Spaceport music, especially the {{Scare Chord}}s. Fittingly enough, it's also Boba Fett's official theme.
21	** In the book, the explanation of why Xizor hates Vader so much: the Dark Lord of the Sith had established a bacteriological research outpost in his hometown, and when a flesh-eating bacteria got out [[OrbitalBombardment Vader had everything within 40 km from the facility wiped out by his Star Destroyer]] to [[ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure stop the contagion from spreading and kill all people on the planet, and possibly spread to other worlds]]. The death toll was 200,000 people, including Xizor's entire family. Then the ''Shadows of the Empire Sourcebook'' makes this worse by showing that Vader was actually ''holding back'': Bolvan, captain of the ''Devastator'', had suggested to use ammunition from Project [=X271=] to incinerate the plague from orbit alongside ''all life on the planet'', but [[EvenEvilHasStandards Vader declared it would have been too much]] and ordered a more traditional bombardment with turbolasers.
22	* SugarWiki/NoProblemWithLicensedGames: While the game tie-in is really showing its age now, it's a perfectly playable and fun third person shooter with some cool vehicle segments, creative level ideas and a great soundtrack.
23	* OnceOriginalNowCommon: The video game was one of the first games released for the Platform/Nintendo64 and one of the first third person shooter games released in 3D. It was praised as a landmark game with impressive environments for its time and for its faithfulness to the movies, right down to having music taken directly from the films in addition to its own new sound cues. Being set between the ''Empire Strikes Back'' and ''Return of the Jedi'' was a huge selling point as well--up till then, there had been no Star Wars tie-ins prior to it that really bridged the gap between the two films, and it along with the other multimedia tie-ins considerably opened up the possibilities of the old Star Wars Expanded Universe. In hindsight, however, the game has not aged well from a technical standpoint; the environments are very barren and rough looking, the combat is extremely rudimentary, and Dash Rendar controls in a very floaty, awkward way. The starfighter segments, while good for their time, simply don't stack up in contrast to the games that took inspiration from it while substantially improving the flight and gameplay mechanics, such as Factor 5's ''VideoGame/RogueSquadron'' series. The rudimentary story probably won't win over newer gamers either, since you really need to read the accompanying novelization and comics to get the full story of what's going on in the game, and its novelty as a Star Wars interquel is completely lost on newer fans who are used to seeing that kind of thing regularly in Star Wars works that came after it, such as ''VideoGame/StarWarsBountyHunter'', ''VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed'' and ''Film/RogueOne''.
24	* PolishedPort: Arguably, the PC port of the game is a significant improvement over the N64 original, what with much more responsive controls and fully voiced, rendered cutscenes that hold up well enough till this day… that is if you're using a system this game was made for, as newer ones [[TechnologyMarchesOn sure cause a few problems]], although the GOG port works just fine.
25	* SchizophrenicDifficulty: The walking stages of the game are ''much'' harder and take way longer to get through than those that have you drive a vehicle (save, maybe, for the swoop race which, while tough, is still relatively short so you don't have to worry too much about losing your progress in case you run out of lives). The third level, taking place in the Asteroid Field, for instance, is ''ridiculously'' easy in particular and can be beat within less than two minutes.
26	* {{Squick}}: Guri is fully equipped as a female human replica droid. And Xizor has actually used said equipment.
27	* ThatOneBoss:
28	** Rather fittingly, Boba Fett. He has his trademark jetpack, the same kind of homing Seeker missiles you've been using since Hoth, and a close-range flamethrower that will kill you quicker than you can blink, even if you're at full health. Thankfully, the arena has some health pick ups on the outside, and he becomes much more sluggish once he enters ''Slave I'' for the second phase, though one bad move and you might end up having to repeat a definite MarathonLevel.
29	** Although neither he nor ''Slave I'' will follow you ''outside'' the launchpad, where you can find extra powerups. When dealing with ''Slave I'' in particular, you can just hop between the gaps on your jetpack, fire a few shots at ''Slave I'', then dip back down before it can fire on you. [[BoringButPractical Lather, Rinse, Repeat]].
30	** The Giant Dianoga from Sewers of Imperial City. Not only do you have to put up with UnderTheSea physics, but you also have to focus on avoiding both its tentacles and getting sucked into its Sarlacc-like mouth (which will result in a OneHitKill, obviously). Additionally, you can only damage it via AttackItsWeakPoint -- namely, its always-moving eye.
31	** The Gladiator from Xizor's Palace has three "forms": the full figure, its torso (with a rocket booster to propel itself around), and its head. When its second form appears, a labyrinth forms that also has some enemies inside. When the head is left, [[FromBadToWorse your jetpack malfunctions]]. And it always spams the laser (with a really big area span) no matter where you are.
32	* ThatOneLevel:
33	** Ord Mantell junkyard. You have to jump from train car to train car, and from train to train- all with physics that will send you helplessly falling to instant death if you attempt a jump at the wrong time. You will fall ''a lot'' before you get familiar enough with the mechanics to beat the level; and at the end of it is IG-88.
34	** The widely reviled Swoop Bike chase level; a level that forces you to drive at breakneck speeds through cluttered streets and levels, with countless opportunities to get stuck, slow down, and crash and burn. The only thing that salvages the level is the enemies actually ''slow down so you can attack them'', and even then, the [[GuideDangIt game doesn't tell you how to attack them]] (you have to use a specific button to ram the swoop gang bikes at their sides).
35	** [[DownTheDrain Sewers of Imperial City]]. For some players, it's because of the dianogas scattered throughout the level if only because you hear its roar before you see it.
36	** On [[HarderThanHard Jedi difficulty]], lets just say ''every damn level'' (with the possible exception of the Asteroid Field, and even that one isn't a cakewalk) becomes this. Because Dash can only take two or three hits from most enemies, you absolutely have to stay on your toes through the game and be prepared for ''every'' attack that'll come your way, because even one slip up will spell death for you. It definitely lives up to the NintendoHard mantra.

Context YMMV / ShadowsOfTheEmpire