#10 Rebellion / PC - 1998
Rebellion is an extremely ambitious strategy game where you command either the Rebellion or the Empire and fight for control of the galaxy. This game attempts to model ground combat, space battles, diplomacy, espionage and other complex economic systems. Very ambitious for 1998. Although a lot of this game falls flat and it's not great to play multiplayer since matches tend to last many, many hours, it's still a neat game to check out. I hear Empire at War does a lot of what Rebellion tried to do but better, so I may need to check it out soon. It's one of the very few Star Wars games I haven't played
#9 Force Commander / PC - 2000
Force commander is a 3D RTS with the Star Wars license. I remember it being a pretty solid RTS with a few interesting ideas, but most reviews you'll find of this game are pretty unkind. Play it and decide for yourself if you're a Star Wars fan who likes RTSs. In any case, it features a great metal remix of the imperial march
#8 Super Return of the Jedi / SNES - 1994
I played this game to death as a kid. It's definitely more fun than it is good. Super Return of the Jedi, like the other two Super Star Wars games before it, is an 2D sidescrolling shoot-em-up platformer. You can choose which Star Wars hero you want to play as before starting each level. Always pick Luke if he's available to you. His force powers are super OP if I recall correctly
#7 Shadows of the Empire / N64, PC - 1996
Based on the novel of the same name, Shadows of the Empire was a first person shooter/patformer originally for the N64. Like a lot of first person N64 games, Shadows of the Empire really hasn't aged that well and is pretty rough to go back and play now, but it was great at the time. I still remember the cheat to activate debug mode where you could give yourself infinite ammo, alter gravity or even take control of other enemies
#6 Battlefront II / PS2, PSP, PC, Xbox - 2005
Battlefront II is a really solid team-based FPS with an overarching goal of controlling command points on a map to choke out the opposing army. You can reenact several iconic battles from the classic Star Wars trilogy as well as reenact the not so iconic battles from the prequels, although why would you? I'm actually actively avoiding buying the new Battlefront game since it seems lacking in content and also because, you know, EA. I'm sure I'll play it eventually. What little content there is does look very pretty.
#5 Rogue Squadron / N64, PC - 1998
This didn't capture the feeling of flying a starship like the movies in quite the same way that the X-Wing or TIE Fighter games did, but I dumped tons of hours into all of the Rogue Squadron games just the same. These games focused more on planetary atmospheric combat as opposed to space combat which is probably why they didn't feel like the movies. These games are still a ton of fun though
#4 Galaxies / PC - 2003
This now defunct MMO was my first foray into the MMO genre and really my last as well. Since I quit this game, I've tried various MMOs here and there including The Old Republic, but none hooked me like Galaxies did. I got it at launch and I was immediately totally captivated by developing my character and exploring the huge open Star Wars planets at my fingertips. I can remember tying up my parent's phone line for hours at a time since we still had dial up when I was playing. Several expansions for the game were released between 2003 and 2005, the last of which overhauled the combat much to the player base's contempt. Most of the player base quit the game after this expansion, and the servers were finally shut down in 2011.
#3 Dark Forces / PC, PS1 - 1995
Dark Forces is a DOOM clone, but it's got to be one of the best DOOM clones out there. This game as well as its sequels (the Jedi Knight games) all had very good level design with some tricky puzzles. They made mowing down stormtroopers a blast by including a variety of interesting weapons and eventually force powers in the later games. It's also got one of my favorite expanded universe characters - Kyle Katarn... Are we still calling it the expanded universe even though it's not canon at all anymore? If someone makes another Dark Forces/Jedi Knight game, will that make Katarn canon again?
#2 Knights of the Old Republic / Xbox, PC, iOS, Android - 2003
The predecessor to Mass Effect, this game may have started the whole good vs. evil morality system in role playing video games. At the very least it popularized it. I found the combat to be kind of "meh"; it's just standard D&D combat with dice rolls. But the story and role playing in this game is so good. I loved the companions as well (HK-47 anyone?). Really cool game if you want to role play and explore the Star Wars universe.
#1 TIE Fighter / PC - 1994
Graphically it hasn't aged that well and it may be somewhat difficult to get working if you don't have the Steam or GOG version, but this game is sooo good and totally worth the hassle if you're a Star Wars fan or like flight sims. There's a good story a decent voice acting to accompany this game too, which is highly unusual for a game of this era in this genre. If you've ever wanted to feel like a starfighter pilot like the movies, this is your game. I'd really like to see an HD remake of this game (Disney? EA?... Someone?). I'd also highly recommend a flight stick if you do decide to play this
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