Play Star Wars - Teikoku No Kage Online

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, or Teikoku No Kage in Japan, came out for the Nintendo 64 in 1998 from LucasArts. It was part of that early wave of N64 games that tried to bring big, cinematic stories to the console, building out the Star Wars universe between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. You got a lot of game for your money back then, with different kinds of levels that mixed on-foot action with vehicle sequences.

You play as the mercenary Dash Rendar, following the trail of the Rebel Alliance after the Battle of Hoth. Your main goal is to help rescue Han Solo from Boba Fett, which takes you across various planets and into Imperial strongholds. The gameplay shifts between third-person shooting and exploration on foot and piloting your ship, the Outrider, in intense space battles. You fight Stormtroopers with a blaster and use a grappling hook to navigate certain areas, while the vehicle stages have you dodging TIE fighters and destroying capital ships. The difficulty can be unforgiving, especially in the early Hoth battle level, but pushing through gives you a real sense of accomplishment. It feels like being dropped into a side story from the original trilogy, filling in a piece of the galaxy you only heard about before.