The Star Wars franchise is a cultural phenomenon the likes of which the world has rarely seen. The range has expanded beyond the early movies to all corners of culture, including books, comics, TV shows, board games, and video games. From the first arcade games in the 80s to more recent offerings like the critically acclaimed Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Orderit was a real party Star Wars games that fans have enjoyed for decades, spanning multiple genres and platforms. Despite the wide range of titles on offer, there are some aspects of the canon that most games tend to stay away from.
It has become an ongoing joke among the Star Wars fandom that the Prequel trilogy contains some poorer examples of the franchise’s films, and that they were ridiculed quite universally until recently. Now, especially after the popular Obi-Wan Kenobi TV series, the Prequel trilogy is once again starting to be judged by the modern audience. The prequels’ initial bad reputation could be why the majority of Star Wars video games tend to steer clear of this period within the narrative canon, but future titles should try to embrace these stories and key events like the Clone Wars.
The Clone Wars in Star Wars Canon
Fans will probably be most familiar with the Clone Wars from the second prequel movie, Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones. There is also the animated TV series Star Wars: The Clone Wars and the sequel Star Wars Rebels, both of which proved popular with audiences and made a less complicated legacy than the film. They also had fan favorite characters such as Ahsoka, who has recently found foot outside the series in others Star Wars content.
There’s no denying that the Clone Wars are an instrumental part of Star Wars storytelling, especially in the few decades the films have spanned. This period encompassing the Skywalker Saga remains a high point of Star Wars stories and is especially important within Star Wars canon. The Clone Wars shaped the galaxy and laid the foundation for the rise of the Empire, the fall of the Jedi, and introduced some of the most recognizable antagonists in the universe. Star Wars world.
How they were seen in video games before
Even though there is a bit of a trend within wider Star Wars content to focus on the stories around A new hope further and around the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, some previous video games have featured or focused on the Clone Wars. Star Wars: The Clone Wars, a vehicle combat game released in 2002 for the GameCube and PlayStation 2 and later the Xbox, was a relatively well-received title that focused on the titular conflict. Some Game Boy Advance games were released at the same time, Star Wars: Episode 2 – Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: The New Droid Army, which were not too warmly received by fans.
These were part of a plethora of games released around the time of the second film in the Prequel trilogy that served as a tie-in to the film. The RTS Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds also released clone campaigns, an expansion pack coinciding with the film’s launch and covering the first few months of the Clone Wars, as well as adding two new factions and campaigns. While there was a deluge of Clone Wars-related content in the early 2000s, things quickly dried up after that as both the Star Wars universe and fans continued.
Another set of games set during the conflict were released around the time the 2008 TV series launched, such as: Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Lightsaber Duels, but again Star Wars video games took to greener pastures as the Clone Wars was left out of much later video game content. However, now seems like the perfect time for Star Wars games to revisit this groundbreaking conflict and bring the Clone Wars back to the forefront.
How the Clone Wars could be used in the future?
A critique that fans can take on Star Wars video games, in addition to much of the other content, is that it focuses on a relatively small time frame redrawing the same storylines in just a few decades. There are of course exceptions, such as BioWare Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and the coming Star Wars Eclipse which will explore the relatively underused era of the High Republic. The popularity of BioWare’s earlier title and focus on newer titles in development demonstrates the potential of video games exploring newer or underutilized corners of the world. Star Wars universe, and this also lays the foundation for more Clone Wars games.
While a handful of games were played during this conflict, they were mostly smaller titles, movie links, or fringe games. There is certainly room for a more mainstream Star Wars game in which the Clone Wars features prominently or somehow features this pivotal conflict, and thanks to the recent re-evaluation of this area of Star Wars stories, fans seem to be much more open to it.
The Togruta padawan Ahsoka Tano became intrinsically linked to the Clone Wars thanks to the TV series and was one of the most popular aspects to come out of this period. She may be getting her own Disney Plus show soon, but she’s yet to run her own video game. Many fans would love the chance to play as Ahsoka and make use of her formidable lightsaber skills, and a Star Wars title that follows her through the Clone Wars and through her adventures afterward, or even serves as a prequel to the conflict, would be an immersive game. Whether it’s focused on Ahsoka or not, the future Star Wars games should give the Clone Wars their day in the sun.
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