32 BBY: Star Wars Episode 1 and R2-D2 Play and Sound books.

Margret Lansing’s R2-D2 and Star Wars Episode 1 play and sound children’s books both go over brief episodes from the film.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a copy of Lansing’s Episode 1, but thanks to Plaristes for providing me with a copy of the R2-D2 play and sound book.

I have a few of these types of books for my children, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves is the one I can name off the top of my head.  They’re neat.  When you read the story and get to an icon, you push a button and a sound emanates as a representation of the icon.  For example, in the R2-D2 play and sound book, when you get to an icon of R2 and push the button I assume there is an R2-D2 sound effect (I don't know for sure as I only have a scanned copy available).  The R2-D2 play and sound book details the part of episode 1 where R2 and Anakin hijack a Naboo S1 and fly off to blow up the Trade Federation cruiser. 

I’m not sure which aspect of The Phantom Menace the Episode 1 book deals with, and at this point I’m not sure I ever will.  Sadly, this is the first time in my project where I don’t have some sort of manifestation of the source in front of me.  I don’t want to buy a copy because money is tight with my wife on mat leave right now, plus, I’m not going to get worked up over a pre-school book.  I guess my completionist desire has met its limit in the form of pre-school children’s books.

For my next post I’m going to briefly look at Star Wars Saga Annual 2006, Star Wars Annual 2007, Star Wars Annual 2009, and TPM Pocket Money Treats.  Again, thanks to Plaristes for sharing his copies of these with me.  Until then my friends, may the Force be with you.

32 BBY: Jar Jar's Journey

The animated medium is where Star Wars belongs.  I talked about this in my post on Return – the animated cinematic from Bioware.  In that post I argued that Star Wars would be best served if it moved exclusively to the animated medium.  More could be done and more stories could be told.  I even went so far as to say that I think episodes 1-6 should be re-made into The Clone Wars style of animation, thereby creating a consistent visual story of the Skywalker saga.  Very wishful dreaming on my part, I know, but sometimes I like to think about the logistics of such an endeavour.  If this were to happen there would all sorts of hurdles to jump of course, like whose voicing would be used?  Would the films be best served if all the original voicing from the original actors were used, or – taking into consideration episodes 1-3 – would they be re-done using the voice actors from The Clone Wars series?  Fun questions to think about.

Though I’m excited about episode seven, I’d be more excited if it was going to be an animated feature like The Clone Wars.  Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher could reprise their roles as voice actors, and more importantly, the three stars could appear in the film looking like the older and still heroic versions we are familiar with from the EU book covers.  My greatest fear with episode 7 (among many) is that these three will look too real – too tired, too saggy, and too old.  It’s apparent the three have aged better on book covers than they have in real life.  With an animated feature, the reality of old age need not get in the way.  Whether we’d like to admit it or not, we want our mythological heroes to look young for as long as possible.  An animated film solves this problem.

Again, and in the same vein, the possibility of a live action show is exciting, but I’d rather have an animated show.  The Clone Wars proved that a consistent audience of young and old fans (and by old I mean myself and other 70’s and 80’s children who keep this IP alive) can sustain such programming.   I can’t be alone in my thinking here.  Does anyone else want to see Star Wars move to an exclusively animated medium?  Give me your thoughts.

I bring up the topic of an animated Star Wars because in the source before me, Jar Jar’s Journey, we are presented with The Phantom Menace in cartoon format – and putting aside what this is; namely, a computer learning program for kids – the effect is tremendously cool.  Though I haven’t engaged with the source directly (and I still might, the only thing holding me back is not knowing whether or not my computer will run it), there is a short YouTube video of it here, and the website www.starwarsmedia.com, has a page dedicated to it here. Take a look at these links and tell me The Phantom Menace didn’t just get a little bit better because it was a cartoon. I dare ya!

As it is, I still might pick up a copy.  There are all sorts available on eBay, and I can probably get away with spending 20 bucks or less for it, but even then, the price is little too steep.  I can perhaps justify my expenditure with idea that I may go through the game with my 5-year-old son, but like I said, I’m worried my computer won’t be able to run it.

Accordingly, I think the two links above did well in presenting the essence of the game. So, in the same spirit of Obi-Wan’s Adventures, I’m going to check off this source as ‘dealt with’. 

For my next post I’m going to take a quick look at Star Wars Episode 1 and R2-D2, both children's books by Margret Lansing.  Until then my friends, may the Force be with you.

32 BBY: Jedi Power Battles

Of all the video games adapted from The Phantom Menace, Jedi Power Battles seemed to be the most fun to play.  I watched this walkthrough, which featured two players going through the content as Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi.  As a matter of interest (for myself mostly) there were 17 videos all together, totaling a little over 3 hours of footage.  It took me nearly two weeks to find the time to watch them all.  Anyway, the two-player feature I found to be very cool, as it reminded me of my days playing Contra in elementary school with my buddies.  Games are more fun when there are two players working together.

The platform for this game was the Sony Dreamcast, which had better graphics than The Phantom Menace from the PS1, and slightly worse graphics compared to X-Box’s Star Wars: Obi-Wan.

As seems to be a common feature of walkthroughs, the commentary was terrible – the players were mostly cussing their way through the content.  In the last two walkthroughs I’ve watched neither of the players made a concerted effort to at least partially script out what they might want to talk about as they play their way through.  It’d be nice if walkthrough players discussed the finer points of Star Wars as they played through a Star Wars game, but I may be asking for too much. 

As it is, for this walkthrough I listen to the latest podcast from www.forcecast.net (episode #247), which talked about the latest news and rumors behind the cancellation of The Clone Wars – a sad day for all Star Wars fans.  It would’ve been nice if the show had segued into Episode 3 the way the Genndy Tartakovsky version did, and then was reborn as Star Wars: The Dark Times. Unfortunately for fans of the show (myself included), the show has been killed. 

Moving back to my reactions to Jedi Power Battles, at this point in the project there is almost nothing fresh regarding Phantom Menace content.  Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan played through some levels and defeated Darth Maul at the end – the notable difference being Qui-Gon’s survival in two-player mode.  I suppose I could speculate about what Star Wars history would've looked liked if Qui-Gon had survived, so here is a bold and unorthodox prediction: he would’ve joined Count Dooku and fallen to the darkside.  Yes, that’s right.  I think it’s completely reasonable to think Qui-Gon would’ve turned.  Without getting into a long diatribe of Qui-Gon’s questionable actions from pervious sources, check out my response to one reader’s reactions to my own thoughts on Gray Jedi in my post on KOTOR II: The Sith Lords.  I basically argue that Dooku was not completely off base when, in Attack of the Clones, he told Kenobi that his former apprentice would have joined the Separatist confederacy.  Crazy, I know.  What do you think?

For my next post I’m going to briefly look at the video game Jar Jar’s Journey.  Until then my friends, may the Force be with you.

32 BBY: Obi-Wan's Adventures

 

Before I had decided to no longer play video games for this project I had already purchased the Obi-Wan’s Adventures game on E-Bay, but I had yet to purchase a Gameboy Colour to play it on.  I figured when I had squirreled away 40 bucks I'd pick one up, but that never happened.  So now I have the game sitting on my shelf without a Gameboy to play it. Then I found this website, which is fantastic, but a resource I wish I was aware of before I dropped money on this game.   I played through the first three levels, and pretty much understood what it was all about after that.

As it is, there is only one walkthrough video online to watch and you can see it here.  It’s the first level of nine, where the plot of the story follows what is basically found in the movie. From what I can gather from the write-up at Wikipedia there are two deviations from the story we’re familiar with.  There is mention that at one point in the game Obi-Wan faces off against some bounty hunters.  Also, in order to get into the city of Theed to liberate it at the end of the story the heroes needed to travel through some ancient catacombs, both elements missing from most retellings of this story that we’ve come across. I thought the catacombs on Naboo bit was neat.

I still might play through the game on my spare time, but in the interests of moving this project forward I’m going to check off Obi-Wan’s Adventures as ‘dealt with’. 

For my next post I’m going to take a look at Jedi Power Battles.  I found a 17 part walkthrough on YouTube, so I’ll get cracking on that a.s.a.p.  Until then my friends, may the Force be with you.

32 BBY: Star Wars: Obi-Wan

 

I mostly enjoyed Yoshishide’s walkthrough of X-Box’s Star Wars: Obi-Wan.  You can find the first video here, and all the other videos are linked after it.  What I did play of this game was tremendously fun, despite Yoshishide’s continual exclamations to the contrary.  His comments on the controls of the game were spot-on.  Having the right toggle stick be the lightsaber attack was ridiculous.  It made control of the character difficult.  But for all of Yoshishie’s ballyhooing about how terrible the game was to play it sure did seem like he was having fun.  As it is, I think Star Wars: Obi-Wan is a game I’ll return to in the future to play my way through.

What I didn’t like of the walkthrough was the continual swearing, and after video 5 I watched the remainder of the walkthrough with the volume down.  With three little ones around the house profanity is something I’ve all but edited from my vocabulary.  The English language is old, deep, and descriptive, and there are other words I can use to express anger, frustration, or disgust. Don’t get me wrong though, it’s not like I’ve never sworn.  I grew up in an Irish household so I can swear with the best of them.  Like Ralphie’s dad from A Christmas Story, my father was a masterful curser, and I learned from the best.  He’s swearing would paint an artistic tapestry, my favorite occasions being when he would split a word to insert a curse.  It’s not just unbelievable, but un-@&%$#!&-believable.  I guess that’s why I enjoyed A Christmas Story so much.  The scene where Ralphie swore in front of his father was a scene taken straight from my own childhood.  Instead of blaming Schwartz however, poor Shawn Z. got the blame.

My desire to stop swearing comes from trying to set a good example for my children. Agree or disagree with the statement, I think for most people having kids makes them want to be better people.  Or perhaps that’s my naïve hope.  I’m reminded of St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians when he wrote: “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. But when I became an adult, I set aside childish ways” (1 Cor: 13:11).  My attempt to stop swearing is my attempt to set aside such childish things.  I’m no longer an adherent of the philosophy, ‘If it feels good I should do it’.  Though swearing may make me feel good for the moment, it does not mean I should do it.  It’s a bankrupt worldview.

Anyway, I’ve digressed.  As for the video game itself, I have a bunch to say, the first being the terrible voice acting of Obi-Wan Kenobi.  I’m not sure who the actor was but he sounded like a Ewan McGregor impersonator with a cold.  It was painful to listen to.

I enjoyed the part of the game where Obi-Wan got to square off with some of the Jedi Masters in the dueling ring.  An underutilized character form the EU is Sineese Tiin, and he was one of the Masters Obi-Wan dueled. Though I myself never got that far in to the game, he seemed to be an easy opponent for Yoshishide. 

There seemed to be a bit of a continuity error regarding the Coruscant guard, and the Wookieepedia page of this game makes mention of it.  As it is, the Coruscant guard an interesting element of the first chapter. Obi-Wan had to rescue a member of the guard who got caught while undercover.  When I went to Wookieepedia to investigate the history of the Coruscant guard it seems  there is a bit of an incongruity between how the organization is presented in the game – as an apparent arm of the Coruscant police force that welcomes aliens among its ranks – namely Quarren, and what Wookieepedia has to say about it.  According to Wookieepdia the Coruscant Guard: “…began as a Republic military unit comprised of clone shock troopers and were later a specialized branch of the Imperial stormtroopers”.  It seems the Coruscant Guard, at least according to this game, existed long before it was made up exclusively of clones. But like I said, the Wookieepedia page on the game tries to account for this inconsistency by suggesting that the Quarren who was undercover was not part of the Coruscant guard, rather, the Senate guard. 

Moving on, cortosis is a Jedi foil I always find intriguing.  The mention of cortosis was neat, along with the Jin’ha.  Taking a look at their Wookieepedia page the Jin’ha are not mentioned outside of this game, but apparently are a species who had cortosis ore readily available, and even sold it to the Trade Federation for the production of their own assassin droids.  The scene in part 7 where Obi-Wan was battling assassin droids in the throne room of Theed armed with cortisis blades was neat.  It had quite the cinematic feel to it.  I think there are two neat story elements here one could mine for their own Star Wars short stories.  Do these Cortosis laced assassin droids make a second appearance anywhere down the line in Star Wars history?  Why wasn’t the Trade Federation making more of these to battle the Jedi instead of those useless B1 droids?

What I enjoyed most about the game was the first half, since it was material not found in the film.  The first part of the game before Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon are on the Trade Federation ship reminded me of the Young Apprentice series, especially when Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon had to head  to the planet Obredaan to rescue Eath Koth and Plo Koon. The end of that level was particularly cool when the three Jedi Masters appear at the end of the level to help Obi-Wan with the Jin’ha.

There were also interesting bits of plot twists in the game, namely; when Amidala (really Sabe) was kidnapped by some tusken raiders and it was up to Obi-Wan to rescue her.

The final battle with Maul was somewhat anti-climactic, and its presentation was changed a little with Obi-Wan force-pushing Maul into the pit, and not slicing him in half. 

As it is, I’m glad to be done with this source.  It’s becoming increasingly more difficult to find time to write for my project.  For those of you still following my progress I thank you for your patience.  It’s my hope to get to Bounty Hunters: Aurra Sing before the end of the school year. 

For my next post I’m going to take a look at Obi-Wan Adventures, a game found on the Gameboy platform.  Until then my friends, may the Force be with you.

32 BBY: The Phantom Menace video game (PS1)

The Phantom Menace video game left me in a moral dilemma.  I didn’t complete the game on my own merits, and I’ve decided that I’m no longer going to playing the video games for the project; rather, I’m simply going watching other people’s walkthroughs on YouTube.  The benefits of watching walkthroughs are obvious (here comes my rationalization):  it’ll save me much time, money, and frustration.  For example, the time and trouble it took for me to get my hands on an N64 for The Battle for Naboo game was a little too much.  Moreover, for this game I had to dish out 50 bucks for a PS2 (plus 10 bucks to get the PS1 disc on EBay) which was ultimately neither fun nor enjoyable to play.

The Phantom Menace video game was mostly terrible, and in response to its terribleness I doubly cheated my way through it, and my “completion” of this game feels empty.  Yes, I’ve “walked through it”, but I don’t feel victorious.  Ultimately, I don’t like that I cheated my way through it.  After cheating I wish I hadn’t.  I wish I had finished the game on my own merits in order to feel the sense of accomplishment that comes with finishing a video game.  I’m at the same time glad that I “finished” the game so I can move on to the next source (yet another video game), but sad that the game beat me.

Like I said, my cheating was two-fold.  Firstly, I cheated by using an actual cheat code.  The Escape from Theed level was so terribly difficult I broke down and looked for a way out.  I kept dying at the end of the level, where the tank guards the gates.  I came across IGN’s list of cheats and promptly entered in the invincibility code by highlighting the Options at the main menu, then pressing: Triangle, Circle, Left, L1, R2, Square, Circle, Left. When the tone confirmed correct entry, I held L1 + Select + Triangle.  Voila!  I was invincible, and oddly, felt like an actual Jedi when facing off against the battle droids in the subsequent levels.

Secondly, my other method of cheating was watching some Australian fellas play through the game (the PC version) on YouTube.  I became so confused with who I had to trade what with in the Mos Espa level, I broke down and watched a Phantom Menace walkthrough.  After watching the Mos Espa level I didn’t stop, and continued viewing right to end.  Needless to say, I don’t feel the need to complete the game now.

The reason I’m bothered by this can be summed up in one word – authenticity. 

The purpose of this project is to ‘authentically’ engage with all Star Wars material pertaining to the historical events of its universe, and in my opinion, a YouTube walkthrough is not an “authentic” engagement with the source.  It’s like reading the Coles notes of a book – it’s just not the same. 

So here I am, decidedly sure that I’m just going to watch walkthroughs of the video games for the SWCP on YouTube from here on in, yet unable to fully accept that I’ve sundered the original intent of this project (because I have). 

Ultimately, I think it’s a feeling I’ll get over.  Basically there is not enough incentive for me to make the claim “I’ve played all the Star Wars video games” considering all the time, money, and frustration it will take for me to actually play my way through them.  The books, RPG sources, short stories, audio dramas, movies, shows, and any other bits of media I’ve forgot to mention are all sources I can handle.  This experience has taught me that I am unable to properly engage with the video games.  Also, with the new baby my wife and I now outnumbered, and what little personal time I did have to devote to this project needs to be allocated to my home life.  I know there will be a bitter-sweet moment in my future when my children will start to ignore me.  On the one hand, this will allow me to pursue my hobbies once again, but on the other hand, in the eyes of my children I’ll  be transformed  from that super-fun guy who chases, tickles and plays action-figures into that uncool guy with all the rules who doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

As it is, when I complete the Star Wars Chronology Project, I think I might start an offshoot blog and do my own video game walk throughs on YouTube.  That’ll be in about ten years (at the pace I’m going), so my children should be sufficiently independent enough to pick up and focus on their own hobbies allowing me to focus on mine.

Like I said above, the game was mostly terrible to play.  I had fun at the start playing Obi-Wan and fighting my way off the Trade Federation ship.  There was a neat cut-scene at the end of this level where Obi-Wan emergences from the water on the surface of Naboo.  It’s a scene not found in the film, and I thought there would be more of these throughout the game, but there wasn’t.  The only other original cut scene in the game was towards the end, where Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Amidala, and Anakin are about to infiltrate the Royal palace.

My most enjoyable moment in the game occurred while I was paying the Mos Espa level (ironically).  As Qui-Gon, if you bump in to one of the ruffians, he shouts at you “Hey!  Watch yourself!  I have the death sentence on 5 systems!” or something like that.  As I was playing, my wife asked how Yosemite Sam got on Tatooine.  I was like, ‘what?’, and she said ‘bump into that guy again’, and we both laughed.    

So, I’m a little sad to say that I’ll no longer be playing my way through the games.  They’re just too much.

For my next post I’ll be watching a walkthrough of the Obi-Wan video game (any recommendations of a particular walkthrough that I should watch?).  Until then my friends, may the Force be with you.

32 BBY: Reputation

I’m a Cad Bane fanboy.  Ever since he first appeared in Hostage Crisis from the first season of The Clone Wars I’ve been totally taken with his awesomeness.  He is, by far, the coolest bounty hunter in all of Star Wars.  

Like all well drawn villains, we miss his presence when he is not on screen.  Cad Bane’s hat, pistols, and Peter Lorre inspired Hungarian-tinged Old West infused accent (as voiced by Cory Burton) all add to the "quintessentially cold, cruel and calculating" aspects of his character.  The Angel-Eyes of the Star Wars universe, Cad Bane is not a Duros to be trifled with. 

Before I give my thoughts on Reputation, a short story written by Ari Marmell, I want to share with you one of my favorite Cad Bane moments. In Hunt for Ziro, from season 3 of The Clone Wars, when Obi-Wan declares that Bane is under arrest, the hunter counters the Jedi’s intentions with his own:

“Well now that you mention it, the Separatists are paying a million credits a head for a Jedi”.

It’s a line filled with such bravado I can’t help but root for the lone gun-slinger facing off against the two Jedi Masters.  Though he ultimately falls short of collecting his bounty, he gives the two Jedi all they can handle.

In Reputation we meet Cad Bane many years before his emergence as the pre-eminent bounty hunter of his day, which brings me to my first point regarding this piece. I think there is a little confusion on the dating of this story, as Wookieepedia has it listed at circa 24 BBY, which I think is mistaken.  I’m listing it at 32 BBY because of the following:

“War’s coming.  Most people don’t like to think about it, didn’t want to admit it.  They pretended the Trade Federation’s recent embargoes were flukes; ignored the growing whispers of separation and secession from the Outer Rim systems; placed and almost religious faith in the new chancellor’s ability to reunite a fractious senate” (69).

I think a dating of 32 BBY is fairly obvious – we’re dealing with Bane’s past as the events of The Phantom Menace are unfolding.  What is more, in this story no one has heard of Cad Bane.  24 BBY doesn’t fit if we’re dealing with “recent embargoes” by the Trade Federation, and calling Palpatine a “new chancellor” 8 years after his election seems nonsensical as well.

As it is, as the name of this short story indicates, Bane is a new hunter trying to establish his reputation.  In this particular story he does so by taking a job  protecting a Bothan crime boss from a Jedi gone rouge, but as the hunter quickly learns, his target is no Jedi at all.

Hired by Akris Ur’etu, the crime boss in question, Bane was tasked with protecting the syndicate leader from a “Jedi” that picked a fight with his operation.  As it turns out, the nameless “Jedi” is simply another mercenary hired by the Hutts to shut down Ur’etu’s dealings.  While watching the mercenary take down Ur’etu and his men, Bane was able to see through the man’s disguise, and realized that the “Jedi” was just another dog of war in in disguise touting a bag of neat tricks.  The story ends with Bane decimating the imposter Jedi, and allowing him to live so that he may give Bane the secrets of his equipment.

What Reputation is, really, is the origin story of how Cad Bane came about his own bag of neat tricks.  Watching and learning from the Jedi imposter, Bane exchanged the man’s life for information on how to obtain his equipment.  It is from this interaction that Bane, presumably, gets his rocket boots, his wrist cable, and possibly the gas emitter the Jedi used to “force choke” people.

In regards to the writer of this piece; I’ve never heard of Ari Marmell before, but his prose was enjoyable and he did well sketching out the character of Cad Bane.  He seemed to have Bane’s speech patterns down pat.  At least, when I read Bane’s words I could hear his voice in my head. In short, I liked Marmell’s work.  A quick look at Wikipedia tells us he’s been writing in the RPG field for a while, even contributing to some Wizards of the Coast material.  I look forward to coming across Marmell’s work again.

Thomas Hodges’ art was fantastic.  I’m not really much of an art critic so sometimes I’m really not sure what to say when I appreciate an artist’s work.  I really liked Hodge’s stuff here.  It reminded me of John Bryne’s art from The Uncanny X-Men and Wolverine from the 90s- those thick dark lines.  The best piece was Bane standing in front of the blown-open door with his hat tipped and hand on his blaster. 

Marmell and Hodges is a good combo here.

For my next post I’m going to give my reactions to The Phantom Menace PS1 video game.  I’m currently playing my way the Mos Espa level so I still have some content to go.  Until then my friends, may the Force be with you.