It’s time for another old school title. This one deals with the Star Wars verse before there were too many huge characters. The character roster is really interesting because the only character I actually recognized was Boba Fett. I assume the bigger characters are hidden somewhere in there behind unlockables but you would expect at least a handful of other big players right? Maybe the game was trying to be accurate to the lore but in my opinion that’s taking things a bit far.

So the general plot is that Jabba The Hut is flexing on the empire once again. He has decided to continue doing some underground races despite this being illegal and now it’s even more dangerous than it used to be. Everyone is to test their mettle in these life or death races. A single mistake will mean the end of everything. Who dares throw themselves into the ring for money, status, and power? Well, Boba Fett is certainly in the running and he’s absolutely got the skills to do well here. Do not underestimate him!

The gameplay is really where the game falls apart for me though. There are two main types of gameplay. One of them is where you hunt a bunch of droids and see how many you can blow up in 3 minutes. Fairly simple but without someone else to play with there’s not much to this mode. There’s no progression or unlockables to be found here. Then you have the main gameplay which is fighting other ships. You are thrown into a map with a bunch of other players and have to take them down. This one actually had a lot of potential, but alas it could not live up to this. Here’s why that is the case…the game is too easy to run away from. When you appear on the map you can just drive in circles and escape the opponent.

Sure, he will hit you a few times but it takes dozens and dozens of hits to actually bring the other player down so there is never a worry about losing. Unfortunately the same thing goes for when you are trying to win here. No matter how many times you hit the opponent, he continues to get up again and again. It just never ends and that’s what will make you shake your head here. A single match really takes forever and at one point I ran into a glitch where the enemy ran inside a wall and I had to wait until a time out occurred.

If the gameplay were better then the whole experience would be saved but there’s not much that you can do once the gameplay is busted. The only thing that I can say for it is that it would probably be fairly entertaining with another player. Sort of one of those games where you mock it as you are playing it. That’s all I can think of there. It’s a shame because the game put in a lot of work in every other area. The soundtrack is nice and the graphics look pretty good for its time.

Then you have the death animation which is really hype. This happens in tournament mode, so if you lose a battle there is a whole cutscene that plays before the game over screen. You are brought over to Jabba the Hut and executed. It turns out that the penalty for losing really is death. I thought this was a nice attention to detail and in theory they rendered a cutscene like this for every playable character. Well done I must say. The fact that the game has a full opening and everything is cool too. It may not be the same as having a story mode but it’s still an extra detail that shows the level of effort that went into this one. It feels like this game was not meant to be some cheap tie-in even if the gameplay makes it feel that way.

It’s not exactly AAA though since the game is very limited in content but at least what is there was well polished. So this feels like a game of missed opportunities because I could have easily seen this being really good. It just wasn’t meant to be which is unfortunate. Maybe next time right? I mean it’s been many years so this is likely not getting a sequel but nowadays you never know.

Overall, Star Wars: Demolition is a game that’s okay but I can’t really see myself going back to it. It doesn’t really have a hook to keep you and the gameplay should have been way better than it was. The fact that it could not surpass that was definitely unfortunate. On the PS2 I played a few Star Wars racing games which were fun although this one is really about the combat so it’s a bit different. I think racing games are easier to pull off but the fighting ones can be a blast. You just have to really nail the timing, weapons, and how you want the rules to operate. This one didn’t quite get that taken care of which is what hurt it in the end.

Overall 5/10