The International House of Mojo

So I see LucasArts has yet to post a response here saying "Ok, you guys, the people that made us what we are today, win, we will not piss on you with our next game, and it will be a point and click adventure with an inovative interface a deep humorous story worthy of your time to play and with a worthy ending, congratulations!"

Sadly, I'm not surprized....

My God, I had a dream last night when I was playing Lego Star Wars and suddenly one of the characters said something like "Oho I've locked up lots of cool things in that house over there including Guybrush Threepwood!" then Guybrush came out and he looked like he did in EMI but like with much better graphics, like proper cinema film CGI standards, and then Elaine came around the corner and she had a beard on for some reason and she said something like "We're not FRIENDS anymore Guybrush!" at which point I chuckled and noted that they had decided to make Guybrush and Elaine hate each other again, and then I was worrying about how I was going to update Mojo news about this by explaining Elaine's beard and why I'd never noticed this cinematic in Lego Star Wars before.

Your in dream cinematic would have been cooler if Elaine sent the vicious gaurd poodles after Guybrush....ah well I guess.

I really wish LucasArts would like, hire some people to make games that dont suck. Maybe we should all go turn in aplications there, I mean shit, I've played most SCUMM games at least 3 or 4 hundred times each, I think I could help them get back to their roots.

I think they might be lacking the dosh for that...

I'll work for pizza, soft drinks, and a guarantee that the game I'm working on won't be cancelled.....

Good article. The only one I really disagreed with is 6. Games where you play as Luke and Vader and whatnot have their place, certainly, but if you just stick to 6 it kind of hurts 4 and 7- as you said, there is a massive extended universe, not just the main characters from the movie. If you only use main characters, you have to stick closer to canon, have less creative freedom, can do less game concepts- there is no Tie Fighter if you're using main characters.

Good point, though I still think you can have stories centered around main characters and still use a large universe. Either have them set away from the films (Vader before New Hope, Luke after Return of the Jedi) and then have them hop in a Tie Fighter or whatever for a level or two, or have a plot that lets you play Vader for a few levels then Generic Alien #4 for a few levels, then Leia... like in Warcraft III.

I have only one problem with your article. I thought the 10 commandments would each have sinners and saints, but somehow the saints disappeared after the first one and the sinners only appeared occassionally.

Oh yeah, I meant to do that but some of the commandments were too general to have specific games tied to them.

"As a general rule, stay away from anything that has "super" "kart" or "Droids" in the title, unless you want to be dissapointed to buggery. "

Super star wars on the snes?

Anything from the late 80's/early 90's is allowed to have "super" "mega" or an "@" sign isntead of an "a" in the title and still be good.

The Pod Racer game created by Sega for the arcades was excellent, but I can see arcades aren't counted in this article. I say this since one of the "sins" can't be counted in the arcade: the one about the games being too focused for a large universe. Arcade games are meant to be sit, pay, play, and go on with your business. But, yeah, I think Star Wars and arcade go together. From Star Wars Arcade to Episode I Pinball to Podracer, Star Wars arcade games have kicked ass.

Yeah, I'd forgotten about thos Star Wars arcade games, which are very decent if you like that sort of thing. I guess what works in an arcade doesn't work on the PC/Console, though...

Oh, I forgot to post something last time... Now I've forgotten it again.

Oh yeah. After leaving this page open for a while I remember. They should make a seperate comapany for SW games.

Why? So the non-licensed property games are underfunded and can't draw on the profits of the SW titles during development. Your idea makes no sense.

I think where they are now, they'll be publisher-only within a few years. I'm holding out hope for the new Indiana Jones game (the next internally-developed game, supposedly).

They're almost publisher-only now. I'd say they'll grow internally in the coming years, and hopefully become a successful company again.

That was Jim Ward's plan on taking over. Strip right back to basically publishers only, then rebuild from scratch bringing on more internal titles over time. Also to concentrate on quality rather than quantity (witness the very few LEC games at E3 this year).

Old Lucas could still start making good in house developed adventure titles if they WANTED to.

One of the comments up there said all the good people at the company that made those adventure titles what they are have left, and thats true and I've thought about that as being one of the companies downfalls, but, one of the reasons theyre just making Star Wars games is because they are making piles of money from it.

They could easily spend a decent chunk of money, BRING IN some good writers with a sense of humor, HIRE some guys that have made more than just arcade shoot em ups, and instead of the executives saying "We want this game in 3 months and we want it to only cost you 45 cents." They could say "Finish this game when its done, and dont let us see it until its awsome and deep, and heres a sack of money".

Do I think they will do that? Probably not.

Why?

Because, LucasArts sucks now. And I have said that in comment after comment, message board post after messageboard post.

I strongly believe THEY HAVE THE ABILITY, and they just choose not to use it. I'll put this in Star Wars terms for Lucas: It's like if when Yoda told Luke that the force was strong in him, and was going to train him, Luke just told Yoda to piss off and got back in his X-Wing and flew back to his Rebel base and got shot down trying to blow up the Deathstar without the force.

Couldn't agree more - it's wrong to assume that LucasArts *can't* make decent Star Wars games/adventure games just because all the good people have left... It's perfectly possibly for more "good people" to appear, if the company returns to the sort of environment where creativity and inovation is encouraged (two things sorely lacking in lots of LEC Star Wars games). Now LucasArts have been suggesting that they have that sort of environment, but, eh, we'll just have to wait and see.

Best Star Wars game: KOTOR 1
Worst Star Wars game: not sure (and that must be a bad sign)

others i really liked were indeed the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series, SW Racer (im sorry but the speed just did it for me!), X-Wing Alliance, Republic Commando (though it missed something, not sure what) and the Rebel Assaults (they were just very diverse)

There's only two good SW games. TIE Fighter, as Gabez mentioned and it's set between SW 5 and 6. And Dark Forces. Set outside of the movies. Notice that these are both 'Ye Olde' games. I think they should make a Loom 2. Think about ppls, it's a great idea for a game.

I'd say they were pretty much the only decent LEC Star Wars games, but KOTR Jedi Knight sequels and Lego Star Wars are great.

well i had lots of fun with the Rebel Assaulties :p they were very diverse games

Yes, those rebel assaults are fun. Blow up a Frigate... Fun. I don't think LEGO SW is good for pc, there's allthose bugs how you overlap with items. I'm gonna try n' bribe my friend to get for PS2 though.

Ah, I didn't know about those bugs because I consoled the game... but I also played the PC demo and it's just better on a TV anyway.

I know. I played it in the stores today, way better.

jake, give gabez some decent fonts ;9

Jeeze, it's arial... what's there NOT to like!?

But yeah, next week will have a new, more Mojo-ey font. ;

:D

When Star Wars games are thrown together with mediocre ideas, or good ideas are rushed out unfinished, always in the knowledge that it will sell because it's Star Wars, that's a real shame. The license is inherently very suited to good gaming, and we've only seen that a handful of times out of dozens upon dozens of games.

It's laziness, but if LucasArts can get it together they could redress that balance. Next good one might be Empire At War, I do like the look of that. Again it is developed outside though, I believe?

Whilst Sam & Max should never have got cancelled, I don't necessarily want LucasArts to go back to making adventure games instead of bad Star Wars games. Adventure games are a huge part of their legacy and why they used to be a great company, but they were original and progressive and LucasArts should continue in that *spirit*, pushing genres and the stories games can tell further, like the best game developers are doing. It's a world away from the company they are now, but maybe it could happen.

Get with the times, people!

That quote attributed to me must be pretty old. I don't remember when I said it at all, not that I entirely disagree with it though. Also Bombad Racing is a pretty fun game.

"...now Super Bombad Racing was actually a fairly decent kart racing game". ;

I'm not saying it isn't fun, I just hate lisences being used in that way. Lego Star Wars is okay because they followed the calibre of the films, they just made it in Lego. Star Wars kart racing just... goes too far in my opinion. But, hey, whatever floats your boat...

Eh. I dunno, I found it a bit 2002. What's up with no mention of KOTOR?

I don't know why people are so in love with KOTOR. I mean, it's pretty fun, but the dialogue is dire even by Star Wars standards, and the combat system is ass.

I haven't played that, but I did mention that other companies make excellent Star Wars games... just not LucasArts, and the fact still remains that *most* Star Wars games suck. ;

Now you're backtracking! FOOL! Either you are lying or your sidebar graphic is.

My sidebar graphic is... if you read the opening paragraph I explain why saying "quite a lot of LucasArts Star Wars games suck but there are some quite good other Star Wars games like KOTR" isn't quite as catchy a title as just saying "why all Star Wars games suck".

Your article was fun reading and your arguments are somewhat true. I do beleive star wars games are not all they could be but saying they are bad is a bit too much.

Don't feel like typing alot for this but I do beleive Episode 1 racer is a great game for its time, I understand that by now the graphics are outdated and the pic you have indeed isn't great, but come on, the graphics were perfectly fine since the speed of the game was mind blowing(play episode 1 racer then switch to wave race and you'll get my point)The controls we're easy to get hang of, the ability to upgrade your ride was fun, there was a lot of different pods you can try out, a bit frustrating at some points but not enough to be included in this article

I think the horrible SW Galaxies should of made your list, the MMO genre is 2-3 years before reaching its highest potential, and Galaxies didn't bring anything to the table, beside showing the world how boring MMO can be

thanks for your time

COJ

Galaxies did make the list, under point number three (though admitiadly this is a hard thing for a Star Wars MMORPG to fix).

You could also have Galaxies under point number II, as the US release was bugged to buggery and there's no excuse for that.

About Pod Racer... okay, it's not THAT bad, but it isn't that good either. I found that you were either miles ahead or miles behind, and moreover the whole concept just seemed too limited. I'd only like to see a Pod Racing game if it was a sub-game in, say, an RPG, and I felt that releasing just pod racing was too obviously a cash-cow.

You could disagree with that, though, and just say that that's merchandise for you and that if you don't like it don't play it. And that's fine, but, you know... I think LucasArts could have done better and been more imaginative even if this is just "merchandise".

Coming soon from LucasArts: Star Wars: Super Kart Droids!

I'd just like to announce that I dislike Star Wars.

Gabez, I think the heart of LucasArts that made those lovely graphic adventures broke into pieces and became three companies and a grumpy gamer.

What I don't get about LucasArts is how they can let their awesome properties like Outlaws and Full Throttle go to waste. Full Throttle was born to be in full 3D, and when they tried to bring it back it was just a total mess! Dude, everyone wants to be a badass hardcore leader of a biker gang. How did they screw that up?

I could go on about the rebirth of Monkey Island and such, but uh... then I'd sound too fanboy-ish.

Yep, good point. LucasArts should give their properties to other developers like they're doing to Star Wars, though to be fair Outlaws and Monkey Island aren't worth nearly as much.

The thing is, most people seem to want LucasArts to leave adventure games alone... but then what? What does the company do then? Just make Star Wars games? Or just be a publishing agent? That just seems unsatisfactory for me... I'd love LucasArts to concentrate on adventures again. I'm not saying it's likely, but I would like it. FT2 wasn't looking THAT bad (the later screenshots at least) and Sam & Max 2 was looking awesome. If we pressume that they don't cancel adventure games again then I have nothing against them trying to have another go at the "market place realities". I'm not saying this will happen over night - I won't trust another press release until the game is out in the shops - but, hey, a fanboy's allowed to dream right?

I'm convinced that there was a lot of truly talented and skilled employees outside the adventure developers that were completely wasted on crappy and crappily handled games and then left/were fired.

Okay, first of all I would like to say that LucasArts should NOT go back into making graphic adventures.
(You think YOUR title created argument? Beat that!)
The idea behind that is simple: all their adventure-game-making talent have left, and the ones that didn't (Sean Clark for example) were fired.

Now to get picky with your points:
1. A dodgy comment, inspiring "graphics over gameplay" argument, but correct. Should be there as the hook for a great game, not the game itself (another Sin Point there for Episode III)
2. The game you mentioned doesn't run on a desktop, it's Xbox-only. And this should be a rule for EVERY game out there.
3. Not really fair to have a commandment just for a picky quibble about one game. I can't name another that breaks this rule, LA are generally good at it.
4. Fine, a good point. Republic Commando as well - imagine all the worlds they could have covered in that game!
5. Good point, but I could argue that Lego Star Wars does exactly the same.
6. Tell this to Shiny and the Wachowshi Brothers. X-Wing Alliance, Starfighter and Battle For Naboo are other sinners.
7. Ep 3 game again I presume? Why it didn't have a level where you played Yoda and battled the Emperor I'll never know...
8. And? Is this Republic Commando you're railing against? I agree totally, if you are.
9. That's not a game.
10. Episode III. And Republic Commando was pretty good, in my opinion (and that's the ONLY game LA have made internally since they cancelled Sam & Max).

And where's the point about 'Thou shalt allow games the time reach their full potential'?

5. Yeah you could say that about Lego Star Wars, but I felt that it did a good represenation of the films just in another medium (Lego). I have no problem with the films as a lego adventure, but as a karting game with big heads... that just shits on the licence *too* much. (It's still fun though!)

And yeah, it's controversial maybe but I would like LucasArts to get back to making adventure games... I'm like Luke in Return of the Jedi still believing that there's good in his father! LucasArts would have to turn themselves around completely, though, and that's unlike to happen.