Star Wars: Versus: A fans idea for the ultimate Star Wars fighting game
By Jason Ivey
The Ultimate Stars Wars Fighting Game
First of all, most fighting games don’t actually excel at storylines, other than it being a tournament set-up that brings together characters from all over the world with their own personal agenda’s. While seeing characters like Ryu and Ken fight one another might work fine for Street Fighter, in the Star Wars universe it doesn’t make a lot of sense to have Chewie versus Han, or Luke versus Leia. Unless that is, you’re in a free-for-all with your friends.
So, in re-imagining a Star Wars fighting game, I propose that the story mode follow two distinct paths: Canon or Infinities mode.
Canon Mode
In this mode, players pick an era during the Skywalker saga that they’d like to play in (Clone Wars, Original Trilogy, Age of Resistance, etc.). Following this path, you play against specific characters during that era and the storyline progresses along the established path according to whoever you play.
Say, for example, you chose Obi-Wan Kenobi. Your character’s path would be: Darth Maul, Jango Fett, Count Dooku, Asajj Ventress, General Grievous, Anakin Skywalker, Darth Maul (Twin Suns version) Black Krrsantan, and Darth Vader.
Infinities Mode
Another story mode option that players could choose from would be the Infinities mode. Based off of the Dark Horse comics series Star Wars: Infinities, this mode offers an alternate world story-line where key moments from the Original Trilogy differ and new possibilities occur with popular characters.
Infinities mode would, therefore, allow new alternate paths to open up that diverge from Star Wars’ established canon. This mode would present various in-game choices like an RPG, which then creates a unique story-line tailored to the outcome of the fight, or the players’ individual choices.
An example of an Infinities-style fight would be if Mace Windu survived his confrontation with Darth Sidious, resulting in a showdown between him and Darth Vader.
Having a fighting game with both a traditional and an alternate storyline mode would give players a unique playing experience that should never be boring or seem repetitious.
However, a good story isn’t the only thing we need. What fans really crave are the features and fighting engine. So, with that in mind, I present some of the ideas that come to mind when crafting the ultimate Star Wars fighting game.