Top 5 Awesome Star Wars References in Classic Rare Games
It’s been ten years since the last Star Wars film, and it’s been thirty-two years since the last good Star Wars film, and today the Space Opera series that started a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away gets another entry with Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In order to celebrate the latest release under a spangly new Disney moniker, we’ve used the Force and other Jedi mind tricks to uncover five cheeky references that have been hidden in your favorite Rare titles of yesteryear. Allusions to Darth Vader, cryptic Storm Trooper Easter Eggs as well as several extremely clever nods reserved for only the most hardcore Star Wars fans are waiting to be discovered! As C-3PO would say, “Here we go again…”
These are the Top 5 Awesome Star Wars References in Classic Rare Games!
#5. WHO’S THE DADDY? SHOCKED TWICE OVER – GRABBED BY THE GHOULIES (XBOX 360)
Akin to Darth Vader sans the heavy wheezing, Baron Von Ghoul of Grabbed by the Ghoulies fame harbors a dark secret regarding his identity, all revealed in a twist that nobody saw coming. After a shocking unveiling manages to dispose of kindly old Crivens, the Baron can be coaxed into revealing an even larger supposed secret that turns out to be the wrong speech during his mid-battle banter: “Mwaa haa! Your puny attacks cannot harm me. You must join me and together we shall rule the mansion as father and son.” Upon learning his origins, Cooper returns with, “Nooooooo! That’s not true! That’s impossible!” For the uninitiated, both the Baron’s claim and Cooper’s reponse echo the lines given to Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker during the climax of “Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back.”
#4. PIKELETT’S PARKING ON PARSECS – BANJO-KAZOOIE: NUTS & BOLTS (XBOX 360)
If you’ve managed to make your way past the crafted shores of Nutty Acres and the patchwork nostalgia from Banjo-Land your final challenges await inside the Terrarium of Terror in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. Locate the corrupt Showdown Town police chief, Pikelet in the fourth act and take on his racing challenge “To Boldy Go… Anywhere”, a clever Star Trek nod in and of itself. After Pikelet finds himself at the recieving end of Kazooie’s snark for his taste in Sci-Fi films, Banjo points out that Kazooie’s favorite film is “The Phantom Meanies”, which is play on the first Star Wars prequel – “The Phantom Menace”. To drive the point home further, Pikelet’s vehicle is dubbed the ‘Enterprising Millenial Liberator’, which owes it’s “Millenial” namesake to the Millenium Falcon.
#3. SKYWALKERS AND CLOUDRUNNERS – STARFOX ADVENTURES (GAMECUBE)
General Scales does well to represent the most callous of tyranical baddies; he’s ruthless, motivated by a quest for power and uses his demeanor to strike fear into those around him. This culminates in an aggressive interrogation, where the General confronts the Cloudrunner Queen and forces her into revealing the whereabouts of Fox McCloud. If you’re espcially observant, you’ll notice that the scene takes direct inspiration from “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope” when Darth Vader hoists a rebel soldier into the air by his neck. This is no accident, as the scene closely mirrors the films’ cinematography at several key points, going as far to even match Darth Vader’s expressionless observation of Han Solo being encased in carbonite during “Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back”.
#2. AREN’T YOU A LITTLE STORAGE FOR A STORM TROOPER? – BANJO-TOOIE (N64)
It’s never made clear what Grunty Industries manufactures, aside from crates of ‘Rubbish’ and especially ‘Old Rubbish’, what is clear is that certain packages might be intended for Luke Skywalker or Princess Leia if the labels are taken at face value. To catch these references to “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope” you’ll need to venture into the depths of Grunty Industries to the Train Station, where you’ll find a crate marked, “EXPORT TK-421”. Strangely enough, that name matches up to a Storm Trooper that Luke Skywalker manages to subdue and steal a uniform from, which he then uses to infiltrate Princess Leia’s cell, marked “AA-23”. If you’re especially observant, you might even manage to find another crate marked with those exact coordinates also inside Grunty Industries…
#1. PANTHER KING CARBONITE, THAT’S NO DOON – CONKER: LIVE & RELOADED (XBOX)
While its predecessor may have been saturated with tributes to The Matrix, Terminator and Dracula, Conker: Live and Reloaded ups the ante with a fantastic tribute to the whole of the Star Wars universe in the Multiplayer/Live addition dubbed, “Doon”. To start off, the Tediz are threatening to ressurect their leader, the Fairy Panther King, incased in carbonite and pulling off the exact pose Han Solo made famous in “Star Wars V – The Empire Strikes Back”. If this wasn’t enough, the “Doon” planet bears a striking resemblance to Luke’s homeworld of Tatooine, complete with a the Millenium Falcon and droid R2-D2 hidden away for avid spotters. Chase it all down with an orchestrated score for ‘Doon III’ that riffs on the Imperial March theme and you’ve got a tribute of galactic proportions!
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