I hope I wasn’t the only one who (almost) lost it when Star Wars: Attack Squadrons was announced recently.

For one brilliant, shining moment that took me back to my primary school days, I thought a new Rogue Squadron was being unveiled. As it stands, that excitement turned out to be unfounded. A free-to-play title where players engage in space dogfights with their friends is close, but no cigar.

Having said that, we should look on the bright side. Now that EA has the rights to make licensed Star Wars games, perhaps our fortunes are about to change. Seeing as it’s almost Christmas, here’s my wish-list of things I want to see from a galaxy far, far away…




A new Rogue Squadron

Look at the size of that thing! With those famed words the rebel attack on the Death Star began, and this battle went on to become one of the coolest levels in any Rogue Squadron game.

The series has aged a bit since then (this stage appeared in 2002’s Rogue Leader), but at the time it was a fantastically exciting confusion of laser fire and quick thinking as players barrelled along trenches.

As well as being one of the better looking games on GameCube, Rogue Leader championed everything that made the series great; explosive action, accessible controls and missions which didn’t feel crow-barred into Star Wars canon.

With new films on the way in 2015, it’s high time this franchise got its premier flight-sim back.

MORE: Disney kills LucasArts, Star Wars games to be licensed to other publishers

The real dark side

It would appear that Star Wars 1313 wasn’t the droid LucasArts was looking for, and its cancellation still breaks my heart. As an exploration of that universe’s murkier side, extra shades of grey wouldn’t go amiss in a series which usually paints in black and white.

As such, why not delve deeper into this territory with a single-player RPG in the vein of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic? Such an angle might add texture to a world of futuristic splendour.

It shouldn’t necessarily go full-on ‘dark’ or ‘mature’; it would be enough to see a world inhabited by the less privileged, the sort of downtrodden folk who are buried beneath the sci-fi trappings of those better off than them.

Star Wars: Battlefield?

2013 has been a great year for Star Wars fans. First it was announced that more films were coming, and then we found out that DICE (creators of Battlefield) was working on a Battlefront game. The internet blew up instantly.

For my money, I’m hoping the end result is something along the lines of the canned Star Wars: First Assault. A first-person shooter not dissimilar to DICE’s own series, this looked to feature team-based play, vehicles and spacecraft carrying infantry into combat.

Imagining this given the Battlefield treatment floors me. Instead of small arenas, picture enormous maps with star-fighters engaging AT-ATs as teams of infantry battle it out on the front line. EA could have something truly special under its hat with this one.



What do you want from EA and Star Wars? Let me know in the comments below or on Twitter @thewordyben!