reviews
Game: Star Wars: Masters of Teras Kasi
Platform: PS1
Year Released: 1997
It’s time, once again, to take a little trip in the way-back machine. Usually, I like to spend my Thursdays reminiscing about my favorite games from my younger years, hoping that they’ll stand the test of time when they’re played through again. However, I recently came across a copy of one of the worst games I have ever played, and the first major disappointment of my gaming life. Naturally, I had to play it again to see if it was really as bad as I remembered.
The year is 1997, and I’m in eighth grade. The original PlayStation has not even been out two years yet, and huge advances in gaming are being made all the time. It’s also worth noting that I was at the time (as I am now) an enormous Star Wars nerd. Huge. I’m talking posters covering my walls, action figures everywhere, and watching the movies on VHS constantly. In fact, I think it’s safe to say that my main hobbies in middle school were watching Star Wars, reading about Star Wars, and playing video games. If you’re thinking that I was probably a giant geek, you would be correct.
Anyway, in the months leading up to the release of Teras Kasi, gaming magazines were covering it and hyping it up like crazy, and I couldn’t wait. In fact, if you were to visit my parents’ house in New Jersey, you would find a Masters of Teras Kasi poster in my old bedroom that I tore out of an issue of GamePro. Long story short, this game was supposed to be great. In actuality, it sucked out loud. And guess what? It still does.
I’m really not even sure where to start, since pretty much every aspect of this game is terrible. Gameplay-wise, the controls absolutely suck. They’re not at all intuitive and don’t work half the time. Want to take out your weapon? Yeah, good luck. The characters are also horribly unbalanced, with some characters (namely Luke Skywalker and Boba Fett) having ridiculous and unblockable attacks that take away half of your life bar. Honestly, 2D fighting games of the 16-bit generation had better controls.
They also had better graphics. Masters of Teras Kasi looks like garbage. The environments are supposed to be 3D, but barely feel like it. The characters look like really, really ugly versions of themselves, with the exception of Han Solo, who somehow manages to still be hot. The whole game is just hard on the eyes; keeping it 2D and focusing a little more on how the game looked might have been a better way to go.
The only thing that doesn’t really suck about this game is the sound. But guess what? Most of the sound effects and music of this game were pre-established and taken directly from the Star Wars film. Excellent work, guys.
Playing this game again has just made me angry once again. I was mad in 1997 when this highly-anticipated game turned out to be utter crap, and I’m mad now because I had to subject myself to it once again in the name of nostalgia. It’s not pleasant to play, it’s not pleasant to look at, and it’s not pleasant to think about.
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Comments
I had an old AOL screen name that was JodoKastsomethingorother. Jodo Kast was the other Mandalorian character in this game. Although it wasn't a great game I'd love to play it again but nearly all of Playstation games have gone missing in the house of Combobreaker. That was about 4 years ago and after several searches they're still "in the attic" somewhere.
The game wasn't honestly terrible it was just as bad as any of those games that came out in that time. Those first few years 1996-1999 were some horrible ugly and painfully controlled years in gaming. It took a long time to master the jump to 3D games especially fighting games which really never found a GREAT game outside of 2D.
"How Hard is it to Make a Good Star Wars Game?"
Surprisingly difficult apparently. There have been a lot disappointing Star War games.
I never played the game your talking about, but judging by the screenies, I wouldn't want to. It looks bloody awful. It sounds like it was too.
Holy crap, I remember this game. Yeah, if you played as anyone with a lightsaber, you were almost guaranteed to win (though if I remember correctly, taking out the weapons was done by just hitting the shoulder buttons).
I still loved it though, mostly because I was only in 6th grade at the time, and my tastes were not as refined as they are now.