When I was a child, I – like many children before me – wished that Christmas was every single day. It seemed like a good idea at the time. But what eluded me was the fact that if Christmas WAS every single day, then Christmas itself would cease to mean anything. Sure, the idea of keeping the spirit of togetherness and generosity alive all year round was, is, and always will be a respectable notion but Santa Claus himself would be bound wear out his welcome pretty quickly and the carols would eventually drive each and every one of us murderously insane.
And that is why I have decided that I will take absolutely no part in “Star Wars Day” this year. (Except for this editorial, and yes, the irony has not gone unnoticed.)
What started out as a mildly amusing play on words – “May the Fourth be with you,” get it? – has ballooned into an annual day of remembrance for a motion picture that nobody is at any risk of forgetting. I don’t know if you’ve spent any time on the internet but I can certainly guess that you have, and that means you’ve noticed a whole bunch of Star Wars lying around everywhere. Day in, day out, there are countless news stories, think pieces, jokes, memes, cosplay and porn (so much porn!) with a Star Wars theme.
Vivid Entertainment
Also: All 11 Star Wars Movies Ranked (Yes, There Are 11 of Them)
And I know I sound like The Grinch going on and on about the noise, noise, NOISE but if Whoville celebrated Christmas every day The Grinch would be well within his rights to lodge a formal complaint about it. I myself am filing no such paperwork but I am putting it out there into the universe that maybe there’s no point in making a holiday out of a movie when everybody already talks about that movie every individual day of their lives.
Maybe, just maybe, Star Wars is so inescapable now that it isn’t “special” anymore. It’s not a secret club in which you are an important member. It’s not a diamond in the rough. It’s not a film that social outcasts rally around and have to defend from the cool kids on the playground. It is the institution and the institution is doing just fine all by itself without the rest of us donating the next 24 hours of our lives to its marketing department, free of charge. Especially since we’re doing that already, all the rest of the time.
Look, I like Star Wars. Some of it, anyway. I also like Step Up 3 but no one’s suggesting we should hold a yearly feast in that movie’s honor (and unlike Star Wars, that one could actually benefit from more buzz). You are entitled to your passions and your enthusiasms, but maybe the time has come to do more than just share your love of something. Maybe the time has come to actually reflect upon it, and ask yourself whether you’re smothering Star Wars with so much love that it’s practically choking.
LucasFilm
Also: 10 ‘Star Wars’ Plot Holes That Still Drive Us Crazy
To put it another way: we love Star Wars so much that we put Mickey Mouse ears on Darth Vader helmets and sell them to children. It’s cute, because it’s Star Wars, but if you set aside your love for the film and actually think about the context you’ll see that what we’re actually doing is dressing up our kids like fascists who mass murdered children by hand and committed intergalactic genocide with the callous flick of a button. Why is that okay?
I mean, I’m not suggesting we stop selling Darth Vader merchandise. Far from it. But isn’t it possible that sometimes we can let our enthusiasm outweigh our sense of moderation? Isn’t it possible to simply love something too much?
Isn’t it time we brought BALANCE to the Fourth?
LucasFilm
Also: ‘Star Wars’ Enters Virtual Reality and It’s Basically a Dream Come True
Ultimately, if you choose to celebrate Star Wars Day in one respect or another, then more power to you. It’s just a movie, after all. But that’s kind of my point. It’s just a movie. It’s just a movie that we talk about every single day of every single year.
So if you really want to make a big deal about it, why not try spending May the Fourth without Star Wars? Seriously, give it a shot. Try avoiding it altogether. Cover up your posters and put away your action figures. Pinch yourself if you quote the movies by accident.
And at the end of the day take some stock of what Star Wars really means to you. Was that 24 hours easier than you expected? Was it nearly impossible to lift Star Wars out of your life completely? And if so, either way, what does that mean? Are you spending too much time with Star Wars or are you taking it for granted?
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and Canceled Too Soon, and watch him on the weekly YouTube series Most Craved, Rapid Reviews and What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
10 Awesome ‘Star Wars’ Video Games
Top Photo: LucasFilm
10 Star Wars Games You Should Play After Watching The Force Awakens
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Star Wars Battlefront
Where can I buy it? PS4, Xbox One, PC
Why should I play it? Starting off with an obvious choice, Star Wars Battlefront may have released to mixed reviews but after watching The Force Awakens, it's the closest you're going to get to sating your appetite for experiencing its world for yourself. With some of the very best visuals and sound design of 2015, even though Battlefront certainly has its flaws - namely its dearth of content and balancing issues (seriously, DICE, nerf that DL-44) - there's still a lot of fun to be had with it for Star Wars fans, and its free Battle of Jakku DLC allows players to fight across the war-torn desert planet featured in the new film.
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Super Star Wars
Where can I buy it? PS4
Why should I play it? Another old-school game that has received a re-release on the PS4, Super Star Wars was the side-scrolling take on A New Hope, complete with intermittent "3D" missions which made use of the SNES' Mode 7 technology. For gamers used to tutorials and optional difficulty settings, Super Star Wars is an unforgiving classic, featuring nigh-on unbeatable levels including a Cantina boss that caused me to shed literal tears when I was a youngster. You have been warned.
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Star Wars Battle Pod
Where can I play it? Your local arcade!
Why should I play it? I'm afraid you're going to have to embark on your own adventure IRL for this one, as the Star Wars Battle Pod is only available to play in arcades. While you may have forgotten that arcades even exist by this point, the Battle Pod is a good reason to check one out in 2015, given that it's a stellar (if slightly expensive) machine that allows you to recreate some of the most famous space battles featured in the movies. After manning its "cockpit," you'll be able to play through one of various on-rails missions in which you're tasked with controlling both your spacecraft's speed and its weaponry. With booming audio and a panoramic screen, it's a great reason to make a return to your local arcade.
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Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
Where can I buy it? PC
Why should I play it? Everything in the Star Wars Expanded Universe - the name given to the novels, comics and other media outside of the films - is now considered non-canonical. That means that stories such as the one featured in Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (awful name, I know) are pretty much obsolete, existing in their own alternative timeline that isn't officially acknowledged in any capacity. But regardless of this, it's still an interesting look at what happened to the Jedi and to Luke Skywalker following the events of Episode VII, even if JJ Abrams had to come in and mess it all up with his own story. Jedi Academy was all about the lightsaber, and no game has really attempted to do it better. As with the majority of games its visuals don't particularly hold up by today's standards, but saber-based gameplay is second to none, and feels vastly more true to the source material than practically all of its successors. Battlefront unfortunately failed to provide us with lightsaber battles that felt like they'd been ripped from the movies, but hopefully a future game will try to replicate Jedi Academy's success in that particular department.
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Star Wars: The Old Republic
Where can I buy it? PC
Why should I play it? Let me start this off by saying that if you haven't seen The Force Awakens and are desperately trying to avoid spoilers, you should absolutely not venture into The Old Republic. With the Internet determined to spoil the plot of the film, The Old Republic is no different, and entering into public chat will inevitably see you greeted with tons of plot details by the babbling masses. However, if you have seen the film, then The Old Republic offers the definitive (i.e. only) Star Wars MMO experience, taking over the reins of the failed Star Wars Galaxies by offering a more cohesive experience, and a surprisingly interesting story set 3,000 years prior to the events of The Phantom Menace.
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Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Where can I buy it? PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Why should I play it? The Force Unleashed failed to live up to expectations, though that isn't to say it's a bad game. It still featured a reasonably compelling story (dampened significantly by its shoddy sequel, but let's ignore that ever happened) and Force-focused gameplay that replicated the superhuman abilities of the Jedi/Sith better than any other game. It's a fun game, if not exceptional, that was also elevated by a series of DLC collections that featured levels based upon re-imagined versions of the original trilogy, in which you could use Chewbacca as a human shield and have Han Solo accidentally shoot him dead. That's got to be worth something, right?
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Star Wars: Empire at War
Where can I buy it? PC
Why should I play it? Empire at War places players in a commanding role of either Rebel or Imperial forces, essentially allowing them to live out their dreams of being Grand Moff Tarkin, soliciting the destruction of planets whilst holding Darth Vader on a chain like a helmeted rabid dog. Empire at War is sadly one of very few RTS games set within the Star Wars universe, and for fans of both the genre and the movies, it's a must-play.
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Lego Star Wars
Where can I buy it? PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii
Why should I play it? I've always been largely indifferent to Lego video games, though they're a great gateway into gaming for kids and adults alike. It all began with Lego Star Wars, a series that went on to span the events of original trilogy, the prequels and the Clone Wars TV series, turning each episode of the sci-fi saga into collect-a-thons where players could unceremoniously pair the likes of The Emperor and Luke Skywalker in co-op multiplayer. Lego Star Wars is a joyful celebration of the franchise, and while the abundance of Lego games over the years may have beaten its formula to a pulp, each game provides a unique way to experience the familiar Star Wars story.
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Star Wars Racer Revenge
Where can I buy it? PS4
Why should I play it? One of the very few good things about The Phantom Menace was that its pod-racing scene inspired the Racer series of games. Racer and its sequel Racer Revenge, which was recently made available to download on PS4, are two of the more popular tie-in games that the Star Wars films have received, and allow players to take part in their own pod-racing matches along with building their own vehicle, before taking on the likes of Anakin Skywalker and the villainous Sebulba.
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Knights of the Old Republic
Where can I buy it? PC, iOS
Why should I play it? It's impossible to create any list of good Star Wars games without including the original Knights of the Old Republic. With it setting a precedent for any game that used the Star Wars license in the future, KOTOR just got it. An immersive world, a compelling story, a plot twist to rival that of The Empire Strikes Back's and dialogue that was more accomplished than any of the prequels, KOTOR expanded the Star Wars universe in a way we hadn't experienced in a video game, telling a brand new and compelling story in that galaxy far, far away. It's now available to play on your iPad or Android tablet, too, in one of the more seamless ports the platform has ever received. If you haven't yet played it, rectify that immediately.
