When Star Wars Characters are out of Place

I like a good cameo appearance as much as anyone, and that's especially true when it comes to characters from one of my all-time favorite franchises: Star Wars.  When done correctly, with proper respect paid to the characters and the entire franchise, these cameos can be awesome.  When done not so well, we are left with something that's at best awkward, and at worst cringe-worthy.  Today we're going to take a look at some games that have had the privilege of including one or more Star Wars characters, even when they didn't quite fit in.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3

Actually, including this game on the list shouldn't come as too big of a surprise.  The Tony Hawk series has been known to have crazy casts of secret characters, allowing you to bust combos as Iron Man or Bigfoot.  Tony Hawk 3 is notable due to the fact that one of the secret characters is the bad-ass who was killed off too quickly: Darth Maul.

Judging by the way he's holding that lightsaber, I don't think he recommends you try to edit his appearance or board.

Once you get over the fact that you are witnessing a Star Wars character perform 360 tailgrabs, you'll find that Darth Maul still looks like a bad-ass as he shreds around the maps holding his double-bladed lightsaber.  Therefore, this cameo appearance isn't one that should make you cringe too hard, unless of course you're one of those anti-everything-in-Episode 1 people.

Soulcalibur IV

When you think of the Soulcalibur games, what usually comes to mind are Victorian-era environments and characters obsessed with evil swords.  I'm willing to bet you don't immediately think of Darth Vader delivering a beatdown on Mitsurugi.  However, thanks to Soulcalibur IV, this is now the case!  The fourth game in this series included three Star Wars characters: Darth Vader, Yoda, and the Apprentice (from The Force Unleashed).

What? Don't you remember when Darth Vader and Yoda dueled in the medieval castle in The Empire Strikes Back?

These characters are all way out of place in a Soulcalibur game, and sadly they all look just plain goofy while they battle the fantasy characters who are regulars in the series.  Forget a galaxy far far away, the Soulcalibur universe is a whole other dimension far far away from Star Wars.  To Namco's credit, they did do a good job making sure the Star Wars characters retained their mannerisms instead of going all out goofy, and playing a Darth Vader vs. Yoda battle in a Star Destroyer docking bay is pretty awesome.

The Dance Mode in Kinect Star Wars

I can hear you all forming the same sentence: "Now wait a minute Rob, how can this be a cameo appearance when this is an actual Star Wars game?"  Well I had no choice but to include this game on my list, due to the disastrous way the developers handled our beloved Star Wars characters in the dance mode (there shouldn't even be a dance mode in a Star Wars game).  In the movies, Emperor Palpatine does NOT dance, neither does Darth Vader or any other protagonist/antagonist in the series.  Yet Kinect Star Wars has all of our favorite characters busting a groove and looking completely stupid doing so.  Words cannot describe it, so you'll have to see for yourself:



And that concludes our quick look at some Star Wars cameos in other game franchises.  If you're a Star Wars fan, I hope this list didn't ruin the series too much for you!  I personally get along just fine by pretending the lousy Kinect game doesn't exist.