And for the time it was released - 1998 - that was more than enough. Star Wars Trilogy Arcade is not a good video game. That is why, coming in last - which is still an accomplishment when you consider all the Star Wars games that didn’t make the list at all - is. Since this is a historic list pulling from all the Star Wars games, I’m also going to put a premium on historical significance for both the franchise and gaming in general.

Some of them only existed in the arcades, while others may be hard to get running on modern machines. This isn’t a list of games that will be easy to find and play for most folks, however, especially now. It’s a task I have surmounted, however, and the results are below. Star Wars games often coast on the strength of the property, not the game itself, which can make finding the true gold seem like an insurmountable task. It’s a task that has been more complicated than I expected, mostly due to what Polygon editor-in-chief Chris Plante calls “the tragedy of the good,” which is how he refers to a franchise in which just about everything is at least fine, and few games are truly bad, but even fewer are truly great.

Plus, we’re going to do the heavy lifting for you here, even though trying to narrow down the huge selection of Star Wars games into a ranked list is next to impossible.

A new Star Wars video game is perpetually around the corner, and although quality in Star Wars games can vary wildly from game to game, there are enough treasures out there to make the hunt worthwhile. That hope, on a long enough timeline, is always rewarded. Many fans have lost faith in the movies, while still holding onto hope for the world itself, thanks to more experimental shows like The Mandalorian and the ability to step inside your own adventure in Galaxy’s Edge. Star Wars is in a weird place in popular culture right now.

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