Remember when Star Wars was awesome?

I do. As a teen I used to read all the book; I’ve seen the original movies a dozen times and more. Campy though they are in places, they’re incredibly good popcorn movies. I even like the Ewoks. And though George Lucas tinkered overmuch with the Special Editions in the late ’90s, they were still good fun, and it was worth going just to see them on the big screen.

But after that …

I won’t belabor all the ways the prequel trilogy dragged down the fun times of the original movies. Suffice it to say: If you have a good bad guy, don’t give him a history. And if you have to give him a history, please don’t show him to us as a happy-go-lucky kid and then a petulant teenager. Kinda takes the edge off the 7-foot half-machine monster he turns into later.

Let’s not even talk about this summer’s “Clone Wars” movie.

The best “Star Wars” stories these days are told in the games. Not all of them, of course, but enough. “Republic Commando,” aside from being a bang-up shooter, offered a nifty glimpse into what goes on behind the visor of a Clone Trooper’s helmet. “Knights of the Old Republic” is one of the best “Star Wars” tales, period, taking place thousands of years before the movies during another bitter war between the forces of light and dark.

And now we have “The Force Unleashed,” which is … pretty good. The gameplay borrows liberally from a decade’s worth of action games, but isn’t polished enough to really stand out — there are control hitches, camera problems and opportunities for numerous deaths that can’t be blamed on the player. Still, in giving you control of Vader’s secret Dark Side apprentice it at least tries to make you feel as powerful as the image at the top of this post would suggest.

The most interesting bit is the story — it’s well-plotted and well-told, allowing for the fragmentary nature of game narratives, and Vader’s apprentice is a far more likable character than Anakin Skywalker himself ever was. There’s some speculation that the game’s narrative might be reworked into a movie that would bridge the gap between Anakin’s fall and Luke Skywalker’s coming-of-age.

Who knows if it’ll happen. But I hope it does, or something similar. “Star Wars” has become weighed down by a whiny Anakin Skywalker and a mawkish love story, to say nothing of Jar Jar Binks.

Decent games are fine things, “Star Wars” needs a shot in the arm if it hopes to appeal to anyone past their tweens in the future. Maybe it doesn’t. But I hope it gets one.

(Image from LucasArts)

It has been nearly eight years since the release of Blizzard Entertainment’s mega-popular computer game “Diablo II.” (Blizzard is the same company that created “World of Warcraft” and “Starcraft.”) Now, after an expansion, numerous revisions and a whole series of spinoff novels, the next chapter in the series has been revealed.

And true to Internet form, some people are already complaining. Addressing them: The game you’ve been wanting for nearly a decade is finally announced and all you can do is carp about how the art design isn’t as dark and dank as you’d like? Seriously? Geez, get a grip.

Anyway, the rest of us “Diablo” fans are looking forward to another habit-forming adventure in the demon-infested world of Sanctuary. Over the weekend I reinstalled my copy of the game at home and started playing, and was quickly reminded why it’s so compelling.

On its face the game doesn’t sound that special: You create a hero, selecting from several different character classes like Barbarian, Necromancer and Paladin, then journey out into the world to kill monsters, pick up the loot they drop, move on and repeat. It’s a simple formula.

What makes “Diablo II” work so well is its nearly infinite replayability. The base game has five character classes; two more were added by the expansion. Each of these classes has its own specialties, with a variety of abilities divided among three distinct skill paths — a Druid, for example, can learn skills in Elemental, Summoning and Shape Shifting disciplines.

As a player player monsters and finishes quests he or she earns points to spend on skills in these trees, but there are only so many to go around and they can’t be regained once spent. How a character’s skill set is customized is as important as the weapons they wield. Add to this a huge array of equipment and items, area layouts that are randomized each time you start a new game and an interesting story, and you have a recipe for a killer time sink.

The complete “Diablo” package is pretty cheap these days —it can be found for as low as $30 or so online — and with the sequel in development now would be a good time to check this classic out.

(Image courtesy of Blizzard.com)

Konami’s “Metal Gear Solid” series of stealth-action games have an incredibly devoted following, even if the jabbermouthy dialogue and esoteric turns the overarching plot has taken over the last decade have been off-putting for some. (Arm-transplant mind control! Secret world-influencing societies! A.I.-spearheaded information control!) The release of a new entry in the series is a big event.

And hey, would you look at that — a new one is coming out tomorrow! “Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots” is notable not only for being the presumably final and hopefully loose-end-tying chapter in gravel-voiced operative Solid Snake’s story. It’s also an exclusive for the PlayStation 3, which has been gaining steam since late last year but still needs a game that people will buy the system to play. The series has been a PlayStation staple since 1998’s “Metal Gear Solid,” so “MGS4″ will likely be that game.

It’s also a video game with an old hero. Solid Snake is chronologically in his mid-40s — already older than average for a game protagonist who’s not an immortal vampire demigod or something. He was cloned in the 1970s from the genes of Big Boss, an extremely proficient warrior whom Snake would eventually kill.

But imperfections in the cloning process mean Snake is aging rapidly — he was never a spring chicken in these games, but now he looks at least 20 years older than he is, and that mustache doesn’t take any years off. I’ve been tired of playing as teenagers in video games since I was a teenager — it’s good to see a capable, tough old dude in the lead role, especially when he’s taking over for that sissy boy Raiden from “MGS2″ (who looks like he redeems himself in this installment as a badass robo-ninja).

“Guns of the Patriots” has been a long time coming for gamers who want to know what happens next in this twisting tale — “MGS3″ took a trip back to the 1960s to explore the origins of Big Boss and his warmongering vision, so Solid Snake’s been hanging in Schrödingerian limbo for almost seven years. I hope it was worth the wait; guess we’ll find out tomorrow!

(McClatchy Tribune handout photo)

You might have heard of a game called “Beyond Good & Evil.” It was, like last week’s Free Game Friday selection, an imaginative and well-regarded game that didn’t make much of a splash at retail, quickly relegated the Ubisoft release to bargain bins and clearance racks (you can find used copies pretty cheap these days, or play it with a GameTap subscription).

Maybe the game was too unique to succeed. The photojournalist heroine was tough and competent, and not played up for sex appeal the way most female game protagonists are. The gameplay was a bit like a “Zelda” game, but with a sci-fi setting. It had its own look and feel, and the matter-of-fact cast of humans, aliens, robots and anthropomorphic animals was bizarre.

Arriving as it did in November 2003, during the crowded holiday release season — and facing competition from Ubisoft’s other releases, like the “Prince of Persia” remake, to say nothing of other companies’ games — it’s perhaps not much of a surprise the game didn’t take hold.

“BG&E” ended on a cliffhanger, but for years there was no solid word on a sequel. A few rumors surfaced here and there. Conventional wisdom was that the game hand’t sold well enough to warrant a follow-up. Some people gave up hope. But not I! And now, here I sit, vindicated — Ubisoft is developing a sequel.

I’m curious: What games do you want to see sequels to? Let me know in the comments!

(Image courtesy BeyondGoodEvil.com.)