RIP Lucas Arts
At some point in the distant past, Lucas Arts was one of the greatest companies around. Especially in the 90es-00es, it almost seemed they could do no wrong. Obviously, they did, but we like to gloss over some of these games. Gems such as Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island, The Dig, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Zack McKracken, X-Wing, TIE Fighter, Outlaws, it all made it easy to forgive the likes of Yoda Stories, Racer and Rogue Squadron. But that's not the issue here.
In a statement released yesterday, Disney, the new owners of the Lucasverse, shut down Lucas Arts, a company that, though immortalized forever in the minds of every gamer in their mid 20ies, has had a pretty poor track record for everyone younger than that.
This isn't a whine or a rant. It's a eulogy. Lucas Arts has produced very few games worth our time in the past decade or so, namely Force Unleashed and Republic Commando. However, their failure to repeat Force Unleashed's tired but ultimately enjoying experience and never even considering to follow up on Republic Commando's acclaim further proves the point: Lucas Arts has been dying for a long, long time. At this point, it was mostly machine.
"But, Korn", you'll say, "what about Jedi Outcast, Battlefront, Knights of the Old Republic? What about the Old Republic MMO? What about Lego Star Wars? What about...erm...that other one?". To which I can, sadly yet truthfully, say: what about them? Every single above average Star Wars game of the past decade or so, bar those two aforementioned exceptions, was created under licence from an outside developer. Raven, Pandemic, Bioware, Traveller's Tale et al. If you want to have a look at the real Lucas Arts activity for the last decade, look no further from Empire At War (admittedly, not that shit), Kinect Star Wars and the Clone Wars game.
Make no mistake, this doesn't mean there aren't more lightsabers, raspy-breathed villains, blaster fire, mechanical walkers or darths forthcoming in our screens, far from it. It merely means that all of these games are going to be developed by an outside developer instead of internally at Lucas Arts. That's a good thing. Admittedly, you won't find many games bearing the Disney logo that are more enjoyable than popping a hobo's arse zits, but in that I choose to remain optimistic. The future of Star Wars, gaming-wise, is not only assured, it's actually been given a new, hopefully better, approach. But that, too, is not the issue here.
What this eulogy is about is to say goodbye to IPs such as Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango. Sam and Max and Monkey Island have already been licenced over to Telltale games, and I even hear some of those episodic sequels aren't half bad. But for Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango, even if only one of them ever had a sequel officially developed at some point, it seems it's officially the end.
Rest in peace, Lucas Arts.
RIP Lucas Arts... :/
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