For us old-fogies who still have very fond memories of playing the outstanding vector graphics based Star Wars game in the arcades (remember it, kids?), the sad decline in the sheer quality of Star Wars titles (Knights of the Old Republic an exception) has been nothing short of well, sad…

The start of the decline can be arguably traced back to the 1999 release of the video game adaptation of The Phantom Menace, which promised much, but was in the end, quite poor. Sadly the torrent of marketing the Lucas conglomerate of companies produced that year to promote Episode I meant that a series of tenuously linked games were released, including the quite frankly horrid Super Mario Kart rip-off – Star Wars Episode I: Super Bombad Racing.

Having seemingly learnt their lesson three years later, LucasArts only released a couple of games based on Episode II: Attack of the Clones on the GBA. Outside of the handheld, Star Wars fans had to be content with Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, Jedi Starfighter, Clone Wars and Jedi Knight II.

With less than 200 days until the six episode saga is complete with the release of Revenge of the Sith in cinemas around the globe, LucasArts and developers The Collective (creators of 2003’s Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb), are working on the videogame adaptation of ROTS. Although a brief look at the game was included on the Star Wars DVD set released in September, LucasArts have now unveiled a trailer for the title, which seems to place heavy emphasis on fluid combat and intense action.

Of course, trailers will always highlight the product in a good light, but it does look very interesting indeed, so it is with that thought in mind that we are praying that the game will, like the film, redeem all of the poor releases that fans of the franchise have had to endure over the last few years.

We’ll have more on Revenge of the Sith shortly…