Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back and Shadows of the Empire Get Retro Re-Releases

Limited Run Games, a publisher that primarily releases physical versions of traditionally digital games, are working on special modern editions of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back for NES and Game Boy and Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire for N64. 

There are a few different ways to buy these games, assuming that you’re one of the lucky few who actually manage to snag a copy of either (the publisher is called Limited Run for a reason). The “Classic” editions of each title come in a cardboard card that resembles the packaging for retro action figures. Each card is designed to allow you to access the cartridge without tearing the packaging. Those cartridges not only come in spiffy new colors (red for the NES and Game Boy titles, and purple for Shadows of the Empire) but are designed to work with either classic consoles or your modern retro hardware equivalent that is capable of supporting such formats. 

You can also purchase a Premium Edition of each game that also includes posters, pins, and other collectible items related to each title. If you really feel like splurging, there’s also a Mega-Bundle option available that features the Classic and Premium Editions of each game as well as some additional trading cards. 

While these games were previously released via physical formats, Limited Run co-founder Josh Fairhurst suggests to StarWars.com that these editions of the games are as much about celebrating “the legacy of these very important games that impacted and affected a lot of people” as they are about bringing them into the modern age with some unified packaging. 

It’s hard to argue with that mission. We’ve spoken before about the glory days of classic Star Wars games and how far we’ve strayed from what made those games stand out. Shadows of the Empire certainly embodies the best ideas of those classic titles with its expanded universe ambition and recreation of certain classic Star Wars moments and environments. 

Limited Run also stated that they intend to continue their Star Wars partnership by releasing special editions of the Star Wars racing games next before hopefully moving on to a re-release of Star Wars: Dark Forces.

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Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014. 

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