I’ve played a ton of great Star Wars games and never have I felt that the style and the skills possessed by some of these characters was really captured in a game until Soul Calibur IV. Yoda was quick and agile and could string together plenty of hits with just a few moves. Vader was a lot bigger and a lot slower so his style had shorter combos, but his strikes were more direct and precise. Finally the Apprentice a.k.a. Starkiller a.k.a. Galen Marek was incredibly acrobatic and his style, like his stance, was highly unorthodox. Namco took great care and paid attention to the little details. They could have just slapped together a bunch of moves or copy over styles from existing characters, but they didn't. They made each character unique and that’s why I want them to do Jedi vs. Sith.

With so many characters to pick from in the Star Wars canon, it’s hard to choose who should be included in the game. Personally I’d like to see 24 characters to start, 12 Jedi and 12 Sith. Off the top of my head, Jedi representatives would include Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan, Yoda, Mace Windu, Qui-Gon Jinn, Mara Jade Skywalker, and Aayla Secura. Representing the Sith would be Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker, Darth Sidious, Darth Maul, Count Dooku, Exar Kun, and Asajj Ventress among others. I think the truly great thing is we’d get to see them fully fleshed out in terms of combat styles. No matter how many people are wielding lightsabers in this game, everyone is different. Obi-Wan uses more defensive styles while Mace Windu uses attacks that bring him closer to the darker side of the force. Anakin uses powerful, aggressive attacks. What’s really interesting would be seeing how Namco adapts the more unique weapons. The Soul Calibur series has dozens of characters who use all manner of single swords, but some of the more fun characters go beyond the realm of katanas and rapiers. Seong-Mina is one of my favourites bringing her mastery of the Zanbatou or Halberd to the Soul Calibur games. Maxi is crazy-fast with his nunchaku as is Talim and her tonfa-style Elbow Blades. Of course there’s also Setsuka whose sword is hidden in an umbrella and Astaroth and his giant axe that looks like it weighs more than most people. Tranfers that to Jedi vs. Sith and you’ll see just how crazy lightsabers can get.

As I mentioned, Darth Maul’s inclusion would go without saying. His double-bladed lightsaber was just a small sign of how insane his fighting style was. It was a sign that there were a variety of lighsaber-based weapons all over the Star Wars universe. Exar Kun was one of the deadliest force users in the galaxy and another wielder of the double-bladed lightsaber though his hilt was about half the size of Maul’s. Wielding two lightsabers at once in the Jar’Kai style is also utilized by a number of Jedi and Sith. Asajj Ventress would occasionally link her weapons together while Maris Brood utilized a pair of lightsaber tonfas. A lightsaber staff has also been seen from time to time acting almost like a lance while a lightsaber pike resembled a naginata-type weapon.

Of course, as much as this is a lightsaber combat game, the use of the force offensively and defensively would undoubtedly be a major part of the game. What I liked most about the characters included in Soul Calibur IV was that their use of the force was different from anything that came before. There was no simple force button or typical inputs like down-to-forward punch to execute a special attack. Each force move’s input was different and integrated into each character’s fighting style naturally. As such, I wouldn’t expect anything less in Jedi vs. Sith.

However, creating a Star Wars fighter brings some unique challenges. Firstly, just about every fighting game ever created has a boss character that everyone on the roster has reasons for defeating. You can’t do that with Star Wars. There’s going to be characters taken from several thousand years of Star Wars chronology so it doesn’t make sense for everyone to be trying to kill Emperor Palpatine. As such, I think Jedi vs. Sith should take a page from the recent Legends of WrestleMania and its Relive, Rewrite, and Redefine history modes. The first two modes have you fighting classic battles. Relive is where you’ll play the role of the victor and try to recreate their performance. Rewrite is the opposite as you control the loser and fight to change their ultimate fate. Redefine would allow a little more freedom as you get to choose who fights in what situation. Say you want Obi-wan to take on Darth Vader in the Carbonite freezing chamber rather than Luke Skywalker, you can make it happen. Maybe instead of having Yoda fight Emperor Palpatine in the Senate Rotunda you’d rather see Palpatine take on Darth Revan in a battle to see who is truly the greatest Sith lord.

A big part of what makes these battles so epic are the environments and Jedi vs. Sith would benefit fit from highly detailed arenas. How awesome would it be to duel on a snowy plain on the planet Hoth with giant AT-AT’s marching in the background or fighting on the planet Geonosis while a major engagement between the Clone army and the Separatist forces is going on. Witnessing the scale of the worlds and seeing all the activity going on around you would give a sense of just how immense these battles are.

Still, when you’re talking about a game based on the Star Wars canon, there’s only so much you can include. Thankfully, a big part of gaming today is downloadable content. However, rather than throw together a bunch of characters and arenas without any real connection, I’d like to see packs that have a theme. The first Knights of the Old Republic is one of my favourite games so why not create a KOTOR pack that includes Revan, Bastila, Darth Malak, etc. and levels like the Star Forge and Korriban. Another pack could be based on the second KOTOR game. The Knights of the Old Republic is also a decent comic book so perhaps including Zayne Carrick, Jarael, and Celeste Morne. The Force Unleashed could also provide some inspiration for downloadable content given the unique combat style of some of the characters present in the story. Namco could get a second shot at Starkiller while also bringing in Shaak Ti, Maris Brood, Kazdan Paratus, and Rahm Kota.

Honestly if I could have my way, I’d rather Jedi vs. Sith be an action/adventure game. However to get the deepest and truest interpretation of lightsaber combat, I think you’d have to create a fighting game. Namco and their Soul Calibur franchise is realistically the best example of a weapon-based fighting game and there are a lot of core elements in the Soul Calibur games that would transfer over well to a lightsaber fighting game. The most important thing though, is the attention paid to the characters and that’s what would really make Jedi vs. Sith shine. As much as I would love to see this happen, I think the chances are somewhere between 0% - 0.5% chance of making it. Still I guess that’s why this is a wishlist.