A Long Time Ago In a Galaxy Far, Far Away….

Written by: Bill Fulks • Edited by: Simon Hill
Updated May 23, 2011 • Related Guides: iPod Touch | iPhone | Star Wars

A look into some of the best Star Wars apps to be found on iTunes, including games, fun soundboards, books, and more.

When I started looking on iTunes for Star Wars apps, I was surprised to find there weren’t that many of them. There are only a few games currently available, plus some other entertainment type apps like soundboards. You can also get a variety of books and comics in Star Wars apps as well as Star Wars audiobooks. In this article, we’ll look at the Star Wars apps available on iTunes and see if they are worth your time.

Star Wars: Battle for Hoth

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Star Wars: Battle for Hoth ($2.99) is one of the newest Star Wars apps available on iTunes, and it’s a tower defense type game based around the icy Hoth world from Empire Strikes Back. I’ve never been real crazy about tower defense games, but the fact that this one is set in one of the coolest battles that took place in the best of all the Star Wars movies is enough to make me want to check it out. It’s got AT-AT walkers, gun turrets, storm troopers, rebel fighters, and all that you would have seen during the battle in the movie. The Hoth setting is what saves it from being another boring tower defense game, though the $2.99 price is a little high.

Star Wars: Trench Run

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Star Wars: Trench Run ($4.99) is a game app that you’ll want to play just from seeing the screenshots. Remember the famous trench run sequence at the end of Star Wars where Luke must pilot down close enough to fire some torpedoes into the Death Star’s exhaust port? You get to do that in this game from THQ, but you play as Han Solo. You fly the Millennium Falcon, Y-Wing, or Tie Fighters and must avoid gun turrets and other ships long enough to take the crucial shot. It has multiple levels, awesome graphics, and helps to recreate one of the most memorable action sequences of all the movies.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

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Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is a mobile version of the same game released for consoles and PC. It’s a stripped down version of the original game where you mainly just use the Force to do things, but it is still pretty fun. On iTunes it is currently on sale for just $1.99, and there is also a free Lite version if you want to try before you buy. I think it’s worth checking out just for the stellar graphics and the fact that it lets you run around using the Force against bad guys.

Star Wars: Cantina

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Star Wars: Cantina ($2.99) is a colorful adventure game where you run the famous Cantina from the first Star Wars movie. Your job is to serve as a waiter/bartender and make sure your customers are happy. It’s a very colorful game that features many different characters from the Star Wars movies, and it’s basically a clone of Diner Dash. This game is a nice break from all the explosions and violence associated with the other games and the cartoonish look of it comes across really well on the iPhone or iPod Touch.

(Image credits: Apple iTunes)

Star Wars Lightsaber Apps

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Lightsaber Unleashed – This free app is one of the most popular apps on iTunes and is a fun way to play with the motion sensing ability of the iPhone or iPod Touch. It lets you choose from a variety of lightsabers carried by characters from the Star Wars movies, then it lets you swing your iPhone around like you were wielding a lightsaber. The sound effects are straight out of the movies and it’s a lot of fun to play with for a few minutes.

Star Wars: Lightsaber Duel – This is a 99 cent app that is sort of like the full version of Lightsaber Unleashed. It lets you duel with another person who has the app, but otherwise it’s a lot of the same stuff with different Star Wars characters and lightsabers.

Star Wars Soundboards

Soundboard type apps are collection of sound effects, music, and dialogue available at the touch of the screen. They serve no purpose other than being fun to play in social situations or to simply entertain yourself with sound bites from your favorite movies. Many of these same soundboards can be found online for free on various websites if you search for them.

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Star Wars Soundboard – This 99 cent app lets you select characters from the first Star Wars movie and play some sounds associated with them. Most user reviews complain that it doesn’t have enough sounds included.

Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back Soundboard – This 99 cent app contains many quotes from the second movie and has more favorable reviews than the first Star Wars Soundboard.

Star Wars: Yoda Soundboard – This 99 cent app collects the many pearls of wisdom from the grammatically dyslexic Yoda. It has dialogue from every Star Wars movie, which is pretty cool.

Star Wars: Darth Vader Sounds – Just like the Yoda Soundboard, this 99 cent apps is a collection of sound effects and dialogue from Darth Vader.

Star Wars Apps for Readers

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There are a variety of book-related Star Wars apps on iTunes. Some are reference materials for the Star Wars world while others are comics or full-length novels. The comics are usually 99 cents to $1.99 whereas the full length novels tend to run about $7.99. If you are into audiobooks, there are dozens of them on iTunes starting around $9.95. I have always been a fan of Star Wars audiobooks because they often use music and sound effects from the movies.

One app that I found really helpful was called Star Wars Books and Timelines ($0.99) because it gives you the chronological order of all the novels set in the Star Wars universe. This is so helpful because there are over 400 of them and many are part of a long-running series and you want to make sure you read them in the correct order.

(Image credits: Apple iTunes)