Star Wars: Battlefront II (2005)

Pandemic Studios and publisher LucasArts released Battlefront II in PAL regions on October 28, 2005 and in North America on November 1, on PlayStation 2, PSP, Windows and Xbox. The original's formula was already solid, but the sequel understood exactly what fans craved: playable Jedi and Sith heroes, space battles where you could dogfight between capital ships and land in enemy hangars, and a campaign told through a veteran clone trooper of the 501st Legion — following the unit from the Clone Wars into its grim new identity as Imperial stormtroopers. That framing gave the shooting real weight; you weren't just capturing points, you were watching the Republic curdle into the Empire from inside a helmet.

What made it a phenomenon was the couch. Split-screen Instant Action meant you didn't need eight friends online — just a sibling, an afternoon, and the patience to share one CRT. Hoth's snowfields and Mustafar's lava rivers became the stages of legendary living-room battles. By 2007 the game had sold 6 million copies, with the PSP version alone moving over 500,000.

Then came the strangest afterlife in Star Wars gaming. The GameSpy server shutdown took the original online play dark in 2014 — one more 2000s relic seemingly gone for good. But on October 2, 2017, the PC version's multiplayer was switched back on with Steam and GOG cross-play, an almost unheard-of resurrection for a twelve-year-old game. The timing was poetic: EA had just rebooted "Star Wars Battlefront II" under the exact same title, only to ignite an internet-wide loot-box backlash — which sent players streaming back to the 2005 original. "The real Battlefront II" stopped being a joke and became a verdict, and the 2024 Classic Collection ports carried the old warhorse onto modern consoles.