Fanboy Ryan talks about Star Wars Uprising

One of the games set between Return of The Jedi and The Force Awakens is the RPG, Star Wars Uprising. This game has been recently released in Australia and my friend and fanboy, Ryan Stämpfli, has been playing this game for the past few weeks. He offered to talk to us today about his experience with this new Star Wars game.

Welcome to The Cantina Cast Blog Ryan and thank you for offering to talk about your experience with this new Star Wars game.

First, let us get to know you better…

How long have you been a gamer?

“I’m old enough that I can remember playing Pacman and Galaga on arcade table games in the 80s and had a few friends with Atari consoles, later we got a Commodore 64 and that’s where gaming exploded for me, simulators, action, racing, text based – me and my cousins played and shared them all. It was 1991 when we got our first proper PC and that was a whole new ballgame!”

What type of gamer are you?

“I’m a fairly casual gamer these days, as a Dad with a job I can’t spend as much time as I used to on gaming and my daughter makes up for my lost gaming time playing The Sims on my PC or the Disney Infinity games, Harry Potter and other mostly fantasy games on our X-Box 360.

Also the kind of games I like to play probably aren’t best player around a kid under 10.

What I guess I am now predominantly is a mobile gamer, mostly with my iPhone.”

What is your favorite type of game?

“I always had a passion for flight simulators but sadly you don’t see them as mainstream games anymore- apart from the Microsoft Flight sim series (I assume it still exists) but they were about realism and not blowing stuff up! I still have my joystick, ready to go.
I lived and breathed some space combat simulators that I think we’re about to get into in some of the following questions.

I’ve loved many RPG’s and first person shooters (since Wolfenstein 3D, I was hooked) and I love how many games these days combine both – I’m afraid to go and check on Steam how many hours of my life have been swallowed by Skyrim!”

What was your first Star Wars game?

“First Star Wars game was X-Wing, I was always a Star Wars fan and for me this was the beginning of the end of the ‘Dark Times’. It was 1993, I was 14 and in suburban Western Australia was at that point unaware of what was going on with Star Wars, I didn’t know they had released novels and other things and suddenly my brother’s friend lends us his copy of X-Wing to try, I’m assuming it was a demo or something pirated perhaps – it was incomplete.

But I was hooked and by my next birthday I managed to convince my mother to get me the game ($85 was a LOT for us back then, unheard of for a video game in our house!) and the B-Wing expansion pack, I also managed to sell a special set of X-Men comics trading cards to a comic store to get enough for the other expansion pack ‘Imperial Pursuit’.

It was an in the cockpit, joystick required, music by John Williams masterpiece. The graphics and animations were unlike anything I’d seen in a game before, very smooth, real (for the time) and made you feel like you were a background character in Episode IV, the game led up to you basically being Luke Skywalker even though you clearly weren’t – but you fly the trench and blow up the Death Star! So that game was my big return to Star Wars, not that I left, we always watched the movies but now it was something new. I found I could get X-Wing and TIE model kits and I’m sure I could still draw one fairly accurately by memory.”  😉

What is your favorite Star Wars game?

“This is a toughie, especially as so many of what I consider the greatest Star Wars games are very dated and not how I remember them being at the time. X-Wing was the first love, TIE Fighter seduced me and enthralled me – I’d go back and forth to that game for years, it’s a special one for me not just for the gameplay and story but I was 15, just finished the 10th grade and said goodbye to my brother, sister, dog, cats, friends, cousins – everything I knew and moved to Venezuela with my parents. We stopped in Houston on the way (Dad was an oilfield guy) and there I got TIE Fighter and a new joystick and other bits to upgrade the computer. It like the new Star Wars books I was reading were my safety net, my escape. It was a huge change for an introverted teenager who had his world turned upside down.

Then came Dark Forces – all I wanted to be was Kyle Katarn, it looked a million times better than any other shooter and I loved the characters, the stories and puzzles – it was so incredibly immersive, I was in Star Wars! Especially as no one I knew played the game so there was no one disputing this! I’ve felt the same about the subsequent Katarn games.

There were others after but long story short today I’ll say Dark Forces… tomorrow who knows!”

Now tell us about Star Wars Uprising…

What drew you to Star Wars Uprising?

“A few things drew me to Uprising- initially the concept art, then the trailer and that it would be a mobile game that fits in with the official Star Wars canon

That it was a free game (with not required in-app purchases) meant hey – why not?

I was expecting a September release date like everyone else when I didn’t hear back on the beta but then one day one my lunch break I guess close to a month ago I saw an ‘install now game ad for it on Facebook and pounced! Couldn’t download as I wasn’t on wifi, but it was queued and ready!

But again the initial art and design and had me intrigued, cool characters and costumes.”

How hard or easy is it to play on the current gaming platform you are using?

“Initially I hoped to play it on a tablet I got back in June for that reason, but as it turns out large Google/Asus Nexus 7 won’t support it so another reason to save up for an iPad in future!

I’m playing it on an iPhone 5S and it runs very well, graphics run smoothly and only your internet connection will slow the load times.

There is maybe one combat move (like a charge up attack) that’s not easy with rough man fingers but 95% it is just fine.

Easy zoom in zoom out with two fingers like you would a photo, mostly I play zoomed all out and only closer to appreciate specific parts of the art and design.”

What type of character or characters do you have in the game?

“Character options at present are as follows:

Human: male/female

Twi’lek: male/female

Zabrak: male/female

All are customisable by skin tone, hair colour and style or head accessory or horns depending on species

Also facial tattoos/mark slings/face paint are available and hair colour and face paint markings are changeable later in the game from your character screen, but at present, style isn’t.”

“Clothing is customisable in that you can change into other things and upgrade it – your helmet and backpack can be set to invisible if you’d prefer to not be seen with them on, but still have their hit points.

So far there is no choice in what you want to be, you are helping your sister, Riley – who is human looking like Olivia Wilde in the concept art but will change to whatever species you choose to play. You and Riley are smugglers with things to achieve to be free and in control of your destiny.

So far no sign of force powers and the weapons available are a variety of blasters, bowcasters and swords, power ups, special attacks can be earned and levelled up.”

What is your favorite part of this game?

“It looks great, similar to Neverwinter Nights in the perspective of looking down at a character on a moving map. I love the music, a lot is very familiar John Williams/Star Wars

Also it’s a brand new story and scenario – I won’t give much away but it’s not the usual “the Empire is oppressing is let’s join the Rebels and defeat them” it’s actually “the Empire is going to squish us if we try leave the sector and it’s more focused on the underworld, the smuggling and criminal syndicates but we know Sent from my iPhone.”

What is the least favorite part of this game?

“There can be a lot of grinding to level up your character and equipment before you are allowed to play certain story missions or hardness levels but it’s not so bad and it’s worth it I believe, keeps it paced out.

I will say that since the first big update has improved the whole thing considerably, it’s a lot more fun, prettier and the equipment customizations are better and make more sense.”

Have you played any other games that are similar to this? If so, how does it compare?

“I haven’t played anything like it on a mobile device, but I think if you liked the Knights of the Old Republic games you’ll love it. The combat isn’t the old style ‘turn based’ system, it’s pretty much real time- tell your character to attack the enemy and she will, decide to run or dodge or lob a grenade – do so at any time, your enemy will be!”

Is there anything else you want to tell us about Star Wars Uprising?

“Just that I hope we get more ‘story’ out of it soon, I’m quite sure we will. I think it’s intentionally starting off as it is with the focus on smuggling syndicates and the underworld with some Imperial entanglements and not big into the Empire’s campaign and the Rebel involvement until the game is fully released worldwide. I expect they are keeping it that way for story spoilers, I am sure when everyone else can play it that there will be an update for those playing now.”

How would you descibe yourself?

“I’m married guy raising a fangirl.

I have many fandoms but it all comes back to Star Wars for me.

I’m a nerd, but outdoorsy.

Star Wars Celebration Anaheim this year was my first fan convention and a dream come true, I still have to pinch myself and realise that while I’m living in a tiny Australian bush town, I really did go on a huge adventure and finally met many of my social media friends/family like Patty and her husband Michael, Matt Clifton, David and Luann Manderville, podcasters, voice actors like Stephen Stanton and his wonderful team and so many more-I’m truly blessed!”

You can find Ryan on Facebook and also on Twitter as

Thanks so much Ryan for taking the time to talk to The Cantina Cast about your experience with Star Wars Uprising.

You can follow Patty on Twitter @PattyBones2