"Why has Star Wars never attempted a fighting game?", is a question that has likely been asked. One would think that during the rising popularity of video games, along with the success of Star Wars interactive media, that a 2D tournament fighter would've been attempted. It never happened, until 1997's Star Wars: Masters of the Teras Kasi for the PlayStation. Based on this effort, it makes sense why there hasn't been an effort to try again.

Developed and published by LucaArts, Masters of the Teras Kasi bypasses a 2D efforts and tries its hand in the 3D fighter department, which was the style at the time. Around the mid 90's, the lottery to cash in on the 3D fighter craze was rampant, but only a few broke through with success. Star Wars, with its varied characters, feats, and signature weapons, had a chance to be a proven commodity, but this is untested waters from a company with zero history in the genre. And boy does it show. Masters of the Teras Kasi is a clumsy, slow, unresponsive mess that fails to be appealing in comparison to event he most sub-mediocre 3D fighters. It's not quite Killing Zone and War Gods territories of terrible, but it makes a valiant effort to crack that bedrock and fall further. Imagine trying to play Mortal Kombat 4 with three of your fingers taped together.

The plot of the game involves the Empire ordering a swift and ruthless extermination of Alliance members. In order to accomplish this, an assassin, Arden Lyn, a Pawalan Dark Jedi warrior who has trained in the forgotten art of Teras Kasi, is tasked with this mission under Darth Vader's watch. The game has 8 starting characters, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Boba Fett, the aforementioned Arden Lyn, the Tusken Raider Hoar, and  Gamorrean warrior Thok. Unlokcable characters include Slave Leia, Darth Vader, Mara Jade, Jodo Kast, and...a Stormtrooper. For all those Stormtrooper fans.  

Let's knock the positives out of the way, the graphics aren't that bad. The character models resemble the signature characters well, and the textures on them carry good detail. I even appreciate the stages, they adopt the environments they're based on very well. On the Dagobah swamp, R2-D2 can be seen rolling around in the background. On the Hoth stage, a wrecked AT-AT is smoking in the horizon. There's starships, the Millenium Falcon, and Star Destroyers zipping around in the sky. 

There's also some very good music, signature sounds from the movies are seamlessly transitioned into Masters. From the main theme, so other signature scores from scenes, this game totally nails it in the audio department.

Then you actually have to play the damn game. You'd swear you'd think your controller was either not plugged in or broken trying to execute even basic actions in this game. Masters of the Teras Kasi is a 2.5D fighter with the four face buttons acting as your basic strikes. L1 and L2 allow you to side step, and I gotta say, it's awkward as hell deprogramming my senses to remember that. Not like it helps much anyway, the side step/dodge barely gives you any extra openings. Pressing R2 draws each character's weapon and opens up some new special moves. It's a good idea in theory. Depending on the character, why in the hell would you never want to draw your weapon? Who says, "instead of using my lightsaber, I'm gonna throw hands with Luke Skywalker"?

The special move barely work, or work whenever they want to. Most of them are your basic motions you've seen in every fighter (quarter circle forward, Dragon Punch motions, etc.), but the attacks never come out and the execution is so clunky, it's impossible to chain anything together. The priority system is allegedly rock-paper-scissors based, but the properties behind the attacks mean jack shit when you can just spam the same two attacks.

I can't tell if there's unblockables, overheads, or attacks that land on counter, because my opponent will immediately reset and be literally right back on the offense!! There's zero balance, some characters like Arden and Luke can air juggle you into oblivion, while Boba Fett's arsenal kinda sucks, despite having a trick shot homing blaster that's nearly impossible to block. Jumping is delayed as hell, and almost anything feels like it can anti-air you, thanks to the god-awful collision detection. Not only can this game make up if it wants to be a true 3D fighter with elements like Ring Outs, or a 2D fighter with Critical Arts.

Star Wars Masters Of Teras Kasi is a butchered abomination. Recalling every pet of mine that never came back home brings back more cherished memories than the collective time I've spent trying to understand this mess. The themes and Star Wars atmosphere can't salvage some of the most putrid controls on the PlayStation. It wouldn't hurt of the the franchise tried another fighting game, but it really doesn't need it.