My younger brother James recently decided to replicate the final half of Revenge of the Sith using the Scenario Editor for the Galactic Battlegrounds game. He isn't quite a wizard when it comes to creating his own levels on the program, but he's almost there, and everything he has done is quite impressive to my non-gaming mind. I watched over his shoulder most of the time, making suggestions and offering spelling corrections, but it was all James's work.

The scenario begins in an area on Coruscant with Mace Windu facing off against Palpatine (represented in his Sidious form here) and Anakin Skywalker (who is, sadly, from Episode II and voiced by Jake Lloyd. Hopefully LucasArts will release a ROTS expansion ASAP.) Windu is supposed to die here, but even though his hit points have been drastically reduced, he sometimes succeeds in killing Anakin before Palpatine kills him. Not exactly true to the film. More annoying is when Mace wonders off to the side of the screen, and is not pursued by Anakin and Palpatine. Then nothing works. Usually, however, Mace dies, and the screen snaps to a flat plain with cliffs and water representing Utapau. The message "Execute Order 66" appears on screen.

On Utapau, Republic walkers and clone troopers (one renamed Commander Cody) blast a lizard-riding Gungan scout, who is standing in for Obi-Wan and Boga. The lizard will pass for Boga, but the Gungan scout, not surprisingly, doesn't look a bit like Ewan McGregor. Still, when the walkers blast the lizard quickly, it replicates the scene in the movie quite nicely.

The view then hops about the map, showing areas representing planets across the galaxy. All the Jedi deaths from the films are here, including Ki-Adi-Mundi on a fair approximation of Mygeeto and Plo Koon on Cato Neimoidia. The bridge cities on the latter world were replicated nicely by arranging blasted Trade Federation buildings over a cloud field. The action with the starfighters proved somewhat difficult to replicate. First, X-Wings had to be substituted for ARC-170s, second, the starfighters had an annoying tendency to visit the rest of the map before they could turn on each other. Ground units were all contained by their environments, but starfighters can go where they please. James solved this problem by having the fighters appear as soon as Mundi was killed.

More unit substitutions became necessary: an Imperial biker scout became Stass Allie, while a green Twi'lek with a blaster stands in for Aalya Secura. James also decided to cover more Jedi deaths, which led to several discussions as to which Jedi characters he could use.

"You can't use Depa Billaba; she went crazy during the Clone Wars."

"What about Jor Drakus?"

"You killed him during the Confederacy Campaign, remember?"

The only preexisting Jedi character we could use was Naat Rathe, a surviving character from the Republic Campaigns. Several turbo tanks turn on her on a boggy world. Jor Drakus was renamed "Sdnuorglattab Citcalag"--a rather obvious joke, and a bit of a mouthful even for a Twi'lek name--and placed on Tatooine, where he is unfortunately toasted by mounted troopers. Other Jedi die on a volcanic planet during a battle with Mandalorians, and a small group falls prey to clone troopers on a snowy world. Two of these Jedi gained the unfortunate names of "Puke Moonwalker" and "Oblah-Dee Oblah-Dan" in reference to the hysterical Star Bores parody novel by Steves Barlow and Skidmore. The Clone Commanders didn't get off any better--among them are Commanders Cobra, Riker, and Kermit. A Jedi named "Rev-Illot Cirda" boards a shuttle after defeating a battle droid on an asteroid, and his troopers blow the shuttle up, carrying out their orders but stranding themselves. What a way to go. James also named a Jedi after himself, who meets his unfortunate end on Corthank, a planet James created for another his own campaigns.

The attack on the Jedi Temple was, I think, brilliantly executed. Anakin and an army of blue-colored stormtroopers blast the Temple, and a Jedi Knight and three Padawans appear. After they are dispatched, "Zett Jukassa" moves in to engage the stormtroopers. On Kashyyyk, Yoda is turned on by his clones (not in that way) while conferring with Chewbacca and a berserker renamed "General Tarfful".

The climactic end comes on Mustafar, as Anakin enters the Separatist bunker. A Quarren, a Neimoidian, two battle droids, Nute Gunray and Poggle the Lesser were the only characters available in the editor to make up the Separatist Council, but they are enough. Poggle was almost more than enough; as James couldn't even make Anakin kill Poggle. Any engagement between the two ended with Anakin on the floor. Poggle is a tougher old geezer than he looks. In the end, Poggle just dies after Anakin finishes off the last battle droid.

Finally, Obi-Wan appears, and kills Anakin after an epic three second confrontation (Anakin, it seems, is no match for anyone in this game.) Cut to Palpatine and clone troopers, who arrive on Mustafar in the Emperor's Shuttle. The body of General Dodonna (wounded) stands in for Anakin in this scene. The scenario finally ends where it began, on Coruscant. The Emperor stands with Vader, surrounded by medical droids. For his final act, James had the message "NOOOOOOOO!" appear on the screen, followed by the destruction of the medical droids.