Off To a Good Start: The 25 Best First Levels of All Time

November 14, 2008 | By: Robert Workman

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Every game has a first level, but only a few are timeless.

25. Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (LucasArts/Nintendo 64)

One of the main reasons we picked up this Nintendo 64 game was for its excellent first level. You fly through Hoth in your snowspeeder, shooting troublesome droids while tripping large AT-AT's with a harpoon gun. Just like in The Empire Strikes Back movie, you circle around them, strap tow cables to their legs and bring those suckers down.

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Reader Comments (62)

scheterr at 12:38 pm on November 18th 2008

Anyone ever ply Shining Force or Shining Force 2 for genesis? I know it has nothing to do with this acticle but those games were the boss!!

mikeladt at 11:45 am on November 18th 2008

Tripp5soul prolly considers himself a die hard gamer because he plays halo for 20 hours a day, real gamers know these games, some of us know them all too well. I do agree that even though FF7 doesn't really have levels it did have a killer beginning. This list is pretty accurate but gears of war and halo are crap, I would rather play friday the 13th on nes lol.

toastedmoose420 at 11:04 am on November 18th 2008

To tripp5soul: Really...you never heard of half of these games? I have at least heard of every single one of them but only plaed like 20 of them....you need to expand your games knowledge a little bit and go back and play some....You're missing out.

vash0924 at 11:03 am on November 18th 2008

why did the put stars where i typed '***ht' and 'o*****amer'?

vash0924 at 11:01 am on November 18th 2008

thank you for super metroid. my friends and i still reference the opening of symphony of the ***ht. a lot of you guys really gotta stop whining about a game you like not being on these lists. seriously. we're not five years old anymore...unless you are...then you may whine. @tripp i'm not much o*****amer, but i still know all of these

shafersaysmeh at 9:57 am on November 18th 2008

Thank god you ended it with super metroid, however i have to be shocked that you didnt include final fantasy 3/6 or 7 (those are the most memorable) or Shadow of Colossus that first boss took forever to figure out....best. christmas. ever.

wraithshroud at 9:52 am on November 18th 2008

I agree with oshafir23 about Shadow of Colossus . I bought the game for $20.00 because i heard it was good but i had no idea what it was about. I was like holy crap I'm suppose to kill that thing? Also front line scared the poop out of me, that was intense.