Star Wars - Shadows of the Empire (known as Star wars - Teikoku no Kage,スター・ウォーズ 帝国の影, in Japan) is an action game developed by LucasArts and published by Nintendo (in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan), Playtronic Industrial (in South America) and Limited Run Games (re-release).

The story is set between Episodes V and VI. A mercenary called Dash Rendar gets involved in the Battle of Hoth when brings supplies to the Rebel base on the planet. After the battle is over and Rendar has escaped with his ship, he continues to work to the Rebels. First he tries to find Boba Fett, later on he gets in line of Prince Xizor. Xizor is the leader of the Black Sun, a powerful crime syndicate, and plots to take the place of Darth Vader as the Emperor's second hand. Xizor plans to achieve this by killing Luke Skywalker, as he is convinced Vader will be disgraced and get rid off when failing to win Luke for the Dark Side.

The game has many different styles of gameplay. You take control of different vehicles, like a snowspeeder on Hoth, Rendar's own ship or a speeder bike. Other levels involve controlling Rendar in foot, from either a third-person or first-person view. You have a laser gun with infinite ammo, and you can find additional weapons (with limited ammo).Dash can also duck and jump, and some sequences require ducking and jumping to evade obstacles.