This Is The Way To Celebrate May The Fourth

This Is The Way To Celebrate May The Fourth
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Is May the Fourth the first dad joke to transform into an annual celebration? It has to be, right? In any case, May the Fourth is just around the corner, which means it’s time for everyone to celebrate their favourite scrappy, indie, sci-fi franchise: Star Wars.

There’s no wrong way to celebrate Star Wars Day – except for not actually doing anything, that is. If you’re looking for suggestions for things to do, we have a few ideas for you.

Read Star Wars

Image: Taschen

Star Wars has a pretty rich selection of books, and as far as extended universe writers go you can’t really go past Timothy Zahn. His recent return to writing his iconic character, the cunning and ruthless Admiral Thrawn, has been a pretty a good time, and well worth IT if you dug the character’s appearance in the Rebels cartoon – or if you want to get ahead of the pack before he inevitably appears in the Ahsoka Tano TV series.

If you’re more interested in something Jedi-related, Claudia Gray’s Master & Apprentice is a great Star Wars book about Obi-Wan’s time as Qui-Gon’s Padawan. We only saw this relationship briefly in The Phantom Menace, and Gray does a good job of exploring the bond between the master and, uh, apprentice.

If you’re someone who loves a good making-of book, Taschen’s Star Wars Archives (1977–1983) might just be the definitive work for the original trilogy. This thing is overflowing with behind-the-scenes photos, production sketches and interviews with various members of the cast and crew – like Irvin Kershner and Harrison Ford discussing how the “I love you” scene in Empire should play out. Reading it for the first time, we were genuinely surprised by the amount of stuff in it that we’d never seen before.

Play one of the many Star Wars games

lego star wars cheap
Image: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

The last decade of Star Wars games has been a bit spotty, to say the least, so your personal mileage may vary from game to game. However, there is one shining light throughout this period: Star Wars Squadrons. This aerial combat sim is way better than it has any right to be. If you loved the X-Wing, TIE Fighter or Rogue Squadron games when growing up, this game really scratches that itch.

You can currently grab Star Wars Squadrons for $17.99, on both the PS4 here and Xbox One here (it’s also playable on the newer generation of consoles).

Last month also saw the long-awaited release of LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. The LEGO Star Wars series has a pretty consistent history of being one of the franchise’s best adaptations when it comes to games, and reviews of The Skywalker Saga show this latest iteration is no different. You can pick up LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga on sale for $59 here.

Try one of the tabletop games

Image: Fantasy Flight

If you’re looking for something a bit more analogue, the Star Wars Rebellion is a much-beloved board game around these parts.

Rebellion is a two-player strategy game where you either play as the Rebel Alliance or the Empire. As the Rebels, your goal is to perform strategic strikes on the Imperial Army’s resources, while growing the size of your cause. As the Empire, it’s your job to sniff out the Rebel cell and snuff them out of existence.

Imperial Assault is a mix of both a tabletop RPG and a dungeon crawler board game. You play as a group of Rebels who are given various missions to complete that’ll help increase your strength while taking down the Empire.

A game of Imperial Assault can usually take around an hour or two to complete, so it’s not too time-consuming and less of a commitment compared to a full-on RPG. Not that it matters, because you’ll be having too good a time to notice the clock.

Build some Star Wars LEGO

star wars may the fourth
Image: LEGO

Building a new LEGO set is just a good time in general, and as far as branded sets go, you can’t really go wrong with Star Wars.

If you head over to the official LEGO store between now and the end of May the Fourth, you’ll find a bunch of exclusive discounts and offers available for select Star Wars sets. If you become a LEGO VIP, you’ll get a bonus Mandalorian keyring with any orders over $149 and you can access preorders for the Ultimate Collector set of Luke Skywalker’s Landspeeder.

If you’re just after a good deal on a Star Wars set, here are a few that are currently on sale:

Watch Star Wars

Image: Star Wars: Clone Wars 2003)

Have you heard about those Star War movies? We reckon they’re pretty good.

While you’re probably inclined to rewatch some of the movies or The Mandalorian, we want to throw out a suggestion to watch a Genndy Tartakovsky’s phenomenal Star Wars: Clone Wars series from 2003. If it’s been a while since you’ve watched it – or you’ve never seen it – it is well worth a watch. It’s one of the best looking 2D animated series of the past two decades, and Tartakovsky manages to pack in an impressive amount of story-telling, character development and action into the series’ entire 2.5-hour runtime.

May The Fourth is the perfect excuse to revisit the Clone Wars. Even if you rewatched it last week, you’re probably due another spin.


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At Kotaku, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

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