Begun, these game wars have

Once again the hum of the light saber is heard throughout the land -- and not just in the local cineplex. The battle between Jedi and Sith rages in millions of living rooms, as video gamers fire up a horde of software titles inspired by the ''Star Wars" flicks.

Just as fans of the fantasy epic have long argued over which of the films is best -- or worst -- there is plenty for gamers to debate as well. George Lucas's entertainment empire has cranked out dozens of ''Star Wars" games. And loyalists never stop arguing over which of them are best.

Well, the argument stops here. For once and for all, here are the best and worst of the recent crop of games. It's a personal list, one that's liable to make me the target of countless galactic bounty hunters. After all, it begins with a title that many ''Star Wars" fans love but that I can't stand.

It's called Knights of the Old Republic, and it's designed for desktop PCs and the Microsoft Xbox game console. Some consider it the best ''Star Wars" game ever. Set 4,000 years before the events of the movies, it features another of those pesky attempts by the Sith to bring their version of order to the galaxy. Of course, the Jedi aren't having any, and interstellar butt kicking ensues.

KOTOR, as its fans call it, was a huge hit back in 2003, and a popular sequel was released last year. I've tried them both but gave up after realizing that the games were giving me a strange new power -- the ability to sleep with my eyes open.

The designers of KOTOR were inspired by old-fashioned board games where you roll dice to see what happens next. Get into a battle with a bad guy and you don't just whip out your blaster and squeeze off a few. Nope; the game freezes and gives you an on-screen menu of possible ways to fight. After you make your selection, the computer calculates whether your shots are killing the enemy fast enough. You can change tactics or weapons in mid-fight, but always it's up to the game's statistical algorithm to decide whether you live or die.

Sorry. When I'm playing an action game, I want action -- running, ducking, shooting. I don't figure to sit waiting for the outcome of a digital craps game. When playing KOTOR, I always felt the computer was having more fun than me. No thanks.

I'd rather play a rousing bout of Star Wars Battlefront, for the PC, Xbox, or Sony PlayStation 2. It's a satisfying rip-off of the popular Battlefield games from Electronic Arts. In those games, you pop up in World War II or Vietnam and go rampaging through major battles. You can hop into a plane and fly it, climb inside a tank and drive it, or scramble through the landscape as a common rifleman. It's great fun. And so is Battlefront, which applies the same concept to a bunch of battles from the ''Star Wars" movies. You can play as Rebellion or Empire, Jedi or Trade Federation. You can fly TIE fighters, drive land speeders, ride Tauntauns.

If you're playing alone, you're part of a computer-controlled army, with automated enemies ranged against you. But don't play alone -- Battlefront is best played on the Internet, where you'll fight with and against human opponents. Just log on, pick the ''Star Wars" battlefield of your choice -- ice planet Hoth, perhaps, or dusty Tatooine -- choose a team, and dive in. I've wasted many a merry hour annihilating the rebel scum, and I don't regret a minute of it. And this fall, the carnage resumes, as Battlefront II goes on sale.

Looking for something more intimate? How about a field trip with three of your best pals? You've known these guys since birth -- you were all cloned together, after all, and trained as masters of mayhem. Now Yoda wants to use your talents to clear out some wretched hives of scum and villainy.

That's the premise of Star Wars Republic Commando, a delightful first-person shooter for the PC and Xbox that puts you in command of a team of elite clone troopers. The designers of this game devised a simple, powerful system for letting you give orders to your buddies, allowing you to deploy them in a tactical situation for maximum effect. In seconds you can put one guy up high with a sniper rifle and another to your right with grenades and order a third to place a booby trap. Then you move out and draw the enemy into the kill zone. Ah yes, good clean fun.

We mustn't neglect two recent games that let you play out the events of the newest ''Star Wars" film. Actually, you should neglect the official Episode III: Revenge of the Sith game, for the PS2 and Xbox. It lets you enact some of the movie's most spectacular battles, in either the guise of Obi-Wan or the soon-to-be-evil Anakin. But it saddles the player with a rigid style of play and movement that turns Lucas's expansive fantasy universe into a very claustrophobic place. And the game's difficulty ranges too sharply from the childishly simple to the outrageously difficult. One minute you're knocking down robots like ninepins, the next you're dueling with Count Dooku, and no matter how many times you hit him, he . . . just . . . won't . . . die.

The other Episode III game is actually a good deal more than that. Indeed, it's one of the big surprises of the year and likely to go down as one of the best ''Star Wars" games ever. And it's for kids.

Lego Star Wars, for the PS2 and Xbox, combines the gentle, puckish humor of a Wallace and Gromit movie with remarkable faithfulness to the Lucas saga. The key characters and scenes from episodes I, II, and III are all here, represented by animated Lego blocks. You can play as Obi-Wan, Anakin, Queen Amidala, R2-D2, or other characters. Do you despise Jar Jar Binks from Episode I? You might not after playing Lego Star Wars -- here he gives a good account of himself.

You can transfer from one character to another in mid-adventure, as indeed you must, as each has special abilities vital to completing the missions. The queen, for instance, has a grappling hook that lets her scale walls, while R2 can open locked doors and immobilize those nasty destroyer droids. Even Jar Jar is good for something.

Did I say it was for the car-seat set? So what? The game play is so elegant, and the visual style so attractive, that even us old grizzled gamers will find it addictive. So put the kiddies to bed, make yourself some hot chocolate, and fight for the Galactic Republic block by block.