Super Star Wars finally turned movie based games from the darkside of the gaming industry. Many games baring the titles of their movie namesakes had been ignored by gamers for a long time. This wasn’t by ignorance, just from history. Most games based on blockbuster films were just a lackluster attempt to keep the gravy train rolling (need I remind anyone of E.T. for Atari). So when Super Star Wars hit the shelves, no one knew what to expect. To my surprise SSW was what we had been waiting for.

At first look SSW is graphically very crisp. All the stages and characters are well animated and surprisingly detailed. Luke’s clothes to the detail on the inside of the sandcrawler have all been well done. The music for each stage also comes from the films and as expected does fit perfectly within the game. All the locales are present in the game from Tattooine to inside the Death Star. The overall production value of this cart is of very high quality.

SSW has some basic platforming to break up the constant run and gun. Although most of the platforming does consist of firing at the same time. Luke starts off with a blaster and will eventually get his lightsaber from Obi-Wan. The blaster can be powered up four times to increase its firepower. Unfortunately, the only real use for the lightsaber is to defeat the giant womprat boss. You can switch between the blaster and lightsaber, but the blaster is essentially the way to go. Outside of the blaster power ups there are score multipliers, shields, thermal detonators, and lighsabers which will lengthen Luke’s health bar. All simple additions to increase the fun factor of this title.

In addition to the side scrolling stages there are three vehicle stages. In two Luke pilots his landspeeder and the other his x-wing for its go at the Death Star. These three stages are really nothing to talk about, they seem just tacked on. The only real other problem is the stage layout. This really isn’t the developers fault since in the movie Luke is only in two places, Tattooine and the Death Star. Only two stages doesn’t make a game so the locales had to be sectioned off into multiple stages. This is the only real downfall making the game feel repetitive. So check out the video below of JVC’s Super Star Wars.                   
                
                

Score
Overall
Super Star Wars is still one of the better games to bare the name. Good graphics and surprisingly tight control make for a quality gaming experience. The levels do get a bit repetitive but it never really seems to take away from the game. SSW does have a darkside, such as bad vehicle levels and somewhat odd bosses popping up at the end of certain stages. All in all SSW was a step in the right direction, putting Lucas Arts as a game developer on the map. JVC also published the two sequals as well as putting Indiana Jones into the mix using the same style that made SSW a success.
User Score: (2 votes, average: 9.00 out of 10)  Loading ...