Super Star Wars Review

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… a 16-bit adaptation for one of the greatest blockbuster franchises was made. Let’s see how well Super Star Wars for the Super Nintendo holds up.

We start off strong with the opening crawl paired with the iconic Star Wars theme. The cutscene that follows recreates the opening shot of the star destroyer chasing the rebel ship. After this impressive cinematic, we start off as Luke Skywalker on the desert planet of Tatooine. The environments and levels are all very detailed and represent the source material very well. With most movie-licensed titles, you want to feel as though you’re playing through the events of the film, and this game excels in that respect.

The game follows the plot of the movie for the most part, but takes some creative liberties here and there. For instance, instead of Uncle Owen purchasing C-3PO and R2-D2 from the Jawas, Luke has to rescue the two droids from the Sandcrawler. Jawas seemed to be relatively harmless in the original film, but by the time you’ve finished the first half of the game, you’d swear that they were the main antagonists.

The enemies are not always what you’d expect from a Star Wars game, especially the ones you encounter in the first few levels. Some of the bizarre creatures you fight on Tatooine include green rabbits and scorpions that shoot lasers from their stingers. It’s kind of funny to imagine what it would be like to live on Tatooine as it’s presented in this version of the story. Luke would be strolling along through the desert, maybe on his way to the Tosche Station to pick up some power converters, only to have every single creature on the planet out for his blood.

As the story progresses, you start to fight more familiar foes such as the Sand People and Stormtroopers. Despite the overwhelming number of enemies, the game’s difficulty is tough, but fair. What makes the game especially challenging, however, is its lack of a save feature. If you want to beat the game, you’re going to have to do it all in one sitting. Also, if you get a game over, you’re only given three continues. Once you run out, you’ll have to start the game over from the beginning. Like many old-school video games, Super Star Wars requires a lot of practice.

You’re given both a primary method of attack and a jump button to navigate your way through the platforming segments of the levels. The blaster is your main starting weapon. There’s a certain feeling of intensity in the way that the combat is handled. The blaster’s rate of fire is extremely fast-paced and the enemies always explode when you shoot them down. It’s pretty over-the-top, but satisfying for the most part. You can find weapon upgrades that change the type of ammo your blaster uses, such as fire lasers, heat-seeking missiles, and blue plasma bolts. Pretty overkill.

There are several other power-ups that enemies occasionally drop. You can pick up Darth Vader’s helmet, which temporarily doubles your score and thermal detonators that wipe out all the enemies on the screen. Also, you can find lightsabers, or “health swords,” that increase your health capacity. Why they’re not called “life-sabers,” we may never know.

Speaking of lightsabers, you’ve given one to use once you meet up with Obi-Wan Kenobi. Many Star Wars games have tried to capture the feeling of using this weapon and this game does so effectively given its gameplay genre. Once you get the lightsaber, you feel a sense of empowerment as you flip around through the air and swing your saber at your enemies. This may not be as impressive as later games’ use of the weapon, but it works pretty well for what they were trying to accomplish.

The gameplay offers a fair amount of variety. Several stages let you pilot vehicles such as Luke's landspeeder, the Millennium Falcon, and an X-wing fighter. These sections utilize the Super Nintendo's "mode 7" capability, which gives the illusion of traveling across a three-dimensional plane. Also, you later get the option to play as other main characters such as Han Solo and Chewbacca.

While the difficulty can be a bit harsh at times, Super Star Wars is still a great platformer for the Super Nintendo. The force will be with this game. Always.