First it was
Star Wars
in which a war was carried out
against a backdrop of stars, then
it was
The Empire Strikes Back
in which The Empire, er, struck
back and now it's
Return Of The
Jedi in which
(Yes we know, in
which the Jedi come back again.
Now get on with it or you're fired.
Ed). Eeeer. Oh dear. Um,
anyway, we now have the third
part of the trilogy, so without
further ado let's have a
meatshop.
If you were expecting
something in the same vein as
Domark's two previous
Star Wars
games (vector graphic shoot
'em ups) then you'd be wrong.
This one's a scroller. A diagonal
scroller to boot (like
Alien
Highway and
Highway
Encounter). There are various
different stages to the game, so
let's start with level one (and why
not). It's a diagonally scrolling
(top right to bottom left) forest of
Endor. You play Princess Leia on
a speederbike and you have to
avoid both the trees and the
Imperial Stormtroopers (also on
speederbikes). Both would be
easy on their own, but together
things are decidedly tricky.
Keeping out of the way of the
Stormtroopers often leads to
tree-collisions, and paying too
much attention to the trees can
result in a Stormtrooper taking
you out unawares from behind
(oo-er).lf you get to the end of this
stage you'll be treated to the
sight of a band of Ewoks doing
something that will make them
go blind, or at least that's what it
looks like.
The next stage is the Death
Star, where you're in control of
the Millenium Falcon with the
task of blowing up the central
reactor. Again it's a diagonal
scroller, and the object is to avoid
the dangerous protrusions
jutting from every wall as they
scroll inexorably towards you.
Avoid enough protrusions, blow
up the reactor and it's onto stage
three, which is really more of
stage one, but with more trees
and Stormtroopers. Stage four is
more diagonal scrolling, only this
time you're in charge of an
Imperial Scout Walker, and
you've got to avoid/shoot
oncoming logs and boulders.
Graphically the game is quite
neat. The scrolling is fast and
smooth, and the sprites are
nicely animated. The control
response is very good too. In fact
it's all quite addictive - for a
while - but the only real problem
is substance, or rather lack of it.
If you're looking for something to
while away a bit of time then you
could do worse than
Return Of
The Jedi, but if you're looking for
something a bit more 'special'
then maybe this isn't for you. It's
not awful by any means, but then
again it ain't brilliant either.
Ho hum.
| Arcade version screenshot... |

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| Click here to view all 4 pics |
| Ratings given by other magazines |
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| Info supplied by the SPOT*ON database |