Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

"Its tough but still fun."

I remember being a star wars fan when I was younger. I begged my mom to buy this game for me and I loved it. When Playstation came out I sold a lot of my game to get one this one being one of them. I just recently bought the game again and it was everything I knew and loved.

Story: 10/10
Not much needs to be said here. It follows the same story as the movie and of course it is good. This is one of the better movie to game translation that I have seen so it follows the movie almost exactly.

Control: 8/10
I will not stress enough how important control is in all games. It really defines the experience. The 3D levels control very very well, just a tad unresponsive at times but not bad, the same goes for the side-scrolling levels. The controls are unresponsive due to frame rate drops, but overall the control is nearly perfect.

Gameplay: 7/10
I have read a lot about this game being too hard. I will agree with them that is the reason for the 7. I did conquer this game, on easy, brave, and jedi. It takes a lot of patience but it can be done. Your health bar does go down fast, so you need to watch it carefully. Other than an extremely steep learning curve it is nearly flawless. Just as a word of warning the cloud city level will be frustrating.

Graphics: 8/10
There are some minor graphic glitches, primarily in the 2D levels. There is some clipping but not too bad. But there are some pretty massive frame rate issues. It happens way too frequently to ignore. But the 3D levels are excellent, the Hoth sequence is amazing for the system, the asteroid feild is really cool too.

Sound: 9/10
The sound is really good, for the time anyway. The music that was put in the game is pretty impressive, although the music does repeat often, it is still good to hear. The sound effect, typical laser blasts and explosions, Darth Vader's voice was a nice addition, Yoda's voice on the continue screen sounds good too.

Replay: 6/10
After you beat it on all difficulties then there is no reason to come back for more, you don't get any special Easter Eggs and there aren't really any secrets that are hard to find.

Overall: 9/10
If your a fan of star wars get it, I need the first game in this series for my collection to be complete, but the game is fun, especially for fans, if you don't like star wars steer clear of this one. I only paid $6.00 for my copy so if you find it go ahead and get it, you wont regret it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/24/04