Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

"The best of the Star Wars trilogy, but that's not saying much"

Let me get something straight with you people first. Every single Star Wars game was an absolute abomination before the Dark Forces trilogy was released. And I mean, every single one. This is no exception. It's clunky gameplay, horrible graphics, and grating sounds are just some of the things wrong with it. But before I proceed, let me say. This game is an absolute disgrace to the movie, as are the other two complementing it. Let's proceed...

Graphics: 6/10

The best aspect of this game, period. There is no arguing that graphics, though this game was made in the early '90s, are pretty good. The between-level scenes in which you see clips of the movies are pretty chunky, but otherwise all right. The character selection has a near perfect rendition of the characters from the movies in it, so I'll give that a thumbs up. Now what kills this category is the in-level graphics; they're pretty bad, as all it is is repeating backgrounds, abnormally-shaped people and enemies, and horrendous transition between screens.

Story: 10/10

I'm giving this story part a good rating only because it is based on one of the best movies of all time. The story begins as follows (Warning: Spoilers Ahead!!!): Han Solo has been captured by Boba Fett and taken to Jabba the Hutt on the desert planet of Tatooine. His friends, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa and Chewbacca have journeyed down to help resuce him from his frozen prison. The game begins outside of Jabba's palace, and proceeds onward (though the ball and chain from the movie is given a considerable size increase) throughout the rest of the movie. The gang proceeds through the dunes of Tatooine, infiltrates the palace of the mighty slug lord, is unceremoniously dumped into the sewers, and immediately following that is the lair of the giant rancor; once you dispatch the beast, you go to the Sail Barge of Jabba's, and then utterly destroy it. From there, we enter the peaceful forests of Endor, starting with a very high speed biker chase level. We then make our way to the Ewok village, and from there we must seek out the power generator and destroy it. The game then switches back and forth between Luke's stay on the Death Star and Lando's attack run on the Star. All in all, a great story, but the game has a few minor changes.

Sound: 3/10

God, how I hate the sound of this game. There is not one singular good thing to say about it, and even the hardcore Star Wars nuts will hate it. From the opening scene's butchering of the classic unfolding screen, to the same sounds emanating over and over again from your characters when they get hurt, to the horrible MIDI pieces of the movie music, to the enemies' speech, this game's sound just stinks. And there's no denying that fact.

Gameplay: 2/10

Ah, the biggest aspect of a game, and also the one at which this particular one fails miserably at. It starts good with the whole "story-from-a-movie" ploy, but once you enter the levels, it's just a slipshod time full of unrelenting enemies and incredibly long passages to trek through. The enemies in this game are just bruising: they never stop coming at you, and they HURT. Plus, they're irritating in that they have almost no difference between levels. In each level, there is only 1 or 2 unique enemies, and they have the same characteristics as the others. The bosses are pretty darn tough too, and have a lot better chance of killing you than you do them. The enemies that we see, most of them, were never in the movie and were just tossed in. The levels are incredibly long, too, and most of them (notably the rancor pit) are just repeating, seemingly unending garbage levels. The characters are incredibly weak too, and it seems they die at whatever hits them, no matter the force of the attack.

Rent/Buy: Avoid if you can. It's bad. Trust me. The only reason to play is if you're bored.

Playability/Replayability: 1/10

If you manage to play it once and get through it, then kudos to you. But don't think about replaying... unless you're just crazy

Overall: 4/10

Just a bad game really. Its only redeeming quality is the story, and then only because it took it from the movie. Thus endeth the review.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 06/27/04