Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

"A little too close to the Dark Side for my taste."

The way of the Jedi is one of truth, honor, and justice. They look to the force and become one with it. They are peacekeepers in a world mixed with conflict and greed. They conceal awesome blades of pure light within their heavy robes. Who the hell wouldn't want to walk the path of a Jedi? And Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi let's you do just that. Based on the sixth episode in the Star Wars saga, you can finally take control of a Luke Skywalker fully endowed in the arts of a Jedi as well as his blaster wielding friends. But while Luke may have finally reached his potential with the force, the developers certain have a long way to go in mastering the creation of awesome games.

Return of the Jedi puts you through the events of the film with the same name. You'll start out in the midst of rescuing Han Solo from the slimy, fat mitts of Jabba the Hutt only to be whisked away to forest moon of Endor and even the fully-operation Death Star. As your progress through the story, the game produces simple representations of scenes from the film. And man, do I mean simple. Take the Emperor's long speech about Luke's hate and the Dark Side. It's been pretty much condensed to the Emperor saying, “Give into the Dark Side” and Luke quickly replying with something along the lines of, “No, I am a Jedi like my father before me.” It's pretty laughable for anyone that's seen the film and really kills any drama that could have been put into the game.

But what the game will create that the film won't be able to give you is the chance to interact with your favorite characters. At the beginning of each stage you'll be prompted to choose a hero. There are a total of five protagonists that will continually become available, and each is a blast to use. Take control of Luke and you'll have his powerful lightsaber and ancient Jedi powers ranging from tossing his weapon to freezing every enemy on the screen. Chewbacca and Han Solo on the other hand arm themselves with upgradeable blaster weapons. However each one has a unique ability; Chewie can execute a mighty spin attack and Han throws deadly grenades in a wide arc. Princess Leia has also joined the fray by constantly changing to different fighting styles during the entire game. With the first couple of stages, she'll be decked out in her bounty hunter garb complete with a long-reaching spear, but by the time you reach Jabba's Sail Barge, she's changed to her slave outfit complete with a makeshift whip via her chains and shackles only to change a third time into a blaster toting babe for the Shield Generator mission. Then lastly we have Wicket the Ewok, who we're forced to play as for two whole levels. He constantly fires arrows to obliterate his foes and even uses them as temporary platforms by sticking them into the thick tree trunks of Endor.

While you will enjoy checking out each character and probably want to always choose your favorite, you'll quickly notice that certain abilities make progressing through a stage much easier. For example, in Jabba's Audience Hall, you'll constantly take battle with hordes of beefy aliens ready to smack you with their huge fists. If you choose Luke, you can keep casting Jedi Freeze to stop these foes in their tracks, kill them quickly with your lightsaber, and move on without a scratch on you. Or later in the Rancor Pit, you'll find the stage's boss a little too much to handle for Luke thanks to his limited range and the Rancor's height, so you'll have to pick either Han or Chewie for their long range blasters.

No matter who you play as, the level design is pretty well done. Each stage is gigantic and filled to the brim with all sorts of goodies. You'll take battle with swarms of persistent droids, ferocious aliens, and adept Storm Troopers. You'll locate power-ups that increase your health meter, replenish force power, shield your from attacks, or upgrade your blaster weapon. And you'll even perform some platforming. And when it's all said and done, you'll take battle with one threatening boss that usually takes up the screen.

But just because the levels are designed well doesn't mean you can move on without a hitch. Both combat and platforming can easily become a thorn in your side and hinder the fun you were having a couple of seconds ago. While going on the offense for combat is just fine, being on the defense is a pain in the ass. In most action-platformers, getting hit usually throws you back or makes you invincible for a second or two. Return of the Jedi on the other hand barely does one and doesn't even try the other. After being hit, our heroes will move over by a mere centimeter or so of space. Believe me, it's not a whole lot. You will run into an enemy, be pushed back, and still be detected as touching the enemy. This wouldn't have been such a problem had the developers simply made you temporary invincible after each hit in order to give you an opportunity to move to a safer distance. But instead they didn't do jack and you'll pay for it. There will be tons of times in which you'll find yourself taking heaps of damage from just one attack because your character just stands there and says “Ugh, Ugh, Ugh, Ugh.” Thankfully an overabundance of healing items helps keep this frustration somewhat tolerable.

As soon as you're done stewing over the annoying combat problem, you'll find that the platforming could have been a lot better in Return of the Jedi. You'll notice in some stages that the detection as to whether you're on a platform is a tad wonky. This is most evident on the jagged triangular sides of the Rancor Pit. You'll walk to the ledge of the platforming with a good inch of space for your feet only to find yourself inexplicably falling off. It's a good thing that this only happens during some portions of the game, or I'd probably have ripped off all my hair by now. You'll also notice that utilizing the essential double-jump can be tricky. If you simply hold down the jump button, your character will jump then immediately double-jump making the entire ordeal pointless. What you usually have to do to get across a pit is jump halfway then hit the button again to use the double-jump. However, the sticky controls make this quite annoying, and you'll find yourself holding the jump button for a millisecond too long. This easy-to-make mistake often causes our heroes to double-jump right into the middle of a pit. Fortunately most platforming sections don't have bottomless pits and you'll be able to quickly retry to the jump (it's still an annoyance). But for the ones that do (the Shield Generator level comes to mind), you'd best be ready to grind your teeth for quite some time.

None of these irritating combat and platforming flaws are in Return of the Jedi's slick MODE 7 vehicle stages. While today they can't hold their ground with the likes of the Rouge Squadron series, these levels are nice diversions to some of the more intense side scrolling aspects of the game. You'll just love leaping over vast gorges on a land speeder, taking hold of the gun turrets of the Millenium Falcon, blazing through the forests of Endor on a speeder bike, or even taking part in extremely difficult yet satisfying dogfights with Tie Fighters. Even the climatic final level puts you in the cockpit of the Falcon while trying to make it out of an exploding Death Star.

And when you're put into the shoes of a Star Wars hero, you're also treated to exquisite visuals. Each character is fleshed out with fine details and fluid animation. You'll find yourself up against impressive enemies such as Twi'lek dancing girls with whips, drooling Gamorrean guards, slimes with red-jelly eyes, Imperial officers with finely polished dome-helmets, and even those spooky guards of the Emperor. By far the backgrounds are the most awe-inspiring. On the planet of Tatooine, witness the blaring heat muddling the background images of the vast sandy dunes. In Jabba's Palace, you'll see the prized-picks of the scum of the galaxy drinking and partying. Endor sports lush vegetation and even the gloomy site of the Death Star almost as if it were looking down upon you. And finally as Luke cuts a path through the Death Star, he's able to chop away at a smooth, sexy black interior that's high-tech all the way. But while this is going on, there is the occasional batch of slowdown when far too many enemies have popped up on the screen. Strangely this only seems to happen in a handful of stages.

The beautiful visuals are accompanied by equally excellent sound to make your ears feel welcome. The sounds of the film are all here and intact from the perfectly emulated moaning of a lightsaber to Chewie's trademark growl to R2D2's beeps after reaching a check point. The SNES sound chip works quite well with Star Wars' orchestrated music and creates high-quality renditions of music directly from the film. I just love the menacing and epic Imperial March and the heroic and daring main theme. There's also some stranger more spooky music for the bowels of Jabba's Palace, a quiet looming tune for vehicle stages, and a sort of whimsical piece for the Endor Stages. And that's it for the stage music. Yes, five different themes for every single stage in the game. Each song is rehashed and reused constantly. By the end of the game you probably will want to throw something at the wall at the slightest thought of the Imperial March. Having great music is nice and all, but I'd rather have some variety.

Return of the Jedi is a fun game, but it could have easily been better. The lush visuals and excellent music draw you in and the cool characters, large levels, and sweet vehicle stages will keep you around. Unfortunately the nasty combat problems, sticky controls, overuse of the same themes, and at times unreliable platform detection really mar this gem. But even with these problems, I found the entire package entertaining. Being a fan of this wonderful franchise is definitely going to help you enjoy the game more, but just don't expect a masterpiece. Walk the path of the Light Side if you feel up to it. Otherwise check out some of the SNES' better polished action-platformers.

6.0

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/18/04