Super Star Wars
Super Nintendo
Nostalgia Factor:
Believe it or not, I never actually used to be a big Star Wars fan. I was somewhat indifferent to the series until I was in about 4th or 5th grade. My step brothers were visiting for the weekend, and they had brought their Super Nintendo along. Being a Sega Genesis kid, this excited me greatly. I never got the chance to play Super Nintendo games. They didn't have any good games with them, though, so they went off to go rent one. What they came back with was Super Return Of The Jedi. Of all the games I was looking forward to playing - Super Mario World, Mario Kart, maybe an X-Men or Batman game - Super Return Of The Jedi was nowhere on that list. I was very disappointed.
Little did I know that I would actually love the game. We marathoned it that weekend. It was challenging as hell, but we managed to do it. And in the process, it would make me fall in love with Star Wars as well.
After that I started reading the Star Wars books, got the X-Wing and Tie Fighter games for the PC, watched the movies over and over again... I was hooked. But one thing I was never able to do was go back and play the earlier games in the Super Star Wars series since I didn't have a Super Nintendo.
Flash forward to the present day. Not only do I now have a Super Nintendo, but I own all of the Super Star Wars games. I have yet to revisit Return of The Jedi, and I have only barely scraped the surface of The Empire Strikes Back. I like to beat games consecutively, and every time I complete the first game (I've beaten it about 5-8 times now), I take a long break since it is so difficult. Then when I think of the series again, so much time has passed I have to restart it from the beginning again. And when I beat it, I don't get around to the sequels. Time passes, and then I start back at the beginning again, only to stall out after the first game. So on and so forth.
Well, I am here to say that this cycle ends now. It begins with the review.
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Story:
Okay, Super Star Wars. Where do I begin?
Little did I know that I would actually love the game. We marathoned it that weekend. It was challenging as hell, but we managed to do it. And in the process, it would make me fall in love with Star Wars as well.
After that I started reading the Star Wars books, got the X-Wing and Tie Fighter games for the PC, watched the movies over and over again... I was hooked. But one thing I was never able to do was go back and play the earlier games in the Super Star Wars series since I didn't have a Super Nintendo.
Flash forward to the present day. Not only do I now have a Super Nintendo, but I own all of the Super Star Wars games. I have yet to revisit Return of The Jedi, and I have only barely scraped the surface of The Empire Strikes Back. I like to beat games consecutively, and every time I complete the first game (I've beaten it about 5-8 times now), I take a long break since it is so difficult. Then when I think of the series again, so much time has passed I have to restart it from the beginning again. And when I beat it, I don't get around to the sequels. Time passes, and then I start back at the beginning again, only to stall out after the first game. So on and so forth.
Well, I am here to say that this cycle ends now. It begins with the review.
Okay, Super Star Wars. Where do I begin?
The story loosely follows the plot of the original Star Wars movie, but it takes many liberties along the way. Remember when Luke slaughtered an entire Jawa colony? When he fought the sarlacc? How about when he got into a giant brawl at the Mos Eisley cantina and killed about 90 people? No? Not ringing a bell? Get used to many, many ridiculous scenarios like this popping up in the game.
I know Star Wars is sacred and everything, but I don't mind this. There's only so much actual action in the movie. If the game followed the movie to a tee, you'd only be playing for about 20 minutes. Besides, if you are here for the story, just watch the friggin movie. This game is all about furious fast paced action.
The levels are your typical left to right side scrolling fair. What makes this better than other games is of course the Star Wars theme. If you take Star Wars out of the game, and make this just some no name sci fi shooter, it probably isn't half as good. You will fight through stages like the Jawa sandcrawler, Mos Eisley, the cantina, and the Death Star.
Enemies come at you non stop, and basically your finger will never leave the trigger. You are constantly blasting away at wave after wave of Sand People, Stormtroopers, and other enemies indigenous to the game's locales. Don't even worry too much about avoiding or dodging their attacks. You are going to get hit in this game. A lot. But luckily health items abound and the characters can absorb a lot of damage.
Other items also can be found throughout the game, such as point multipliers, thermal detonators, invincibility shields, and gun upgrades. Gun upgrades are very important to grab, as your default weapon is pretty weak, and you are going to need the extra firepower for some of the boss fights. If you die, your weapon upgrades die with you, which was the cause of great frustration for me throughout the game. Some areas seem impossible without the max weapon at your disposal, and losing it each time you die (which happens A LOT) makes the game even more difficult.
As if the constant flow of enemies isn't imposing enough, the platforming sections of this game can get very tricky. In particular, I am looking at the boss segment of the Sandcrawler stage and the cavern stages with all the Sand People. If you fall, you die. Some of these platforms you have to jump on are very narrow, and often you can't see the next platform in line, requiring blind leaps of faith. And you have enemies constantly attacking you at all times. When you get hit, it bumps you backward, so even if you are standing still you can still get knocked off a platform. And if you get hit in mid air jumping from one ledge to the next: forget about it.
Gameplay:
I suppose it only makes sense to begin with the game's difficulty level. Now, normally, the default setting is good enough for me. Turning it down to easy is cheap, I think, and by doing so you admit you aren't good enough to beat it on normal. I almost never do this in games.
With Super Star Wars however, this is absolutely mandatory. I have tried completing the game on normal many times before, and I have failed miserably. There comes a point in the game (the boss battle in the cantina) where I literally can not pass no matter how many times I attempt it. I know it is not technically impossible to do, but it is close enough for me.
After grinding away in frustration for hours on end attempting to make it past this point, I finally conceded and turned the game down to easy. That was on an early play through, many years back. Now I just automatically turn it to easy every time I fire up the game. This game is tough enough on easy as it is, and it is not worth getting frustrated over.
So on to the actual gameplay. This is a non stop, guns-blazing, side scrolling shooter.
Enemies come at you non stop, and basically your finger will never leave the trigger. You are constantly blasting away at wave after wave of Sand People, Stormtroopers, and other enemies indigenous to the game's locales. Don't even worry too much about avoiding or dodging their attacks. You are going to get hit in this game. A lot. But luckily health items abound and the characters can absorb a lot of damage.
Other items also can be found throughout the game, such as point multipliers, thermal detonators, invincibility shields, and gun upgrades. Gun upgrades are very important to grab, as your default weapon is pretty weak, and you are going to need the extra firepower for some of the boss fights. If you die, your weapon upgrades die with you, which was the cause of great frustration for me throughout the game. Some areas seem impossible without the max weapon at your disposal, and losing it each time you die (which happens A LOT) makes the game even more difficult.
As if the constant flow of enemies isn't imposing enough, the platforming sections of this game can get very tricky. In particular, I am looking at the boss segment of the Sandcrawler stage and the cavern stages with all the Sand People. If you fall, you die. Some of these platforms you have to jump on are very narrow, and often you can't see the next platform in line, requiring blind leaps of faith. And you have enemies constantly attacking you at all times. When you get hit, it bumps you backward, so even if you are standing still you can still get knocked off a platform. And if you get hit in mid air jumping from one ledge to the next: forget about it.
The game mixes things up a bit by throwing in some Mode 7 vehicle piloting levels along the way. In some of these stages you speed around Tatooine in a speeder, blasting away Jawas. And of course, at the end of the game you take to an X-Wing to go into battle with the Death Star. None of these stages are anything too horribly special, but they do add a nice little break to the side scrolling action.
Graphics:
The graphics are pretty typical for a game of this genre from 1992. They were probably eye popping for their time, but now they are just okay. Not to say this game is ugly or anything. 2D sprites, especially in the 16-bit era, have a timeless feel to them. I would say this game withstands the test of time for sure. The characters and the locations are immediately recognizable. Some of the bosses are large and creative.
The graphics are pretty typical for a game of this genre from 1992. They were probably eye popping for their time, but now they are just okay. Not to say this game is ugly or anything. 2D sprites, especially in the 16-bit era, have a timeless feel to them. I would say this game withstands the test of time for sure. The characters and the locations are immediately recognizable. Some of the bosses are large and creative.
The Mode 7 stages are a bit messy, but I'm sure they were a huge selling point back when this game first came out. Honestly, though, they are the worst looking segments in the entire game.
Sound:
The sound effects for this game are pretty authentic sounding. I love the fire of a blaster, the hum of the lightsaber, Chewie's agitated roar. But the canned music that attempts to recreate the classic Star Wars themes is really not that good. I mean, it is passable, but mediocre. Of all the Star Wars games I have played in my life, and I have played a LOT of them, the music in this game definitely ranks near the very bottom in terms of my favorite.
Overall:
Playing this in the present day, it took me three tries to beat the game. That is including burning through all my lives and all my continues on each attempt. And this was on easy. This game is no doubt very difficult. There is a steep learning curve, but once you catch on, the game gets a little easier. It takes about an hour to complete, maybe a little less. That's once you've attempted the game and failed a couple of times. Don't expect to pick this up and beat it in an hour right away.
This is a decently fun game. It is a little bit too frustrating to really go down as one of my favorite games. I'm sure some people out there really love this title, but it will never achieve classic status for me. It's good for a play through every few years or so, but each time I play it I encounter the same issues. I want to love this game but I just can't. Maybe if I had owned a Super Nintendo and had grown up playing Super Star Wars my stance would be different.
As it stands, I concede that it is a good title. But it is not a great title. If you like Star Wars, by all means give this a try. You will probably like it. Just don't expect to love it. I don't.
THE GRADE:
B-
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