As a kid I had Super Empire Strikes Back and, well okay I suppose I shouldn't say I had it, I didn't buy or ask for it, so it was probably my dad or my brother's. But anyway I played it a bunch except it was too hard for me to ever even make it beyond the first level! I think maaaaaybe I reached the first boss one or two times? But we had much easier games like, probably everything else we had for the SNES besides maybe Mortal Kombat 3, so I didn't actually spend that much time with SESB all told. So, after playing several other Star Wars games on the N64 and Gamecube, I thought it'd be fun to revisit another childhood memory. But you gotta do these things in the proper order, so here we are.
Super Star Wars kinda kicks ass! It's a lot more frenetic and arcadey than I was expecting, for some reason, I suppose I don't really remember the sequel terribly well after all. Kinda Contra-esque but you have a massive healthbar shaped like a lightsaber that you can extent by collecting more lightsabers randomly dropped by slain enemies. The structure is a little goofy though; I haven't seen Episode 4 in a hot minute but for the game at least, out of fifteen total levels the first ten take place on the desert planet Tatooine and the remaining five take place in and out of the Death Star. So you're not getting much environmental variety, despite the developers trying to spice things up by having you break into a Sandcrawler or blast through the cantina (with a midi version of the cantina tune blaring!) or, in a visually striking use of Mode 7 tech, cruising around in Luke's speeder. You also oddly play as Luke for the majority of the game, only getting to choose Han or Chewbacca in four of the later levels. Makes me wonder if the developers already knew they were getting a trilogy and just laid the foundation for multiple characters so later games could take better advantage. But despite these little hiccups, the gameplay is fast and explosive to a comical degree. It's hard not to laugh a little when you've got a fully upgraded plasma blaster that literally blows the poor little Jawas offscreen in a flash when you shoot them. The vehicle levels don't have the best controls and can feel a little aimless, but the sheer cool factor takes precedence. And best of all, the easy mode was easy enough for me to play well beyond the first level!
Game Number: 2
Year Played: 2025
Platform: SNES