Star Wars: Return of the Jedi - Death Star Battle

The Good
Haha, I vaguely remember this game. I still recall the graphics was great (then), looking back at the screenshots, I think I prefer my memories..hahaha.

My, this is one old game. The game itself is divided into 2 sections (me thinks theres more, but me can'ts remember).

The first is your starting point (I think), where according to Star Wars is the are outside the Death Star shield (in Star Wars the shield was disabled me thinks, in this game the shield is still active). At this section your ship, the Millenium Falcon shoots passing Imperial ships (e.g. Imperial Escort Ships, like on the screenshot). But the target in this section is to wait for an 'opening' at the shield parameter to enter the Death Star construction site.

The second section is at the Death Star construction site. The Death Star is still being constructed, so the Death Ray doesn't work yet. Basically, you have to do as much damage as possible here before returning back (don't recall why you have to return back...probably a time limit).

Anyway this process goes on like this a couple of times, at some later stage the Death Ray works so you have to evade those lasers. The main purpose is to hit the center of the Death Star, represented by a red brick. Basically, your playing something like Arkanoid, shooting at brick-like layers of the Death Star, without getting blown to bits by passing Tie Fighters and Tie Interceptors.

You hit the red brick and you've won the game: Death Star explodes.

The Bad
The repetition of the game...but hey...know any Atari games that weren't repetition...? A great Sci-Fi shooter game as far as I'm concerned...wonder why they didn't make a remake of this on PC like Buck Rogers Planet of Zoom...or did I miss something...

The Bottom Line
A kid's Jedi Fighter dream come true...those were the days...

The Good
This game has 4 sections, first you have to navigate through holes in the shield; it is a good 2-D spaceship navigation game (aka asteroids). Then you traverse the shield and need to shoot into the death star which is now big. If you can fire into the center, it glows and fires fireballs at you which you must avoid, and then explodes. The explosion sound is excellent as are the other ship sounds. One of the absolute most sophisticated 2600/VCS games.

The Bad
no scrolling. Small playing field (lower third of the screen) as lots is happening on top 2/3 of screen.

The Bottom Line
Small playing field, excellent graphics by Robin McDaniels (EggoMania, Gopher, Name This Game, Squeeze Box, Smurf Rescue, Little Computer People) who was one of the first artists to work on games, who learned her craft animating the old pixellated Spectacolor times square animated sign. Produced by Wickstead Design of NJ about 1986. Yours truly did the sound.