Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

The Good
Super Return of the Jedi is your standard early 90's licensed side-scrolling platformer which only differentiates from the other assorted Mario clones because of it's action-oriented gameplay and the use of the Star Wars license and characters. Well, there's actually a little more to it than that, but if you want to put in a nutshell what's good about this game then that's about it: Entertaining and proven gameplay with good, responsive control, simple jump-n-gun action and the characters, vehicles and levels based on the worst of the original Star Wars flicks. Pretty much everything the Gameboy was supposed to do right.

As with all of the SNES-originated Super Star Wars games this one adds to the mix the option to play each level as a selection of characters (or different versions of a character) from the movie's cast. So for instance you get to choose wheter you want to storm Jabba's Sail Barge as Luke, Leia (as Boush or whatever she called herself) or another character each with their own weapons (ranging from blasters to lightsabers) and abilities. So yeah, Han might be able to shoot things from a distance, but can he jump as far as Leia? Or can he deflect oncoming fire? Your call man.

Another nice gameplay-enhancing gimmick is the alternation between the jumping sidescrolling sequences and unique vehicle sequences based on the many sequences from the movie seemingly written for this purpose (such as the speeder bike race through the forest, the millenium falcon's trip into the Death Star, etc...) In these sequences the action shifts to a different perspective and you control the vehicle from a top-down or 3rd-person perspective.

The Bad
Significantly downgraded graphics and sounds, tough the later remain somewhat moody in an 8-bit sort of way. Poor replay value aside from the possibility to play the levels as different characters but since the dull level design and the lack of significant challenges hardly make it worth the waste of time.

The Bottom Line
Generic platformer which altough playable (remember Nintendo was the king of these games back in those days) isn't able to hold your interest anymore than a passing fly would.

For game-deprived Gameboy owner with nothing better to do only.

The Good
This was the perfection of the Super Star Wars games. The backgrounds in the levels were very well animated, the story line stayed more true to the movie than the previous games, and you got to play as a huge amount of characters. Let me see....Luke, Han, Chewie, Leia, and WICKET!!! finally you got to play as the best Ewok of them all. The ship missions are the best of the three. The first level and speeder bike level really stand out as some of the best Super Star Wars moments.

The Bad
Only a few things really. The Emperor fight is way to easy and by 1994 there was no need for the password system on the SNES.

The Bottom Line
Spectacular game, if you have an Super Nintendo you MUST check this out.

The Good
Their are bosses at the end of most of the level's, there's a password system so you can go to any level that you want to, and each character has a special attack in addition to their normal attack (such as Luke's lightsaber throw). This time you get to play as Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie and Wicket as well as pilot a Speeder Bike and the Millenium Falcon! Leia's weapons and attacks change depending on if she's wearing the Boushh Bounty Hunter suit, the biking outfit or her regular clothes. Near the end you get to fight a couple of the Emperor's Royal Guard's and Darth Vader and at the end you get to fight the Emperor himself, which is wickedly cool! The background has also improved vastly from the other 2 games in the series.

The Bad
This game is very hard and the bosses are almost to tough. The first few levels are nearly as hard as middle ones and the last few are extremely hard, and the final attack on the Death Satr is no where near as cool and fun as the one in the first Super Star Wars, and even the 3-D graphics seem to have decreased, if anything.

The Bottom Line
A good game, but be warned, it is quite challenging, but not impossible. If you liked the other games in this series or are a big Star Wars fan get this, if not then don't get it.