This is very much one of those types of games where you really need to stick with it. The most infamous part of these games is how brutally hard they all are, and honestly; if you gave up on the first level I wouldn't blame you. The funny thing is the game gets a lot better after the awful first level on Tatooine, the platforming gets slightly more forgiving, the enemies stop spamming you, you get access to more characters that can make the game more manageable, and the levels that utilize superFX chip are "alright"; it really does it better after the first level. Also oh my god this game looks really fucking good, I sometimes forget how great SNES can look sometimes.

Star Wars was always this big cultural phenomenon, but there did exist a point in time between the original trilogy and the prequels where you could actually take a god damn breath before hearing about more awful Star Wars shit. Now days there's a new controversy every single week. Actors regularly get death threats, and ~content creators~ are profiting off a cottage industry built entirely around being Mad About Star Wars.

Back in my day, the only time I ever saw someone throwing a fit over Star Wars was because they kept dying in the cantina in Super Star Wars. These were better times. We were more civilized then.

I had pretty limited exposure to the Super Star Wars trilogy, having mostly screwed around in them at a friend's house back in the day. I think I rented Return of the Jedi once along with an SNES and just used cheat codes to experience as much of the game as I could. I always had a hell of a time with them. They're hard games and I don't think there's any shame in admitting that.

Coming back to Super Star Wars as an adult, it's every bit as much of a pain in the ass as I remember. No less, no more. The sort of game you turn on and five minutes in find yourself saying "oh right, this bullshit." Enemies flood the screen, respawn rates are absolutely insane, hazards are placed too close together making a lot of jumps inherently unsafe... But I still kinda like it. For as cheap as it is, the game still feels pretty good to play, and when you do end up clearing a level there's a real sense of accomplishment that goes along with it. It's one of those games where forward progress is made because you don't want to let the game beat you, where you "get good" out of sheer obstinance, if not outright hatred.

However, I do question whether my fondness for Super Star Wars is based primarily in nostalgia or not. I certainly see its many faults, but had I not played this back in 90s maybe it would be easier to dismiss it entirely, call it a bad game and move on. Yet, I can't. I still come back to this one regularly, and every time I do it finds some way to piss me off. Just like Star Wars.

Beat this one on "brave" difficulty, AKA normal mode.

Honestly I can say I think easy mode is more fun cause it's just not as tedious and painful. Jedi mode is just poorly designed and not fun, so I didn't play on that one.

The game is not bad! In my run through all the Star Wars games, this is the second game that really felt like Star Wars. Despite having a lot of enemies not seen in the films, it sounds and looks like Star Wars. The presentation of this game is perfect.

The actual gameplay it's self is OK. It's a run and gun game that features platforming sections, boss fights, and Mode-7 vehicle sections. The blasters and lightsaber doesn't necessarily feel bad, but it's not that satisfying either. I think this is due to the constant enemy spam. I understand that it was a design choice but I think enemy spam is just lame and not fun. The lightsaber is pretty much never needed in this game, like just use the upgraded blaster the entire time it's just better.

That's another design issue, if you die, you lose all of your blaster upgrades, which SUCKS. it handicaps you really bad, and it can basically soft lock you on certain sections. Specifically, the Cantina boss, if you don't have a fully upgraded blaster for it, it's gonna be insanely difficult, possibly impossible.

That also reminds me that this game is absolutely impossible to get through without taking damage all the time. I mean it's fine since you're also given health drops on almost every enemy kill, but it's still frustrating when a lot of hits are just unavoidable.

The platforming is fine, nothing to write home about. There's not much platforming anyways, but the stuff that's here is a little stiff, and the hitboxes for the character and the platforms are a little wonky.

Some other specifics, the trench run looks phenomenal, but again, not that fun to play. Would definitely rank it low among the other Star Wars trench runs in games.

The game also almost entirely takes place on Tatooine, which sucks. It gets really old, I don't know why the dev team decided to make so much of this game to be Luke just fighting creatures out in the desert. Pretty pointless content.

Despite all my complaints, the game can still be good fun. I would recommend playing this on easy, as you'll probably get more enjoyment that way. It's a fun little romp through "A New Hope" that feels respectful towards the movie. I'd recommend playing it to any Star Wars fan, flaws and all.

(See all my Star Wars Rankings and reviews on my profile here, the list is titled "Star Wars Ranked.")