Super Star Wars is a run and gun developed by Sculptured Software and Lucas Arts for the SNES and released n November 1, 1992. It is based on the first ever Star Wars movie 'Star Wars' or 'Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope' as it's called now. There are over a dozen stages that take you through many familiar locations from the movie and (partly altered) scenes from the movie are used for cutscenes and overall storytelling.
I had not watched the first Star Wars movie before playing this, ever, so it was nice to get some motivation to finally do so. My conclusion: It's very good. The movie, not the game. The game itself is OK, not bad but not as good as I had hoped it would be.
Let's get this out of the way first. This is definitely on the upper half of licensed games in terms of quality. Whether it is in 2D platforming sequences, the vehicle stages (which tbh weren't that fun) or the trench run finale, all sections of this game are of high production quality relative to the majority of video games of its time. Animation work is also pretty solid, my favorite part being Luke Skywalker's hair flying in the wind as you run forward. Sprite work is good here too, though almost all enemies you face in this game are not from the actual movie.
In general, the game takes liberties in how it uses the movie framework. C3PO runs to Luke and tells him that R2D2 has been kidnapped, so you step into your landspeeder and destroy dozens of enemies on your to finding him. When did that happen in the movie? Or the bar fight scene, which is pretty much just Obi Wan and Han Solo shooting one guy each, but has you run through the bar with either Chewbacca or Luke and shooting another few dozen enemies. Or the 10+ boss fights, out of which I believe only the final one is actually somewhat part of the movie. As you do your trench run, Darth Vader's TIE Advanced appears in front of you, though is disposed of within seconds. This is all not a big deal, but worth noting.
One pretty poor design choice in my opinion that was made here is that enemies infinitely respawn for some reason. This was odd from the get-go, as you start the first level on a desert setting and run through sand dunes to get to the finish line and are constantly bombarded with enemies from all sides. Kill an enemy that is about 5 feet in front of you, and by the time you get to his position, he will have been replaced by a clone already. You're also constantly subjected to attacks and projectiles from all angles, and here is the second weird part about the game's design. Almost all enemies you kill drop a heart, which regenerates a little bit of your health. You might think that's excessive. On Easy mode, it kind of is. But you're also constantly hit and lose health, so it's kind of necessary to get this many healing items. How about you don't have enemies constantly respawn and rebalance things that way?
It doesn't help that projectiles are almost impossible to dodge because your character takes way too long to jump once you press the button, so you almost always get hit in your legs unless you know an attack is about to be made.
Again, to counteract this, you constantly get health refills and have a lot of health in general. You also get "Health Laser" power-ups, which extend your health bar, but only for the stage that you are on. Other power ups include a Darth Vader mask which gives you "2x points", a thermal detonator, a timer that adds to your overall time, a boost to your blaster and extra lives.
Most boss fights are pretty similar in how you approach them. You simply button mash and try avoid as many hits as possible with the limitations the controls set on you, and what happens in the end is that you simply try to deal more damage than you take to outpace the boss. Most boss fights are trivial, if you simply could actually dodge whenever you would press the jump button. Instead, you watch as slow projectiles hit your even slower character.
Overall, this was enjoyable enough thanks to its visual and auditory presentation. The characters you know, the orchestral sounds you're familiar with and the locations you revisit make for an experience that Star Wars fans at the time will have undoubtedly enjoyed, and it plays differently to most games, which I appreciate, but I can't say it was a good is at it could have been.
STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS | 4/10
- Story is of the first Star Wars movie with liberties taken here and there
- Story told after each stage and using images from the movie
- Overall, story takes a backseat to the gameplay though
GAMEPLAY | 11/20
- Controls have their highs and lows
- Varied levels, though landspeeder parts not that fun
- Platforming and Run and gunning enjoyable enough
- Many boss fights
MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 9/10
- Voice acting limited to Obi Wan saying "Use the force, Luke"
- Sound design is really good, utilizing all the sounds you'll recognize from the movie
- Soundtrack faithful to the movie, so if you like that, you will like their SNES versions too
GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 8/10
- Locations you visit are from the movie, look great
- Animation and sprite work is on a good level
- Nice special effects
- If you like the Star Wart art design, you'll enjoy this from a visual standpoint
ATMOSPHERE | 8/10
- Sounds, looks and plays like a Star Wars movie, putting you in the role of your favorite characters, letting you drive a landspeeder, wield a light saber and fly an X-Wing
- All faithfully created
CONTENT | 6/10
- Over a dozen stages with bosses at the end of each
- Landspeeder levels not that fun, boss fights feel similar after a while
- Three difficulty modes, but plenty of unfair deaths on Easy due to slow jumps/dodges, don't want to know how Hard feels like
LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 6/10
- Varied levels
- Poor choice to have enemies keep respawning
- Sometimes you can't see where you are jumping and fall to your death
CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 7/10
- Overall a successful recreation of the first movie
- Pretty fun to wield a lightsaber
REPLAYABILITY | 3/5
- You can play some levels with different characters, but for the most part, they play the same
- You can play on three difficulty levels and try to beat your high score
PLAYABILITY | 5/5
- Worked well at all times
OVERALL | 67/100
(This is the 76th game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)
I had not watched the first Star Wars movie before playing this, ever, so it was nice to get some motivation to finally do so. My conclusion: It's very good. The movie, not the game. The game itself is OK, not bad but not as good as I had hoped it would be.
Let's get this out of the way first. This is definitely on the upper half of licensed games in terms of quality. Whether it is in 2D platforming sequences, the vehicle stages (which tbh weren't that fun) or the trench run finale, all sections of this game are of high production quality relative to the majority of video games of its time. Animation work is also pretty solid, my favorite part being Luke Skywalker's hair flying in the wind as you run forward. Sprite work is good here too, though almost all enemies you face in this game are not from the actual movie.
In general, the game takes liberties in how it uses the movie framework. C3PO runs to Luke and tells him that R2D2 has been kidnapped, so you step into your landspeeder and destroy dozens of enemies on your to finding him. When did that happen in the movie? Or the bar fight scene, which is pretty much just Obi Wan and Han Solo shooting one guy each, but has you run through the bar with either Chewbacca or Luke and shooting another few dozen enemies. Or the 10+ boss fights, out of which I believe only the final one is actually somewhat part of the movie. As you do your trench run, Darth Vader's TIE Advanced appears in front of you, though is disposed of within seconds. This is all not a big deal, but worth noting.
One pretty poor design choice in my opinion that was made here is that enemies infinitely respawn for some reason. This was odd from the get-go, as you start the first level on a desert setting and run through sand dunes to get to the finish line and are constantly bombarded with enemies from all sides. Kill an enemy that is about 5 feet in front of you, and by the time you get to his position, he will have been replaced by a clone already. You're also constantly subjected to attacks and projectiles from all angles, and here is the second weird part about the game's design. Almost all enemies you kill drop a heart, which regenerates a little bit of your health. You might think that's excessive. On Easy mode, it kind of is. But you're also constantly hit and lose health, so it's kind of necessary to get this many healing items. How about you don't have enemies constantly respawn and rebalance things that way?
It doesn't help that projectiles are almost impossible to dodge because your character takes way too long to jump once you press the button, so you almost always get hit in your legs unless you know an attack is about to be made.
Again, to counteract this, you constantly get health refills and have a lot of health in general. You also get "Health Laser" power-ups, which extend your health bar, but only for the stage that you are on. Other power ups include a Darth Vader mask which gives you "2x points", a thermal detonator, a timer that adds to your overall time, a boost to your blaster and extra lives.
Most boss fights are pretty similar in how you approach them. You simply button mash and try avoid as many hits as possible with the limitations the controls set on you, and what happens in the end is that you simply try to deal more damage than you take to outpace the boss. Most boss fights are trivial, if you simply could actually dodge whenever you would press the jump button. Instead, you watch as slow projectiles hit your even slower character.
Overall, this was enjoyable enough thanks to its visual and auditory presentation. The characters you know, the orchestral sounds you're familiar with and the locations you revisit make for an experience that Star Wars fans at the time will have undoubtedly enjoyed, and it plays differently to most games, which I appreciate, but I can't say it was a good is at it could have been.
STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS | 4/10
- Story is of the first Star Wars movie with liberties taken here and there
- Story told after each stage and using images from the movie
- Overall, story takes a backseat to the gameplay though
GAMEPLAY | 11/20
- Controls have their highs and lows
- Varied levels, though landspeeder parts not that fun
- Platforming and Run and gunning enjoyable enough
- Many boss fights
MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 9/10
- Voice acting limited to Obi Wan saying "Use the force, Luke"
- Sound design is really good, utilizing all the sounds you'll recognize from the movie
- Soundtrack faithful to the movie, so if you like that, you will like their SNES versions too
GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 8/10
- Locations you visit are from the movie, look great
- Animation and sprite work is on a good level
- Nice special effects
- If you like the Star Wart art design, you'll enjoy this from a visual standpoint
ATMOSPHERE | 8/10
- Sounds, looks and plays like a Star Wars movie, putting you in the role of your favorite characters, letting you drive a landspeeder, wield a light saber and fly an X-Wing
- All faithfully created
CONTENT | 6/10
- Over a dozen stages with bosses at the end of each
- Landspeeder levels not that fun, boss fights feel similar after a while
- Three difficulty modes, but plenty of unfair deaths on Easy due to slow jumps/dodges, don't want to know how Hard feels like
LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 6/10
- Varied levels
- Poor choice to have enemies keep respawning
- Sometimes you can't see where you are jumping and fall to your death
CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 7/10
- Overall a successful recreation of the first movie
- Pretty fun to wield a lightsaber
REPLAYABILITY | 3/5
- You can play some levels with different characters, but for the most part, they play the same
- You can play on three difficulty levels and try to beat your high score
PLAYABILITY | 5/5
- Worked well at all times
OVERALL | 67/100
(This is the 76th game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)