Hello, my name is SNES Man. Today we're going to finish the Super Star Wars Trilogy off
with Super Return of the Jedi. Is it as good as the other games? Even better? Well, you'll
have to stay tuned in to find out.
At last, here we are at the last Super Nintendo Star Wars game based on the excellent movie,
Return of the Jedi. Let's dive right in and get down to gaming.
Okay here's the first level: speeding around. I bet it's easy as pie. Let's see -- oh wait
-- how do I fly? Which button, 'B'? No! Augh! Just to throw off Mario fans like me, this
game makes you jump with 'Y' on the first level instead of 'B'. It goes against my gamer
nature. Oh well. This first level is really simple. It's just a Mode-7 dash to the finish.
Jump over some pits, fly to the end, then it's over.
Then, we have a cutscene. As dawn approaches, Luke, Leia, and Chewie begin--oh, who cares?
Right off the bat, we have three characters to choose from which is pretty impressive
for a first level in a Star Wars game. I'll choose Luke.
Here's our first real level. Luke looks different this time: He's more graphically detailed.
The level, though, is not very impressive by Super Star Wars standards. The game gets
off to a rocky start. Ha ha, get it? Rocky start?
Yes, yes, the scenery looks very rocky and dull but also the level is kind of poorly
designed. It's too big for its own good and if you follow the stage like a linear level
and go straight to the bottom, you'll just run into a dead end…which sucks.
However, if you take the right path, the level is pretty quick and painless and you'll reach
the first boss who's a serious pain to kill. I hate this thing. It's not that it's all-powerful
or anything; it just has a lot of health and it's really frustrating. That's why I usually
switch characters at this part of the level. I pick my trusty ace in the hole…
Wicket the Ewok? No, no! Chewbacca.
Chewbacca is my go-to guy for killing bosses. His spin attack is just excellent in this
game and he never seems to run out of health. Die, robot!
So that's our first level of Return of the Jedi. Luckily, after this, the game picks
up and becomes a lot more fun. As you would guess, you go through all the events of the
movies. There's Jabba's Palace, the Rancor Pit, the forest moon of Endor, and the Death
Star. The levels are pretty fun and well detailed. Also, they're not as repetitive or dull as
in the earlier games. True, there are some levels like the Rancor Pit that repeat their
scenery a lot but compared to the earlier games, that's nothing. Sandcrawler, anyone?
And Super Return of the Jedi has two things going for it that the other games didn't.
First of all: better character design. Jedi is all about characters. Almost every level
let's you choose between different characters and this time around, they're actually unique
from each other.
You actually get a chance to play a lot as Chewie this time around and he's a powerful
character with his spin attack, Han Solo now gets bombs right from the start without having
to pick up power-ups, and Leia is a brand new character. She comes around in this game
with a lot of different disguises and powers. Most notable of these costumes is the slave
outfit with her whip. She's ridiculously strong when she's like this and can unleash a charged
power wave. Take that, you animatronic worm!
Our main character, Luke is pretty powerful too. He's a lot more fun to play as in this
game because the force powers are handled well. There's a lot fewer of them than in
Empire Strikes Back but this time, they all feel useful and they're not hard to use. Just
press 'X' and you'll bring on the pain!
Also, he can press 'A' to block attacks with his lightsaber. It's a pretty nice feature
to have.
Luke's a pretty powerful character and obviously, you'll be playing as him most of time. But
I forgot about one more character -- Wicket the Ewok.
Wicket, you suck.
Pyah! Pyah! Pyah! Who was asking for a level where you play as a teddy bear with a bow
and arrow? It's really boring and there're two of these levels where you just play as
Wicket and I think they really slow down the game's pace.
Maybe it's just me but these levels seem really boring. So let's get back to the positive
about Return of the Jedi because there's a lot that's positive about it. For instance,
here's the second thing that makes it better than the other games in the series: Difficulty.
Return of the Jedi has the most reasonable difficulty of all three games. It's certainly
no cakewalk but it's also not half as frustrating as the other two. The stages are pretty well
planned out and your characters feel strong enough with their special attacks to take
on most challenges. The bosses don't use too many cheap tactics, the unforgiving damage
system isn't as frustrating this time around since lots of characters have tons of health,
and the helpful password mode from the second game returns in this one.
So overall, the difficulty is not that bad except for the game's finale which is ridiculously
hard! Now, killing the emperor isn't too bad…Boom! But escaping from the Death Star is one of
the hardest levels I've ever played. It's such crappy 3-D technology that you can't
tell where you're going. In fact, I haven't beaten this game just because of this level.
I always give up here because it's so frustrating. It's too bad that such a good game had such
a bad ending level.
Things to Make It Better
-Get rid of the awful final level. -Simplify some of the maze levels that can
get confusing. -Remove Wicket.
-Change the damage system so that you flinch when you get attacked.
-And finally, make the first stage more fun and linear. It's just too confusing for a
first level.
Before I have my conclusion, though, and tell you my final opinion on Return of the Jedi,
let's talk about the series as a whole starting with Super Star Wars based on A New Hope.
The first game was pretty good but it had some major flaws like lame level design and
poor jumping controls. So I gave it a six out of ten: fairly good.
Next was Empire Strikes Back. This game took things up a notch. The graphics and controls
were better and there was a nice password mode. I gave it a seven because it was better
than the first.
And the last game of the trilogy was Return of the Jedi. This one is probably the best
in the series. It's a solid game all around with a strong cast of characters that all
feel different from each other and a fun experience with good level design. I would whole-heartedly
recommend this game for Star Wars fans and action fans in general. Return of the Jedi
scores an eight out of ten.
So that's Super Return of the Jedi and we're done with the Super Star Wars trilogy now.
Thanks for sticking with me through the long haul and I hope you enjoyed it. Well, I'm
gonna have to say I'll talk to you again sometime soon, but before I go, I'll leave you with
a beautiful song.
Well, SNES Man is the champion and with him the force is very strong. He's the master
of the SNES and with him, you can't go wrong. Yes, the controller is his saber and his blaster
is a Super Scope. He's the greatest gamer in the world and his reviews spread joy and hope.