Super Star Wars (SNES, 1991)
Graphics-7 Sound-8 Control-5.5 Challenge-8 Story-6
Level Design-5.5 Frustration-9 Fun-5.5 Originality-5
Overall Score-5.5
+
Shoot in 7 directions (not directly downwards for some reason)
Slide move - MM3
Light saber somersault (not that effective here)
Gun upgrades (5 levels for Luke's pistol)
Upgradeable life bar
Multiple characters (recruited over the course of the game - Chewbacca and Han Solo, can be switched between in-between stages or after losing a life) - Star Wars NES (there you could switch on the fly though only a limited amount of times)
Decent variation (up until the bar level or so)
Decent mode 7 land speeder stages (rotatable/360 degree movement, bouncy boost move)
Difficulty options
Good art direction
Smart bombs (there's a time limit as you pick them up; use before it runs out or the bomb disappears)
Shield power up (very short though and you can't keep it for later use)
Some hidden items
Decent cutscenes in-between stages (mostly stills and scrolling text though)
+/-
Time limit (there are time power ups though but they appear randomly)
Random element to power ups (means uneven difficulty)
Checkpoints (fairly far between them sometimes)
Almost every enemy drops something
Can't shoot or swing your sword while walking (can do it while jumping)
Slight delay before jumping
Limited continues (Normal)
Need to crouch to pick up some items while others just need to be touched
The life bar reverts to default size after each stage
Some of the script was simplified (?) and enemies and bosses not seen in the movie were added
Constantly respawning enemies in most areas (gets tiresome after a while)
Han Solo doesn't have a better gun than Luke here (so they're pretty much the same except his starts off at a higher level)
No duel with Darth Vader (there could've been a stage where Obi-Wan has to get to him and stall him until the others could do their thing)
-
Steep difficulty curve after stage 1
Some unavoidable damage
So-so jump height control
Can't shoot enemies standing above the status bar (at the top of the screen)
Heavy trial & error (enemies spawning very close to the player, leaps of faith despite being able to look up and down, unexplained mechanics, boss patterns, suddenly sand means death near the boss of the sand crawler, the 'maze' in the fourth (mountain) stage)
So-so framerate in the land speeder stage
Sloppy hit detection
The light saber isn't that great compared to a level 3 or higher gun
Levels get more repetitive after the bar level (the tractor beam stage and boss are particularly tedious), Repeated land speeder stage (same thing with more enemies to kill)
Sudden pauses here and there (emulation problem?)
Some difficulty spikes (the second auto-scrolling part in the mountains)
The player character keeps jumping if you hold down the jump button (can be a problem in some platforming segments)
No save or password feature (however there's a hidden cave in the mountains with a bunch of 1-ups)
Bland final stage (simplistic and repetitive rail shooter segment)
Some slowdown
Some parts with overly resilient enemies (slows you down)
Sometimes bad sprite work (luke's sprite face and 1-up face, bantha and storm trooper animations, han solo shooting upwards animation)
Level Design-5.5 Frustration-9 Fun-5.5 Originality-5
Overall Score-5.5
+
Shoot in 7 directions (not directly downwards for some reason)
Slide move - MM3
Light saber somersault (not that effective here)
Gun upgrades (5 levels for Luke's pistol)
Upgradeable life bar
Multiple characters (recruited over the course of the game - Chewbacca and Han Solo, can be switched between in-between stages or after losing a life) - Star Wars NES (there you could switch on the fly though only a limited amount of times)
Decent variation (up until the bar level or so)
Decent mode 7 land speeder stages (rotatable/360 degree movement, bouncy boost move)
Difficulty options
Good art direction
Smart bombs (there's a time limit as you pick them up; use before it runs out or the bomb disappears)
Shield power up (very short though and you can't keep it for later use)
Some hidden items
Decent cutscenes in-between stages (mostly stills and scrolling text though)
+/-
Time limit (there are time power ups though but they appear randomly)
Random element to power ups (means uneven difficulty)
Checkpoints (fairly far between them sometimes)
Almost every enemy drops something
Can't shoot or swing your sword while walking (can do it while jumping)
Slight delay before jumping
Limited continues (Normal)
Need to crouch to pick up some items while others just need to be touched
The life bar reverts to default size after each stage
Some of the script was simplified (?) and enemies and bosses not seen in the movie were added
Constantly respawning enemies in most areas (gets tiresome after a while)
Han Solo doesn't have a better gun than Luke here (so they're pretty much the same except his starts off at a higher level)
No duel with Darth Vader (there could've been a stage where Obi-Wan has to get to him and stall him until the others could do their thing)
-
Steep difficulty curve after stage 1
Some unavoidable damage
So-so jump height control
Can't shoot enemies standing above the status bar (at the top of the screen)
Heavy trial & error (enemies spawning very close to the player, leaps of faith despite being able to look up and down, unexplained mechanics, boss patterns, suddenly sand means death near the boss of the sand crawler, the 'maze' in the fourth (mountain) stage)
So-so framerate in the land speeder stage
Sloppy hit detection
The light saber isn't that great compared to a level 3 or higher gun
Levels get more repetitive after the bar level (the tractor beam stage and boss are particularly tedious), Repeated land speeder stage (same thing with more enemies to kill)
Sudden pauses here and there (emulation problem?)
Some difficulty spikes (the second auto-scrolling part in the mountains)
The player character keeps jumping if you hold down the jump button (can be a problem in some platforming segments)
No save or password feature (however there's a hidden cave in the mountains with a bunch of 1-ups)
Bland final stage (simplistic and repetitive rail shooter segment)
Some slowdown
Some parts with overly resilient enemies (slows you down)
Sometimes bad sprite work (luke's sprite face and 1-up face, bantha and storm trooper animations, han solo shooting upwards animation)