Return Of The Jedi Arcade - Star Wars - http://maxpages.com/dons/Return_Of_The_Jedi

Return of the Jedi (Arcade)
Released: 1984
Systems: Arcade

The Basics

Title screen.
After the immense success of its arcade translation of Star Wars, Atari decided to go in a totally different direction with the translation of Return of the Jedi. Raster graphics replaced the color vectors, and the perspective was changed from first to third. Both plotlines from Return of the Jedi are included, as you will spend time both on Endor and in the Millennium Falcon attacking the second Death Star.

The Details

Select your skill level.
After you drop in your quarter, the first thing to do is choose your level of difficulty: Easy starts you out at level 1 with no bonus points, medium starts at level 3 with 300,000 bonus points, and hard starts at level 5 with 600,000 bonus points.

Stage 1: Speederbike

Level 1.
After a brief introduction, the game begins on Endor with Leia hopping on a speederbike and racing through the forest. It's up to you to guide her through the dense forest. Steer clear of trees while avoiding stormtroopers. The ewoks will try to help you out by setting traps for the stormtroopers, but you can just as easily fall into them.

Stage 2: AT-ST/Millennium Falcon
Guide Chewbacca in his AT-ST to the shield generator, avoiding the rolling logs and enemy AT-STs that will inevitably try to stop you. The action in this stage also cuts to the space battle raging over Endor. You control the Millennium Falcon as it makes its way to the Death Star. This stage does not appear during level 1.

Stage 3: Inside the Death Star

The Millennium Falcon heads for the core.
After Chewbacca reaches the shield generator, the action completely switches over to the Millennium Falcon. Fly through the complex maze of the Death Star and swerve around the walls that block your path, while destroying as many TIE fighters as possible. Once you reach the core, blast it, and the galaxy will be safe once more.

The Verdict
Why mess with success? All the things that made Star Wars great are missing from Return of the Jedi. The you-are-there feeling of excitement is gone and so is the elegant beauty of the crisp vectors. If Star Wars had never existed, Return of the Jedi might have fared better, but as it is, we can only imagine how good this game could have been if Atari had stuck with the Star Wars vector engine.

don_kenobi@yahoo.com

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Page Updated Tue Sep 14, 1999 10:36pm EDT