Zzap


Star Wars

Publisher: The Hit Squad
Machine: Commodore 64/128

 
Published in Zzap #67

Star Wars

First released for Christmas 1989 this was also part of the Star Wars Trilogy compilation released last Christmas. In this conversion of the classic Atari coin-op you take the role of Luke Skywalker, piloting his X-wing in a bid to destroy Darth Vader's Death Star.

The mission consists of three stages, all portrayed by 3D wireframe graphics. First, there's a dogfight with Empire Tie-fighters. Blast them, and their fireballs, with your lasers. If a fireball hits you, you lose one of nine units of energy. The second stage takes place on the Death Star's surface with you shooting laser turrets and towers. Finally, there's the famous trench scene. Here Luke must dodge barriers and fireballs to reach the exhaust port - this must be shot to destroy the Death Star. Then it's back to the start to do it all over again, but this time it'll be slightly harder.

First reviewed in Issue 33 (earning 70%), Star Wars was something of a disappointment to fans of the coin-op, mainly due to the large, jerky frame update - an attempt to increase the speed of the vector graphics. Steve Jarratt commented, "the Tie-fighters go through their aerial ballet as if in a strobe light". Julian Rignall also criticised the directional control method and would have preferred pilot controls like those of the coin-op.

Technically, the game now looks very dated - even with the large frame update, the graphics are still fairly slow, especially when there's a lot happening on screen. And with only three stages, the simple blast-'em-all action gets a bit repetitive, though it makes for a good high score game.