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Everyone has seen Star Wars. It's part of day to day life. Just like getting up in the morning, eating your dinner and sleeping. Watching Star Wars films is fate. Having said that, there are two types of people in the world who haven't seen Star Wars: those that are below the age of four, and those that choose to reject television. Star Wars repeats are now a sacred part of Christmas family viewing, like James Bond movies. So if ever there was a film series gagging to be made into a game then this surely is it.

All of the best-known characters are in here at one point or another, and even if you cannot fight them, they make cameo appearances to help you along. Only Yoda seems to be missing, but if recent paper reports are to be believed, he has been spotted in numerous bars on the Costa Del Sol sipping cocktails with Marcus. Strange, that. Anyway, there are four main missions, each of these has lots of sub-stages and even a couple of driving sections to be negotiated. Characters can be chosen at the start of each level, and will differ depending on how far you are into the game and its storylne.

Originally a SNES game, for some reason this skipped Megadrive and arrived straight onto handheld.

Rescue Han Solo, kill Jabba the Hut, defeat the Dark Side and destroy the Death Star.

As you would expect from any above average platform game, there are icons dotted in various hard-to-reach places that aid you in your quest. Most of the standard stuff is here - hearts to replenish energy, weapon power-ups and so forth. But, should you bump into your robot friend R2D2, he will then act as a restart point.

Finally, if you stumble across a sphere with the letter D inside, press buttons 1 and 2 to trigger the Thermal Detonator bomb you have just picked up.

You start the game being able to seect from the standard Rebels, namely Luke, Leia and Chewbacca. Once you have rescued Han Solo from Jabba The Hut, he becomes available to play in certain sections, and once the speeder bike level has been traversed, Wicket the Wok makes a brief appearance.

1. Luke Skywalker
   Raised as a farm boy and trained by Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda, Luke has shown the potential needed to control the mysterious power known as 'The Force'. He brandishes a home-made Light Saber as a weapon.
2. Leia Organa
   Princess Leia worked as a spy for the Rebel Alliance, and served as a member of the Imperial Senate. When she is disguised as a bounty hunter, she carries a weapon staff, but usually uses an alliance pistol.
3. Han Solo
   He was captured by Lord Darth Vader, who gave his cryogenically suspended body to Jabba The Hut. It's from the blobby one that you have to rescue him. Han uses a modified Corellian blaster pistol as his weapon.
4. Chewbacca
   Raised on planet Kashyyyk, he was taken captive by the Empire, along with the other Wookies. He was rescued by Han Solo, and now serves as co-pilot on the Millennium Falcon. Uses a Laser Crossbow rifle.
5. Wicket The Wok
   For one level only, we present Wicket the Wok. The furry midget is needed to traverse the Ewok Village and find the Shield Generator. Uses a self-made bow and arrow to shoot down the lizards and plants that have taken over his village.

As well as the standard platform action, there are a couple of driving levels to be got at. The first takes place on a Speeder Bike (transport of the imperial biker scouts) and you must shoot down all of the Rebels before they get a chance to sound the alarm on your arrival.

The idea is to bump them out of your way as they come up from behind you, and then shoot them when they get in front. Watch out for the trees as well. The second driving level takes place inside the Millennium Falcon, and is the final level of the game. The aim is to destroy the central power core, but Tie Fighters and laser cannons will be doing their best to stop you.

The Game Gear lives on! There is no need to bring out the life support machine just yet, as long as a couple of games like this keep arriving every so often. It's not brilliant, but it's certainly the best thing, hold on, the only thing to arrive since Arena some months back.

The SNES game was pretty good by anybody's standards and this is similarly impressive. The graphics are surprisingly good, but in some places, the background hides the enemies' bullets as they come towards you, and even the enemies themselves.

The password system perhaps makes the game a little too easy - limiting it to two or three continues would have been better. Still, it's a good game on every other count, and if you're after a reasonably tough platformer to play whilst you are on the bog or something, then this will past the time pretty well.

I think Steve's been a bit hard on recent Game Gear output - Garfield: Caught In The Act far outshone its Megadrive equivalent, and Super Return Of The Jedi arrives alongside a handheld version of PGA Tour '96. There's clearly life left in the little black box yet. Super Return Of The Jedi has a lot going for it - detailed graphics, plenty of faithful recreations of sequences, scenarios and plot devices from the film and a good, responsive feel.

The animation on Luke's light saber (which is clever enough to turn itself off when there's no chance you'll need it) is very pleasing to the eye, and the swoops and swishes of your weapon add to the Star Wars atmos. The Stylophone rendition of the theme music is another matter, but I suppose we're lumbered with that. This is a good play, if perhaps a little undemanding in places, and uses elements of its film licence to good effect.

Graphics 86%
P. Some sections are quite well detailed with clear backdrops...
N. But others are blurry, and hide some of the foreground characters.

Animation 78%
P. Middle of the road stuff. The Rebels are all fairly good.

Music 78%
P. All the faithful tunes are here...
N. But they sound like they are being played through a mouth organ.

Effects 75%
N. Well, it is the Game Gear...

Playability 83%
P. Once you pick it up, it is easy to keep going.
N. Repetitiveness creeps in in some places.

Lastability 82%
P. It's not an easy game.
N. Passwords mean completion takes less time.

Overall 81%
This is nothing new, but it is entertaining and deserves a look.