Previous Next

Forget all about those sickeningly coy 'Ewoks' in the film, this game is all about trying to blast a half-built Death Star from the skies. Come to think of it, perhaps blasting away at Ewoks might be more fun.

Meanwhile, back at the controls of the Millenium Flacon (or Falcon), Tie Interceptors are swooping in from left and right trying to destroy you, so you have to be a bit nimble on the old plates of meat just to stay alive. In addition, you have to avoid the energy shield when it appears, keeping the Falcon in the lower half of the screen. When you've blasted a hole in this, you get into hyperspace, and that much nearer to the Death Star.

Knocking out the Death Star isn't easy, especially as you have to have eyeballs in very unusual anatomical places to stay alive, owing to the attacking Interceptors, Imperial Shuttles and the like. At the same time, you have to knock out the Death Star piece by piece, avoiding the Death Ray. Of course, the loonies... sorry, evil despots, building the Death Star keep plugging away, constantly rebuilding it.

Even if you do become Sutton Coalfield's answer to Luke Skywalker, and manage to blow up the Star, you still heave to avoid the resulting mess and fireballs to stay alive. After scoring 10,000 things hot up a little more, with faster, more lethal Interceptors, a speedier reaction from the Death Ray, and faster rebuilding of the Death Star.

The Atari's blocky graphics are much more suited to the portrayal of next-century hardware than cuddly animals, so this game is bags of fun. Lots of pretty colours when things go 'bang', and very satisfying 'crumps', 'weeeeows' and 'bokka - thuds' on the soundtrack. (Final Note: Watch out for the devilishly clever illustrations in the games manual, as they're printed upside-down!)