Commodore User


Return Of The Jedi
By Domark
Commodore 64

 
Published in Commodore User #64

Return Of The Jedi

Return Of The Jedi was the third of the Star Wars trilogy and is also the third in a successful series of Atari coin-ops. Once again it takes its action very much from the film.

It consists of three Zaxxon-like screens, each portraying a bit of the attack on the Death Star. The first has Leia riding a speeder bike through the forest of Endor, home of the cuddly Ewoks. Along the way she encounters lots of different obstacles. The most dangerous are the scouts. These also ride speeders, and attempt to get behind Leia and shoot her. Trees are also a hazard. Careful manoeuvring is needed to ensure you don't fly into one of these.

Along the way, the Ewoks will try to help you by laying traps. These normally consist of two Ewoks holding a piece of rope. When two bikes fly through, they spring the trap on the second bike, so you have to try and get there first. Once you've managed to get through that bit, it's down to Chewie.

Return Of The Jedi

As Chewbacca, you have to drive an AT-ST (All Terrain Scout Transport) to the shield control bunker on Endor. The cute-but-thick Ewoks, thinking you are the enemy, roll logs down to stop you. Enemy AT STs, being marginally more intelligent, know you are an enemy, and fire at you. Make it to the bunker, and Han will jump out and blow the door, effectively destroying the shield around the semi-complete Death Star, allowing Lando to get in there and blow the reactor.

Lando has to steer the Millennium Falcon through the maze of pipes and walls on his way to the reactor. Once he's there, he has to shoot it, making the Death Star explode.

As conversions go, Return Of The Jedi is pretty close. The graphics and feel are reminscent of the original, but it's still not much of a game.

The controls are pretty sloppy, and the firing rate is painfully slow. The main problem with the playability is that you can move too far forward and not far enough back. It's all too easy to hit a tree that hasn't appeared on screen yet.

The first two games fared averagely on the C64 because they were vector graphics only, and the C64 isn't very well equipped insofar as vectors are concerned. This one will fail because it isn't much fun.

Amiga Update

The Amiga version is, not surprisingly, the best of the bunch featuring enhanced graphics, sound and gameplay. It features all the clarity and graphics of the coin-op and carries lots of samples from the film, as did the first two.

Battle along to a pretty groovy tune and Lando shouting "Here goes nothing!".

Nevertheless, you might find this is for completists of the Atari trilogy only.

Tony Dillon

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