The third and final game in the Super Star Wars series promises more of the same great experience offered as its two forerunners, but did LucasArts give us a conclusion worthy of the series or just a clichéd third act with some kid-friendly Ewoks thrown in?
Like the previous two outings, Super Return of the Jedi is a 2D platformer in which you take on Star Wars-universe bad guys while playing as one of the heroes from the movies. This time around you can choose your character like in the first game; the second game bowed to the demands of the story by forcing you to play only the character appropriate for each scene. Gone is this last shallow attempt at following the plot of the movies and you may now choose from a variety of characters in each level.
Once again, the storyline has virtually nothing to do with the movies'. You’ll watch cut scenes that use dialogue that summarizes events but never actually take place. You’ll view other scenes that blatantly rewrite the storyline. And, of course, you’ll fight bosses who are either not based on the movie or, such as the case of Jabba the Hutt, whose attack is to alternately charge you and then vomit green frogs in your direction, narrowly miss the mark of how they should have appeared in the game.
Story issues aside, your choice in each level is to play as Luke, Han, Chewbacca or (for the first time) Leia or Wicket. Not every character is available for each level (and Wicket is only available in the Ewok village level), but they each have their own unique strengths and weaknesses, so the choice you make matters greatly. For instance, Luke has grown in his Jedi training since his last outing; as a result, he is the same as before but has decided (in the tradition of all the arrogant Jedi) that it’s just too easy to use blasters and so he now uses only a lightsaber and force powers. One of the new characters, our favorite trash-talking princess, is arguably the most useless character of the bunch but you will no doubt choose to play as her anyway in the one level in Jabba’s Palace where she is dressed in her ‘slave’ bikini costume.
However, the rest of the time you will choose your character based on what strategy you will need to employ against the final boss of each level. For example, the first boss you will face absorbs an extraordinary amount of lightsaber damage, and so you will have a much easier time using Chewbacca and his blaster. You will have no way of knowing this up front, instead you'll just have to figure it out the hard way and choose the best character on your next attempt. As a result, the game involves just as much trial and error as in the previous two outings.
Fortunately, the game is slightly more balanced this time around because it automatically takes away your power-ups at the end of each level. In the past, your blaster upgrades would remain from level to level and were hard to replace if you died. This meant that the easiest way to beat the game was to simply never, ever die. This time around, the developers figured out that players die quite frequently in these games and need a little more help getting back on their feet, so power-ups are a bit more common. Since you begin each level with no power-ups, the difficulty has been adjusted accordingly.
This, perhaps, has given Super Return of the Jedi a reputation for being the easiest of the three games. And that is probably true, but it is easiest only because the previous two were so unfairly difficult. If this had been the only game in the series, it would still have a reputation for being brutally difficult, so don’t be suckered into thinking that this game is somehow a cakewalk. It’s still an incredible challenge, but is also the most manageable difficulty-wise of the three and so makes for the best starting point for those new to the series.
In addition, the password system from Super Empire Strikes Back makes a return here and adds to the ‘easiness’ of the game. Because each level resets your power ups, starting a level with a password is exactly the same as playing all of the way through the game up to that level and it is actually worth it to hang on to a password received after you die.
Another positive lies in the graphics upgrade. Although not so noticeable now, as the differences between this and Empire are negligible, at the time this was considered to be a marked improvement. Much was made of the fact that this was a “16 Megabit” cartridge, as this made for a relatively large game at the time; presumably, most of that extra space went into graphical detail. It is interesting to note that on the Virtual Console Jedi takes up 31 blocks. This is merely 4 more than Empire, and interestingly appears to be below average for a SNES game. But regardless of how much space it may take up, the attention to graphical detail shows and this is, by a slight margin, the best looking game in the trilogy.
The Mode 7 levels are about equal in quality to Empire. Though still hopelessly outdated compared to 3D gaming on a modern console, some of these levels at least do the SNES some justice. The Millenium Falcon level that takes place on the Death Star exterior is especially noticeable in that it looks a generation better than in Super Star Wars. The enemy Tie Fighters are sharp and recognizable and the background is well drawn and contributes to the three dimensional illusion. In contrast, the speeder bike scene on Endor, though once the technological darling of the videogame media, has since aged like…well, let’s just say it looks like its lived through a car wreck.
Conclusion
Super Return of the Jedi is the best looking, most balanced, and all-around complete package of the three games in the Super Star Wars series. Although not significantly different in gameplay than Super Empire Strikes Back, the attention to detail and variety of level designs and character options makes this release a worthy successor. Not only should those who enjoyed the previous release pick this one up, but those who have not played any game in the series are advised to play this one first because of its more forgiving difficulty curve.
Comments 20
This one I just recently played for the first time and it was pretty good. I'm not sure why I missed it the first time around, but a nice surprise nonetheless. Great review too!
Oh snap Corbie first'd twice
BANHAMMER
Great review Spencer! This is the only game of the trilogy that I have not played. I always wanted this game when I was younger and now I finally have the chance to play it.
CORBIE POSTED A DOUBLE FIRSTIE, SHAME ON HIM!
Great review, I just bought Super The Empire Strikes Back and Super Return of the Jedi a few days ago, I need to play those games.
It should lose three points for having "Super" in it's title.
But it's the Jedi's Super Return, dude. Are you saying it's fitting for a Jedi to just get a regular old Return?
My first impressions on looking over this review, before I'd even read it were "the red Emperor's Royal Guard sprites in the top banner look class", followed by, "it'll be a battle to get through to those later levels, to be able to fight them, though".
I'm glad that the difficulty has been adjusted and thanks Spencer, it is a positive review, I will buy this further down the line.
I remember in 1995 Super Play (Iss. 30) reviewed Super Return of the Jedi, but were a bit more harsh in their words, "formulaic platform fare", "lame bunch of secondary villains", "A big disappointment" and closing with "polished, but essentially repetitive and all-too-familiar".
I listened to reviews far more vehemently back then and for that reason, I did not buy it. This review suggests that I missed out.
Mind you, both reviews ended with a similar score (Super Play gave it 79%).
I remember this the first time around, and found that this one was more difficult than the others. After reading the review I understand a little better why (I tended to use Luke whenever possible because of force powers). Still I say that Super Empire was the best, but then it may be I say that because I believe that Empire was the best movie.
As I have said before the part of the game I hated the most was the escape from the death star, I remember only beating it once by using multiple pauses to see what was coming and react to it.
All three are good games and I remember spending many weekends playing through all three of them at once.
I doubt I'll be downloading any of the trilogy
I'm not sure why there was so much interest in the first game and so little in the second two. But it's been a blast for me to play these games again (even if they do cause that vein in my forehead to pop out) and I hope those of you outside of North America get a crack at them soon!
Are we getting these in Europe?
I never played the last two...I guess I could pick them up later.
@Outrunner
Well, I haven't heard that you're not.
@Outrunner
They will be released in Europe, it's just a question of when rather than if.
"One of the new characters, our favorite trash-talking princess, is arguably the most useless character of the bunch but you will no doubt choose to play as her anyway in the one level in Jabba’s Palace where she is dressed in her ‘slave’ bikini costume."
I remember Nintendo Power saying she was actually the best character in the game when it came out for SNES all those years ago.
When is it coming out in Australia???
I am having a tough time deciding if i should get galaga 90' or this game, what would you guys recommend i buy?
I'm a BIG Star Wars fan, but I'm not crazy about these three games. Why? I dunno.
My first SNES game ever. sniff. Ah, the memories. SRotJ is by far the best Star Wars game of the SNES-trilogy. Its capability to capture the Star Wars-vibe in graphics, music and even gameplay is impressive and I love how you can use a cheat to play every character in any stage.
does anyone else have issues with the sound in this version of the game? For example, Luke's Lightsaber doesn't have a sound effect
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