Great trilogies come in three’s: Back To The Future, Indiana Jones & Aliens (Im not including the mess that was Resurrection). Star Wars was another trilogy that improved with every iteration. SW was great, ESB was brilliant and ROTJ was, in my mind, outstanding. The arcade games didnt follow suit, though. SW was outstanding, ESB was just hard and ROTJ was just plain b*****ks. Now, the SSW trilogy follows the same principle as its arcade father. SSW was outstanding, SESB was brainmeltingly hard, whilst this one, SROTJ, was a tad easier (a very small tad but its more annoying though), but the problems still remained. Shall we begin?

Right, the first thing you’ll notice, is that again, the graphics are better than eye candy. They’re eye lager!!! Everythings as it should be, whatever character you select to be before the start of the level, whilst they have been improved yet again. Even Chewie looks good (for a walking carpet!!). The music, again, as been improved and as before, sounds much like its movie companion, placing you in that galaxy far, far away. The sounds are also as you’d expect, straight from the movie again. So, i wont retread old ground. Well done! But……again, its the gameplay that has suffered.

Not as hard as SESB but even more annoying though, you still have to contend with the death-defying, leap-of-faith jumps that even Master Yoda would find hard, but this time there’s MORE of them. Yes, thats right. More. *sigh*. And what makes the jumps more annoying is that you’re constantly under attack, on the Scaling Jabba’s Mountain level at leats, from the bird-thingies above, that seem to just spawn where they like, knocking you off that very bottom ledge which you’ve just spent about ten minutes trying to get to and onto, and into the same abyss……AGAIN!!!!! Come on, LucasArts, you could have desinged the levels a bit better than this!! The password system is still there, though, so there is ‘A New Hope’ (see what i did there?) at least.

The MODE-7 levels make a return, but they are un-welcome though, as they look like Leia’s ugly cousin who only the dumb guy would date. They are actually WORSE than SSW’s and SESB’s, apart from the Aproach To Jabba’s Palace level, mainly because you just follow a straight line and the MODE-7 is at a minimal, so this one isn’t too bad, but controlling your landspeeder is like throwing paper into the wind. One very light touch, and your careering all over the place. Where’s that space mechanic when you need him.

The lightsaber duels are back. This time, not only are you fighting Vader again, but your fighting…..HIS WASHING MACHINE!!!!…what??….nope, wrong game. You’re fighting The Emperor, who cheats by levitating (???) and throwing lightning out his fingers whilst making the platforms you need to jump on dissappear. Goody gum drops. This last level is actually tougher than the whole game put together. And dont get me started on the travesty of the Ewok level where you pay Wicket.

Overall, its slightly (and i do mean slightly, but only in the graphicsal and musical sense) better than SESB. But it still cant beat the Star Wars goodness that SSW brought with it. So, go play that or watch the movies instead.

Tags: jvc, Nintendo, return of the jedi, snes, super nintendo, super star wars