Star Wars

Title		The Empire Strikes Back
Game Type	3D Action
Company		Vektor Grafix; published by Domark
Players		1
Compatibility	Not AGA
Submission	ronny@tmx.com.au

Review
The Empire Strikes back is the sequel to the brilliant arcade game Star
Wars.  While it shares many of the earlier game's characteristics, somehow
it doesn't come off *quite* as well...

The Empire Strikes Back has four levels. The first has you blasting away
at Imperial Probe Droids and their transmissions(!!) as you try to stop
them notifying the Empire. While the premise is unrealistic, this is good
fun.

The second level has you trying to bring down Imperial walkers, either by
shooting them through the view slits, or by casting tow cables at their
legs. This level is let down by the slowness of your snowspeeder; you
don't travel much faster than the walkers themselves. It can be very
annoying trying to catch up with walkers from behind. (By all accounts,
the recent LucasArts game Shadows of the Empire gets a similar scenario
right. By all accounts, it's the *only* thing that game gets right. :-) )

The third level is eerily reminiscent of the first level of Star Wars:
shoot TIE fighters and their fireballs. This level lacks the frantic
non-stop action of the equivalent level in the earlier game, and the
graphics for some reason aren't quite as good, but is still pretty good.

The final level is just annoying. You steer through an asteroid field.
Your job is to avoid the asteroids. The asteroids come at you quickly,
and at times will make you duck, but it just isn't very much fun.

As with Star Wars, once you've played the fourth level, you repeat the
first level (and the rest) ad infinitum, until you use up all your
shields and die.

Each level has a goal (shoot a certain number of probe droids, for example)
which gets you a "JEDI letter". Once you've spelt out JEDI you get a bonus,
although I've never been sure what that bonus *is*... :-)

The game as a whole includes many classic sound effects and samples from
the movie, but as a whole it lacks the appeal of the earlier game. Seven
out of ten (as in "it's fun, but not brilliant.")

Alphabetical list.