In the first screen, you're zipping through the forest
of Endor on a stolen speeder bike, with Imperial stormtroopers on their own
bikes chasing you. While you can shoot the stormtroopers' bikes or bump them
off the playing field, they can shoot you, and running into trees isn't good for
anyone's health. Your only advantage? The indigenous Ewoks, those furry little
critters who occupy a special, beloved place in every
Star Wars fan's
heart, will help you out if you lead the stormtroopers into their primitive
traps. The second screen is much like the first, only you're flying the
Millennium Falcon through the Death Star trenches, and the other speeder bikes
are now TIE Interceptors.
(Atari, 1984)
Though graphically superior, and almost certainly guaranteed to gross more
quarters just because of the Star Wars association, this game is,
more or less, Zaxxon with a new paint job.
Still, many players at the time hailed it as a vast step up from the vector
graphics Star Wars game which Atari had
released the previous year, even if the controls were aggravating.
And c'mon, you've got to love it - this is the only video game to feature
on-screen appearances by Artoo and Threepio (as seen above) and those cuddly
Ewoks that everyone loved so much from Return of the Jedi!
Rating:
Four quarters - a couple of minor irritants, but mostly a compelling and
addictive game.
Reviewed by Earl Green
theLogBook.com editor/webmaster
Four quarters - a couple of minor irritants, but mostly a compelling and
addictive game.
