Taito Legends
PS2/Xbox (2005)

While skimming the list of games included in Taito Legends, I realized that I have memories associated with almost half of them. I remember playing Rastan at the local bowling alley, Operation Wolf at the skating rink (while wearing roller skates, no less), Bubble Bobble at the corner convenient store and Space Invaders at Photon, our local laser tag arena back in the 80’s. There’s no denying that Taito has been a driving force in the arcade industry since its inception. Throughout the 1950’s and 60’s Taito produced pinball machines, arcade cranes, and jukeboxes, but it wasn’t until the release of Space Invaders in 1978 (released in the US by Bally MIdway) that the company became a blip on American’s radar.

Taito Legends spans the company’s glory years, bringing 29 of their most popular arcade games to home consoles. By now we’ve established that the current generation of consoles can emulate 80’s arcade games perfectly. (The original Space Invaders ran on an Intel 8080 platform operating slower than 1mhz.) Taito has done a perfect job in bringing these games to the home market. All the games on Taito Legends run and play indistinguishable from the original versions. For two years I had an Elevator Action arcade cabinet sitting in the corner of my kitchen, so I can tell you for a fact that the version on Taito Legends is 100% identical to the real deal. I could detect no slowdown, hiccups, skips or pops in any of the included games.

The 29 game roster can be divided into three basic categories: classics (Space Invaders, Jungle Hunt, Elevator Action), games you probably saw in arcades but have forgotten about (Battle Shark, Ninja Kids, Phoenix) and games you’ve probably never heard of before (Electric Yo-Yo, Exzisus, Plump Pop). Fortunately, most arcade games are designed to be easy to pick up and play, so even the less-known games on the disc are fun to play.

Where Taito Legends truly shines is in its presentation. The menu system is simple yet informative, showing each game’s original arcade cabinet, marquee, and other information including the game’s number of players, its year of release, the top five scores and a short description of the game. The menu system uses sound effects from many of Taito’s games and has retro-electronic music playing in the background. Unlike some other retro compilations, these menu options don’t impede the speed of things — changing games through the menu system is super quick, the games themselves take only a second or two to load, and returning to the menu system is just as fast.

Each game launches with a menu screen where users can see the high scores, read about the game, read related tips and tricks, view the original sales flyers, change the game’s options, customize each game’s controls (nice) and more. Some of the games like Space Invaders and Bubble Bobble also include interviews with the game’s developer. I’m not sure which I enjoy more: all the extra features, or the fact that Taito cared enough about us to include them.

In August of 2005 Taito was purchased by Square-Enix, so this disc nicely encapsulates the company’s great run in the arcade industry.

With 29 games, extra features, options, hints and tips, interviews and more, there’s no doubt Taito Legends is well worth the $20 MSRP. Games like Bubble Bobble, Elevator Action, Jungle Hunt, Operation Wold, Phoenix, Rainbow Islands, Rastan, Space Invaders (and two sequals), Super Qix and Zoo Keeper guarantee this disc will see lots of action.

Complete Game Listing:

Battle Shark, Bubble Bobble, Colony 7, Continental Circus, Electric Yo-Yo, Elevator Action, Exzisus, Gladiator, Great Swordsman, Jungle Hunt, The New Zealand Story, The Ninja Kids, Operation Thunderbolt, Operation Wolf, Phoenix, Plotting, Plump Pop, Rainbow Islands, Rastan, Return of the Invaders, Space Gun, Space Invaders, Space Invaders Par 2, Super Qix, Thunder Fox, Tokio, Tube-It, Volfied, Zoo Keeper.

Super Godzilla
GBA, Toho (1993)

It’s Godzilla against the world in Super Godzilla, a game that pits the giant green monster against everything from other giant monsters to tanks, aliens, and UFOs. The future of the world lies in Godzilla’s success.

The 16-bit Super Nintendo (SNES) was light years ahead of its predecessor, the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The Super Nintendo boasted huge improvements in both graphics and sound, which games like Super Godzilla brilliantly demonstrated. Unfortunately all that newfound crunching power didn’t always guarantee better game play, to which Super Godzilla is a testament. It’s a great looking game that wasn’t much fun to play.

Super Godzilla is presented in a split-screen fashion, with animations of Godzilla’s actions shown on the top half and a map of the city shown below. The map is a square grid that shows players the locations of water, buildings, tanks, and enemies. As Godzilla makes his way across the map, the top half of the screen shows colorful animations of the big green guy walking through the city. The animated sequences look very nice, which is fortunate as you’re forced to watch them for long stretches of time as Godzilla lumbers his way from one side of the map to the other.

It appears that great efforts were taken to ensure that anything remotely fun about videogames was removed before Super Godzilla hit store shelves. Compared to other fighting games of the era, Super Godzilla’s fighting engine is incredibly primitive. Godzilla only has four attacks, all of them made less-than-fun by the game’s awkward battle system.

The goal of each level is ultimately to defeat a boss while avoiding army attacks. There are six levels full of enemies, power-ups and bosses to work your way through, but chances are you’ll fall asleep long before you make it to the end. Super Godzilla isn’t as bad as it is boring, which is amazing for any game based on a giant, fire-breathing monster. Worth checking out for Godzilla fans, but those looking for the same levels of action found in the movies will be crushed.

Star Wars Chess
IBM PC (1993)

Choose either the Dark or the Light Side of the Force and battle enemy forces in this galactic version of chess that takes place a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

In the late 80’s, Interplay’s Battle Chess reinvented the computer chess genre. In Battle Chess, each chess piece was portrayed by a character on a three dimensional chessboard. The game followed the same rules as the classic board game – the only difference being when one piece captured another, it was visually portrayed on screen through light-hearted animations. Characters clobbered one another in humorous ways throughout the game, and the game’s sense of humor along with its stunning graphics and animation launched an entire wave of similarly styled chess games.

One such game was Star Wars Chess, by Software Toolworks. Like all the other Battle Chess clones (Terminator 2 Chess, Cyber Chess, Chess Maniac Five Billion and One, etc), Star Wars Chess replaced standard issue chess pieces with recognizable characters, this time from Lucas’ franchise. Each side (light and dark) has unique characters: Luke and the Emperor serve as kings, Princess Leia and Darth Vader act as queens, an army of R2 units and stormtroopers represent pawns, and so on. Although the game’s graphical mode is quite dated, the characters themselves are quite detailed and gamers should have no problem recognizing their favorite trilogy characters.

Most graphical chess games suffered from a few common problems, and Star Wars Chess is no exception. The first problem is, while it is simple to tell what chess piece a character represents before the game starts, after pieces begin moving it becomes more difficult to remember. Is Chewbacca a rook or a knight? What about Boba Fett, or Tusken Raiders? Chess taxes your brain hard enough without having to constantly try and figure out which piece is what!

A second problem Star Wars Chess seems to have inherited from Battle Chess is painfully slow load times. When one piece takes another, first the animation of one piece walking is loaded and displayed, then the animated fight scene must be loaded and displayed, and finally the AI must make its next move. (Also worth noting is that each “capture” only has one animation, taking the cutesy animations from entertaining to boring in light speed.) Chess isn’t known for being a particularly fast-paced game, but Star Wars Chess moves like space- molasses, especially while waiting for the computer to move.

And speaking of the game’s AI, it’s not particularly good. Even moderately experienced players should have no problems making bantha poo-doo out of the computer’s defenses. Star Wars Chess does support two-player mode, but you’ll have to have to find another die-hard Star Wars fan with a LOT of free time on his or her hands to complete even one full game.

Star Wars Chess is only recommended for die-hard Star Wars fans who are also computer literate. It’ll take some work to get this game to run on modern computers. The game refused to launch under Windows XP, and I had to install DOSBox (a DOS emulator) and spend several minutes configuring it to get Star Wars Chess to work. The game ran so slowly that I often thought it had locked up, and the game’s interface is so sparse that I had trouble figuring out what piece I had selected, or occasionally which side of the board I was playing.

The Force is not strong with this one. Not even a little bit.

Spy Hunter / Super Sprint
GBA (2005)

Destination Software’s combintation Spy Hunter/Super Sprint cartridge for the Gameboy Advance is perfect for brief gaming opportunities, whether they occur during your morning commute or afternoon bathroom breaks. While neither game provides days or even hours worth of depth, they’re both good enough to fill the dull breaks throughout your day. Unfortunately for fans of the original versions, both games suffer from the same two problems, mainly watered down conversions and inherent control issues — two side-effects resulting from cramming two classic arcade games (which originally used steering wheels) into a tiny Gameboy Advance cartridge.

Atari’s Super Sprint is the simpler (and slightly less frustrating) of the two to play. In this classic formula racing game, your goal is to be the first of four cars to complete four laps around a variety of racetracks. Throughout your races you’ll encounter obstacles, ranging from oil slicks to tornadoes. Small yellow wrenches that appear randomly can be exchanged between races for car upgrades.

Obviously, the game’s original steering wheel been replaced with the GBA’s very digital-feeling d-pad, turning the game’s original “violently whipping a steering wheel back and forth” experience into tiny little tap-tap-taps needed to correct your car’s steering. The controls are not nearly as frustrating as the fact that the race cars in this version appear to have been sculpted from nitroglycern — even the slightest wall tap causes your car to explode into a huge fireball. On second thought, maybe it’s the walls that are explosive, since you’ll often find yourseld driving right over the top of your fellow racers without even a nudge. The cars and some of the obstacles are so small, it’s hard to tell if the game has wonky collision detection or not. The game’s graphics and sound effects are surprisingly loyal to the original version. While the graphics have been slightly shrunk and the victory music may be missing a voice or two, everything is very recognizable and helps pull the game together.

Less cohesive is Spy Hunter, the other half of the collection. Porting Spy Hunter to consoles has never been an easy task, as the arcade cabinet included a steering yolk, five buttons, a gear shift and a gas pedal. And while gamers are willing to make certain concessions, there are certain things that simply cannot be missing. In Spy Hunter it’s the Peter Gunn theme, which sadly never materializes here. Ask a hundred people what they remember about Spy Hunter and the majority of them will mention the theme music. Without that, the game starts off on the wrong foot and never truly recovers.

Once again, anyone who’s ever played the original will find controlling the game using the GBA’s d-pad challenging. Pressing the d-pad up and down shifts between low and high gears, while left and right steer. Unfortunately for you, your spymobile seems is built from the same explosives as the cars in Super Sprint, meaning even the slightest rear end collision leads to fireball city, baby. Bumping them from the side isn’t much easier, as even slight taps will send your car careening off the road into yet another firey death. All of this is made even more difficult by the fact that Spy Hunter originally appeared on a vertical screen. On the GBA’s horizontal screen, you’ll need lightning-fast reflexes to get far at all.

While it’s hard to pick apart a package that retails for around $10, both games lost something in the translation. While either title should hold your attention for five minutes or so, any longer than that will quickly reveal both games’ flaws.

Skate or Die!
C64, Electronic Arts (1987)

Throughout my teenage years, I had three distinct career paths in mind. The first one was professional breakdancer. When I realized that probably wasn’t going to pan out, I began planning on a more obtainable, more realistic goal: professional ninja. This was of course during the big ninja craze of the mid-80s. When that career path didn’t pan out, I set my sites on a third goal: professional skateboarder.

That decision was partly based on the skateboarding craze which appeared out of nowhere and exploded into mainstream culture during the mid-1980s. The fads, fashions, and lingo of southern California swept across the nation. Sanctioned skateboarding events began appearing on ESPN in 1985. The movie Thrashin’ (1986) brought the world of skateboarding to the masses. 1986 was also the year Atari’s 720 skateboarding game was released. 720 popularized the phrase, “skate or die” (which was spoken in Atari’s infamous synthesized speech). Both Thrashin’ and 720 opened the skateboarding floodgates, and by 1987 the sport was everywhere. One of the most popular skateboarding videogames to hit the home market during that era was Electronic Arts’ Skate or Die.

Borrowing the established formula from Epyx’s “games” series and featuring the musical talent of Rob Hubbard, Skate or Die consists of five separate skateboarding events in which players can both practice or compete in. The five events take place at three different locations: the ramp, the downhill, and the pool.

The ramp is home to Freestyle and High Jump. In Freestyle, skaters try to rack up the highest score possible by performing (and landing) tricks in the local half pipe. Your character’s list of maneuvers isn’t exhaustive, but it’s enough to keep it interesting. You’ll see a lot of rail slides, hand plants, and backside airs here. In the High Jump, players compete to see who can get their skateboard the highest. This is accomplished by building the maximum amount of speed (by pumping in the transition portion of the ramp). It takes practice to get the timing just right.

The downhill section hosts the Jam and the Race. In both events, two skaters make their way down the back alleys of California, skating hard. In the Race, the goal is to make your way through an obstacle course as quickly as possible while building your score up by pulling off some radical moves. In the Jam, which takes place in a back alley, players can now punch and kick as well as pull off moves! Both games pit you against an opponent, so if you don’t have a friend to play with you’ll be pitted against the evil green-haired Lester.

The last location, the pool, is home to the Joust. In the joust, two skaters skate an empty swimming pool while trying to bash each other with big padded jousting sticks that resemble the ones used on American Gladiators. While Jousting against a friend can be a blast, playing the computer can frustrate even the most veteran player as Aggro Eddie tends to make few mistakes.

All of these events are tied together through the Skate Shop, run by Rodney (Dangerfield, with a purple Mohawk). Once you decide in the skate shop whether you’re competing or just practicing, you’ll get to skate to the event or events you wish to play.

I always felt that the Freestyle, Jam and Race events were strong enough to be games on their own. The High Jump and Joust events, while fun, lack much depth. Skate or Die brought the world of skateboarding home to the Commodore 64 in grand fashion. While 720, Skaterock, Skate Crazy, and even the skateboarding event in California Games would all later appear on the Commodore, Skate or Die stands at the top of the ramp as the best and most complete skateboarding game for the Commodore 64.

Sega Classics Collection
PS2 (2005)

If you’re a fan of both Sega and import gaming then you’ve probably already heard of the Sega Ages 2500 line of games. If you haven’t, Sega has been giving facelifts to some of their greatest classic hits over the past two years and releasing the updated versions at budget prices. Until now, these updated Sega classics (such as Space Harrier, Outrun, and Golden Axe) have only been available to Japanese gamers (or importers). With only one game per release, collecting them all can get expensive.

Sega has given US gamers a break with Sega Classics Collection, which includes ten games and sells it for a bargain price ($20). At $2 per game, you’ll get more than your money’s worth out of some of them (and lament you paid that much for others).

Sega Classics Collection contains updated versions of the following games: Alien Syndrome, Bonanza Bros, Columns, Fantasy Zone, Golden Axe, Monaco GP, Outrun, Space Harrier, Tant R, and Virtua Racing. Each game plays basically like the original but with updated graphics (some more updated than others). The upgrades work better on some of the games. Virtua Racing and Outrun are both as fun as ever, while Golden Axe and Monaco GP both lose something (a lot) in the translation. Some of the games such as Alien Syndrome, Columns and Bonanza Bros don’t seem much different to me than the originals did. And of course, Space Harrier is as fast and frustrating as ever. For the most part, the less a game was updated, the better off it seems to play (Golden Axe is unfortunately one of the worst games on the disc).

In a world full of emulation, repackaging old games and reselling them is getting more and more difficult. Sega has made an effort to give gamers something new here by updating the graphics and tweaking game play options a bit. There’s no denying that getting ten classic games for $20 is a good bargain, although my guess is in the not-so-distant future gamers will forget about these recent facelifts and go back to playing the originals on their system of choice.

Sammy Lightfoot
Sierra On-Line (1983)

From the success of Nintendo’s Donkey Kong came, well, lots of games that were similar to Donkey Kong. And while Donkey Kong’s plot (especially compared to the games of today) may seem incredibly simplistic, many of the clones that followed it had even less of one. Such is the case with Sammy Lightfoot. Like Mario in Donkey Kong, Sammy is a portly fellow who has been tasked with reaching the top of a series of platforms. The games box art and documentation describe Sammy as a circus performer, ostensibly to explain the trampolines and trapezes located on each level. This is where the plot ends, and the action begins.

Sammy Lightfoot (the game) consists of three levels, each with different obstacles blocking Sammy’s path to the top. Like most 2D platform games, stepping off a platform or touching just about anything leads to the player’s instant demise. Maneuvering through each level involves lots of jumping and swinging. Each level is built on patterns that are easily memorized, so once you’ve beat one a few times you should be able to blast through it at top speed. Once all three levels have been completed the game starts over on the next difficulty setting. The difficulty ratings ramp up quickly; I can beat the first difficulty setting in my sleep, and I’ve yet to beat the third.

The game’s sounds and graphics are a bit of a letdown. Sammy Lightfoot for the C64 looks and sounds almost identical to the Apple II version — the in game tunes are produced with a single voice, and the color palate of green and purple girders looks to be lifted directly from the Apple’s color scheme as well. Even in 1983, C64 programmers were capable of more than this. It’s a shame the C64 version of Sammy Lightfoot wasn’t tweaked to take advantage of the Commodore’s capabilities. I suspect that if the game had been ported later in the C64’s life, the game would have been more detailed.

Although Sammy Lightfoot is a fun game, there’s not enough there to keep players interested for long periods of time. It’s one of those games that I play every time I pull my C64 out of the closet, and quickly remember why I stopped playing it. The C64 version of Sammy Lightfoot certainly holds its own against the same game on other platforms, and while the game isn’t particularly deep, it’s a perfect half-an-hour time killer.

Rumble Roses
PS2 (2003)

Twenty-two beautiful women in skimpy costumes beating the crap out of each other. No, it’s not my Christmas wish list — it’s the basis of Rumble Roses, Konami’s new all girl fighting game for the Playstation 2.

Built upon Yuke’s SmackDown! engine, Rumble Roses follows in the footsteps of Tecmo’s Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball for the Xbox. While the one-on-one fighting genre has always been a popular genre among young teenage boys, Konami has made sure there was no question about the game’s intended demographic by including some of the sexiest pixels ever to grace the gaming screen. The game contains all the punches, kicks and extreme moves seen in other similar fighting games and adds plenty of jiggling and wiggling to the mixture. Similar to professional wrestling, most of the roses fall into neat stereotypes (strict schoolteacher, naughty schoolgirl, southern belle, dominatrix, etc.) It’s as if a brawl broke out at the Playboy Mansion over Halloween, and somehow, you got invited.

Similar to DOA Volleyball, Rumble Roses gives players the option of fighting quick exhibition matches, playing through a story mode, or simply looking at the girls with a virtual camera in the locker room. The story mode makes the plot of Mortal Kombat look like Shakespeare’s work (something about stealing the girl’s DNA to create super female wrestlers) and is obviously only there to give players a structure to play through.

Under the skin (so to speak), Rumble Roses is actually a pretty decent grappler. Yuke has already worked out the kinks in their engine, so there are no major bugs in this department. The gorgeous ladies of Rumble Roses can strike, grapple, counter, perform and receive limb damage, use weapons, and perform finishing moves. And of course, most of the moves are designed to show you the maximum amount of virtual skin possible.

Like most gimmicky-games, the biggest problem with Rumble Roses is, after a few hours of playing, you’ve seen it all. Each fighter only has a few cut scenes, funny comments and special moves, and after two or three fights you’ve seen most of them. Rumble Roses is a good game with good graphics draped over a B-movie plot and cheesy voice acting. Unless you can see yourself spending weeks upon weeks laughing over bitmaps in bikinis, I’d recommend renting Rumble Roses first and making sure you don’t tire of it quickly. That is, unless you’re in a fraternity — then I’d buy it and super glue it into my PS2. Then I’d super glue down the PS2.

Rig Racer 2
Nintendo Wii (2007)

They’re big, slow, cumbersome and hard to control. Welcome to the exciting world of big rig racing. For gamers who are drawn to racing games for their selection of exotic cars, high rates of speed and exciting racing action, get ready: Rig Racer 2 has none of those things.

Rig Racer 2 is the spiritual successor to Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing, released in 2003. Big Rigs received a 1/10 rating from GameSpot, a 1/10 from Thunderbolt Games, and a 0.0 from NetJak before being voted the worst videogame of 2004 by GameSpot. Rig Racer 2 appeared on the PC in 2005, and has been released for the Wii in 2007. Rig Racer 2 is slightly better than the original, which still isn’t saying much.

The biggest hurdle racing game developers have is conveying a sense of weight and speed to the player. Pixels don’t inherently conform to physics; they have to be programmed to do so. Nothing in Rig Racer 2 feels real. The trucks do 0-60 in just under 3 seconds, which leads me to believe none of the programmers have ever been stuck behind one at a traffic light. Even when you are cruising along at 120mph, it looks and feels like you are only doing 30mph. The slow pace gives you plenty of time to stare at the crappy, Gamecube-quality scenery.

Rig Racer 2 uses the conventional Wii “ExciteTruck” control scheme: the Wiimote is held sideways and turned to steer, with the 1 and 2 buttons serving as gas and brake/reverse. The trucks are automatic (which is good, I think, as real semis have something like 17 gears) and extremely nimble (I was able to do a u-turn in a two-lane stretch of track). The A button acts as a hand brake (which I didn’t even even know semis had) for sliding around corners, although the minute you release the button, the truck stops sliding. When you are at a stop, the brake button also propels your truck in reverse — of course doing so instantly switches the camera to a rear view mode, which is kind of like backing a boat while looking in a mirror. It’s just one of many instances within the game that probably looked good on paper, but doesn’t work right in the game.

The tracks are fairly uninspired; the game’s first track, “Paris,” might as well take place in Montana. The track is lined with trees, chain link fences and billboards, none of which budge an inch if your rig happens to plow into them. Each track is surrounded by grass (which slows your truck down even more) and sand pits (which practically stop it). Sand takes you from 120mph to 30mph in a split second — who knew? They should sprinkle sand in school zones and parking lots. Along the sides of each track are dollar signs that can be collected along your journey and traded in for new rigs and race tracks. Unfortunately they cannot be used to purchase another Wii game. Each track also contains a pit row, where your rig can be repaired at 80mph.

Rig Racer 2 is filled with tons of annoyances. For example, the menus use the conventional Wiimote control scheme (pointing and clicking) but the game itself doesn’t. If you pause the game and want to make a change you’ll need to point at the TV, unpause the game, and then quickly rotate the Wiimote sideways. I’m not being nitpicky; it’s more annoying than it sounds. Another problem I ran into more than one was, in 3rd person view, having trucks get between my rig and the camera. In most cases, only some of the polygons are drawn, resulting in weird boxes and triangles blocking my view. These are things I ran across within minutes of firing up the game, which makes you wonder just how long (if at all) this game was tested.

So far, Nintendo’s Wii has been able to keep up with the more technically powerful PS3 and Xbox 360 by releasing innovative and fun games, but not-so-fun games such as this one make the gap obvious and hurt the system as a whole. If Rig Racer 2 were the only game available for the Wii, I’m still not sure I’d play it again. Anyone considering purchasing Rig Racer 2 should keep on truckin’.

Return of the Jedi
C64, Dormark (1988)

Back during a time when most companies pressured programmers to code home versions of popular arcade games as quickly as possible, software publisher Dormark took a cool four years to bring Atari’s Return of the Jedi videogame to the home computer market. Far different from the color vector style used on the first two Star Wars arcade games, Return of the Jedi placed gamers in a Zaxxon-esque 3D perspective world, and contained several levels based on scenes from the movie. Dormark ported the arcade game to several platforms in 1988, including the Amiga and the Commodore 64.

Each level within Return of the Jedi consists of multiple scenes. The game begins with players controlling Princess Leia during a Speeder Bike chase. In an isometric view (moving from the lower-left hand corner of the screen toward the upper right), players must navigate their speeder bike through the Endor forest without crashing while being chased by Biker Scouts on speeder bikes at the same time. Allow a Biker Scout to trail you long enough and he’ll blast you to bits, so you’ll need to either outmaneuver them through the forest, or ram them into a forest object (tree, tree stump, etc.). Also on your side are the Ewoks, who have set up traps throughout the forest. Fly between two logs with a biker on your tail and the Ewoks will smash him – fly over a rope two Ewoks are holding, and they’ll clothesline a baddie. Be warned though; Ewoks, while cute, aren’t necessarily bright – they’ll gladly smash or clothesline you as well if you’re not careful. Yub Yub! The level ends when you reach the Ewok village.

The second half of the first level puts you behind the controls of the Millennium Falcon as you fly through the inside of the Death Star, destroying TIE Fighters and ultimately destroying the main reactor core. It only takes a few moments of playing to realize that this is essentially the same as the first level. Fly, slalom between objects, and shoot enemies.

Level two begins again with the speeder bikes, but contains different subsequent scenes. There’s a part where you take control of an AT-ST and must once again traverse the dangerous forest. Unlike Pitfall, which required players to jump over rolling logs, these wooden enemies can be blown to splinters by your Emperial gun turrets. In classic videogame logic, only logs rolling toward you can be destroyed; stationary ones kill you. So much for technology. The next level consists of gamers piloting the Millennium Falcon once again, this time traveling through space with X-Wings flanking you. You’ll encounter TIE Fighters, dodge Star Destroyers, and not need the Force to realize that every level in this game is essentially the same, but with different graphics.

One interesting aspect of gameplay, and something that really captures the spirit of the film, is that beginning the second level the levels will begin to flip back and forth between one another. You’ll be engaged in the middle of a TIE Fighter dogfight when the game will flip to the AT-ST level, where you will suddenly find yourself contending with oncoming logs. Clear those obstacles and the game will jump back to the TIE Fighter sequence. The game’s layout mimics the film’s sequences, and while initially jarring, the action does keep you from getting too bored with any one particular level.

Star Wars (the arcade game) is considered by many to be not only one of the best Star Wars games of all time, but one of the best arcade games of all time as well. Return of the Jedi had a lot to live up to and was met with mixed reviews. While certainly not one of the best games of all time, Return of the Jedi is okay in its own right. The levels are pattern-based requiring a slight amount of memorization to master, and the game itself is fairly repetitive with all the levels being basically the same save for graphical swaps, but it’s still not a bad little game. There are much, much worse Star Wars games available.