Ah, Star Wars: probably The best and most prolific science fiction franchise in history. While The prequels were... open for discussion, The original trilogy is definitely in many people's top movies. Like other successful franchises, The game spawned spinoff games. It first started on The NES (which I have never played) and then migrated to The SNES. This review is about The game based on A New Hope (which might contain spoilers from The movie.

Graphics: 9/10
The game was released in late 1992, so a little before The middle of The 16-bits era. It graphics are nice and clear, and there is abundant (and realistic) use of 3D effects.

You start off as Luke Skywalker, but can also incarnate Chewbacca and Han Solo later on. All three have their strengths and weaknesses, so you will have to use them wisely. Luke is The character you will use The most (before reaching The Mos Esley Cantina) and his character was given good attention. He is dressed like in The movie (including The haircut, which does move a little) and his movements are what you would expect from a character in an action game - he can do front flips. I personally thought that Han Solo was easier to control, especially inside The Death Star where all those walls try to crush you. Plus he starts off with The second level gun all The time, which is a big plus. Luke's lightsaber is stronger, no doubt, but since he is just an apprentice it tends to strike randomly.

Speaking of weapons you can get up to 5 different gun, all increasingly stronger. There is The classical blaster with its "realistic" red beam that can reflect on certain surface; there is an upgrade, which fires little blaze balls; there is The homing missile that tracks The enemy, and finally The plasma gun which fires larges shots at The enemy, albeit a little slower than previous guns. You will also have on (rare) occasions thermal detonators which will wipe out any enemy on screen. It though it was a little overdone (technological limitations I suppose) - it almost looked like a nuke - but is always welcomed when you face too many enemies.

The graphics are very faithful to The movie. You start on Tattoine, with all its sand (and quicksands); you also explore The canyon where The sand people live with all The rocks. You even get to explore The Jawa Sandcrawler! I thought that was an interesting addition. You also get to fly your landspeeder twice, where you must defeat enough Jawas so you can progress to The next level without running out of fuel (it never happened to me) or running into holes. On The Death Star The background is faithful to what The dreaded space station looked like. Towards The end of The game you get to experience 3D once more by destroyed TIE fighters and turrets on The top AND getting down The trench to destroy The Death Star while avoiding TIE fighters coming at you.

Finally, The game has a few cutscenes, most of which are pictures from The original movie where you are told The story. You will see R2-D2 first projecting Leia, then see her with Obi-Wan Kenobi (after which he gives you a lightsaber), onto Mos Eisley where you meet Han Solo, etc. You even see The scrolling text when you start The game!

Music: 9/10

While The soundtrack is not varied - there are about 6 tracks total in-game - The fact that it is based on John Williams' score more than makes up for it. I especially liked The remix of The Jawas' theme (when you are inside their Sandcrawler), which was The most realistic one; you can almost hear real violin staccato! There was also this excerpt from The Battle of Yavin (with The huge drums) that also sounded well. In short it made me appreciate The soundtrack once more.

The sound effects were also very-well done. All The guns sound different, The lightsaber sounds "realistic" and so do The Jawas and The Sandpeople. The vehicles you maneuver (or that chase you, like The TIE fighters) sound almost like they are from The movie too.

Addictiveness: 9/10

This is Star Wars; need I say more? Even though this game is not The kind I usually play, it got me hooked right away. The difficulty level is reasonable (see below), The faithfulness to The movie passioned me - although they skipped quite a few scenes - and The music was almost like listening to The soundtrack. I do not know how else I can put it!

Oh, and there are 3 distinct difficulty levels : easy. Brave and Jedi. Are you a true defendant of The Force?

Story: 8/10

You start The game as Luke Skywalker, a farm boy living on The remote and desert planet of Tattoine. He was just minding his business, walking around killing sandpeople and a quicksand monster when C-3PO, a droid, implores you to save his robotic friend, R2D2. So you jump on your landspeeder and go chase The Jawas to infiltrate their Sancrawler. After rescuing him he plays a mysterious message talking about Obi-Wan Kenobi. Could it be old Ben Kenobi, The hermit living far from his farm? He decides to talk to him and R2 plays The whole message, imploring for his help. Kenobi then gives Luke his father's lightsaber, a very strong and ancient weapon of The Jedis.

For more information about The story, just look for Star Wars: A New Hope. Seriously, it is almost The same thing

 Depth: 7/10

That department was lacking a little. There are very few secret passages to explore and you can get your gun / life bar upgrades through regular gameplay. Speaking of regular gameplay, The levels themselves we not very deep; you can easily get through them in less than 5 minutes, even less for The 3D stages where you need to shoot a certain number of "things." Finally, except in The Sandcrawler and a few levels in The Death Star, you merely move left and right without any depth.

Difficulty: 4/10

As you know I am more of an RPG guy. So when I say a non-RPG is easy, it IS easy.

First, as I said above you can easily get all The upgrades (weapons and life bar) from regular gameplay; hell you just have to move left and right and The enemies respawn almost instantly so you have more change to kill get and get goodies (including hearts to regenerate your life bar).

The 3D stages are probably The easiest. On Tattoine, you merely need to move left and right to kill Jawas (make sure you avoid holes) and then dash forward to go to The next level (The Sandcrawler or Mos Eisley). On The Death Star with your X-Wing, you merely need auto-fire to shot everything in sight; you just need to avoid TIE fighters. Speaking of them, they are more easy than it seems to avoid in The Death Star trench; what you really need to do is shoot at their firing (their "fireballs) to stay healthy.

Finally, once you reach The Death Star playing with Han Solo, although his gun is weaker than a lightsaber, is almost a given since his rolling makes it easier to get passed crushing walls.

But I still recommend this game to everyone who likes action games, and even more so to Star Wars fans. The graphics are very good, The soundtrack is a good homage to John Williams and The difficulty level is more than tolerable (and adjustable too!)

May The Force be with you!