Star Wars was an arcade flight simulator based off of the final scene of the feature film. You play as Luke Skywalker in his X-Wing, engaging in first in a dogfight with TIE fighters, then fight your way on the surface of the Death Star, then finally fighting your way through the Death Star’s trench to shoot a proton torpedo through the exhaust port, blowing up the Death Star if you were successful.
The game utilized some sound bites from the original film, which helped with giving the feeling of piloting and being Luke Skywalker, especially if you played the sit-down version of the game cabinet. The game visuals were basically colored lines, but didn’t take away from the game’s feel even over the years.
The gameplay is the basic flight simulator (for the time), maneuvering the cross-hairs to aim at the oncoming TIE fighters and shooting them down. The sound samples that played at certain segments of the game helped with the simulation. It only took making it through the three stages (like in the final scenes of the movie, as I have described in the first paragraph) to complete the game.
I remembered the first time I played this game in the arcade. The visuals (even for as basic as they were) were overwhelming combined with the sound bites just made the game just as cool as the movies. I never have been able to complete the game, either running out of quarters or just never making it to the end over playing it over and over.
I have some fond memories of playing the Star Wars arcade game in the arcades and fun centers that I used to go to as kids. Even when I went from child to teenager I still gravitated back to this game because it was a lot of fun, even though the advancement and visuals of video games had progressed exponentially during my time. I haven’t played the game in a very long time, but I am content with my memory of it.
If you do get the chance to play it, hopefully you end up enjoying it as I did. If you are in my age group you already know.
The Heretic
Hee hee – I am aroundabouts your age group but no, I don’t already know.
Another top review, Michael. You’re good at this
Thank you. I try to make them as good as I possibly can.