Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

Empire has no "stages" per se; the Walkers just keeping coming until you're overcome. Easy to play and always exciting, Empire Strikes Back lives up to the Star Wars name.

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is a fantastic first attempt at a Star Wars game. It was also the very first game I ever owned in my life. Being a huge Star Wars fan, my parents bought the game for me for Christmas the year it was released, so I have a bit of a sentimental attachment to it. Just looking at the game objectively, though, I can say that it was one of the best third-party games released for the VCS, and one that's well worth owning, whether you're a Star Wars fan or not.

Overall a good game from an arcade point of view, but not much of the plot or storyline involved that made the Star Wars movies so wonderful. This is probably one of the better games that came out for Atari during the 1982 year. I give it a hearty Thumbs Up!

While ESB clearly takes a page from the Defender school of gaming, there are enough neat tricks here to make it stand on its own as an entertaining blast-fest.

This game is okay for a few playthroughs, but, regardless even of the fact that it has multiple games modes and two-player capabilities, most people won’t come back to it too often. If you are a fan of side-scrolling shooters or of Star Wars, it might be worth looking into though.

Un jeu absolument exténuant, parce qu'il faut effectuer un pilonnage incessant, assorti de violents allers-retours autour du monstre. On a le pouce littéralement contusionné ! Un jeu d'une brutale simplicité, qui comblera les amateurs de records et d'action.

Fazit: Ein weltraumähnliches Ballerspiel mit nicht ganz so ausgeprägter Abstraktion, dem man allerdings einige mit längerer Dauer auftretende überraschende Zusatzgags hätte wünschen mögen.

The scrolling effects of the hills and valleys are rough, making it difficult to land on a level area to initiate repairs. And why did the programmer paint the sky that putrid shade of yellow? Intellivision owners clearly got the short end of the stick with this one. For the record, my friend Jonathan holds the record for lowest score in Empire Strike Back for the Intellivision, netting a paltry 12 points in his very first game. Needless to say, I derived more enjoyment from mocking him than playing this game.