Star Wars: Yoda Stories

The Good
The game, despite being three times as big as its cousin, Indiana Jones Desktop Adventures, is small. Small as in less than 5MB which for a game in 1997 is a big deal. And the gameplay is small too, running in a desktop window that doesn't even require all that much of your screensize to be able to play.

Your player is a pint-sized icon of Luke Skywalker who must complete randomly generating missions for Yoda during his Jedi Training on a variety of Star Wars locations, whose maps also randomize. A variety of adventurous tasks and "find out where I can use this item" puzzles await you and various NPC characters inhabit these planets. There's a definite variety here. Everything from needing to save rebel spys to repairing water harvesters to shooting up an Imperial base. There are certainly enough tasks to keep a young jedi occupied.

Oh and have I mentioned that all those pint-sized Starwars sprites are very cute? Just look at the screenshots. Not everyone will like these graphics however, so don't be surprised if some other reviewer lists it as a negative feature.

The Bad
Repetitiveness.

Especially if you've set your gameworld to 'large'. There's only so much to do in the Yoda Stories galaxy and only so many tasks for the game engine to draw from. That means that on your third or fourth time through, you might meet the same person trying to repair his snowspeeder or questioning the same Mos Eisley patron. Still, at least the items they want tend to be in different places.

And also, this game was originally released as a $30 game title from Lucasarts. While I enjoy the game, it works much better as a 'free additional game' in the Starwars Pack or some sort of other bundled software. It's cute and fun, but I'm not sure if it was worth retail price all on it's own.

The Bottom Line
Pint-Sized Starwars Adventure. Small file size and instantly-paused windowed small gameplay (as opposed to full screen) ensure this game will frequently live on my computers and office environments... after all, it beats MS Solitaire!

The Good
This game was reviled when it was released! LucasArts only meant for this game to be an amusing diversion, like Solitaire or Mine Sweeper. This game is graphically poor and gameplay involves delivering items with some simple puzzles, but that's what was intended.

This is an excellent mini-game that you can play in one sitting. This isn't a graphically strong game, but the little characters are cute. There is also cool combat and great sound and music (you can strip out the .wav files and have great sounds for your computer).

Anyway, the game always begins with Luke arriving on Dagobah and then Yoda sends him on a quest. The game is always random but full of familiar characters (Fett, Vader, Han, etc). There are a few different worlds (an ice one, forest, desert, etc). Puzzles are pretty easy, with a few challenges, and there are several amusing jokes.

The best part is that after completing certain numbers of games, Luke has better access to the Force and a stronger lightsaber.

The Bad
I didn't like the fact that people refused to accept the game as it was. LucasArts doesn't need to make every game like Jedi Knight. And really, tell me that this isn't better than Rebellion or Force Commander.

The Bottom Line
A Star Wars minigame in the tradition of Mine Sweeper, Hearts, Solitaire, etc.

The Good
It's immensly simple in both concept and execution. While it's disappointing when a big-budget game turns out to be a simple puzzle-solver, when a game has a budget THIS low, I think it's okay. I like it because they accomplished exacly what they set out to do: create a simple puzzle solver that runs on the desktop that will give people (esp. those new to computers) something to blow twenty minutes on. It's easy, mildly entertaining and costs about ten bucks.

The Bad
It's immensly simple in both concept and execution. It's not a game to "game" on. You'd just lose it if you played it for more than about half an hour. The graphics, well . . . they just aren't, but that's what you'd expect from a game built in a month or so. Also, distilled, it's just a series of (easy) interconnected puzzles.

The Bottom Line
Don't do what so many large publications did. They took a look at the graphics, laughed, played for a minute, laughed some more, and blasted it. They still pick on it, without really recognizing the actual purpose of the game. It's Star Wars Minesweeper, albiet based on puzzles rather than strategy. So if you're waiting for a flight with absolutely nothing to do (admit it, it's happened), crack open your notebook and play for a while. It's totally forgettable, so I can't say "you'll be glad you did", but you'll have some mild fun and won't have to wait for Jedi Knight to load.

My personal score . . . 3.5 out of 5