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!