Return Of The Jedi

I first played this game at the arcade soon after it was released. The console had a special control that was somewhat similar to a tank control where it had handles on the side and was able to tilt forward and backward, and had fire buttons on the top of each side where your hands gripped on. I absolutely loved the game, but hated that it was over too quickly. I picked it up for the MAME emulator which is how I currently play the game.

The game itself follows the events of the RoTJ movie, you start out in the Endor forest and engage in a battle with the stormtroopers on speederbikes with the help of the Ewoks, setting traps for you to use. On the speederbike you have a laser cannon at your disposal as well as the ability to ram other speeded bikes into trees.
Then onto space where you must fly your way into the Deathstar in order to deliver your payload and take out the reactor. Tie wings attempt to blast your Millennium Falcon as you navigate thru the narrow tunnels of the Death Star. Upon reaching the core Obi Wan instructs you to take out the power generator unit, after which you must fly back out the way that you entered before the blast from the core fries you. In the next sequence you are Chewbacca driving an AT-ST through the forest trying to avoid logs rolling on the ground. You're able to side-step the logs as well as fire the main cannons to destroy them before they do damage.
The graphics in this game are fairly dated, using sprites instead of the newer type of geometry styles. Overall for the limitation of the graphics hardware the sprites are very detailed and convey enough detail so that you can easily distinguish each character. The game is presented in an isometric point of view, sort of like the old Zaxxon.
The sound effects seem to be directly from the movie, with sound bites from Han, Luke, Chewey, C3PO, and Lando. The game play moves along swiftly and you have 3 lives in which to complete all of the missions. There are three levels of difficulty to play.
As I mentioned earlier, the ending comes much too soon, and once you master the pattern of the levels you can beat the game in around 5 minutes. The final scene of victory is somewhat disappointing as well.
Overall with its limitations and brevity, I still love this game and pick it up every now and then just to remember an age when things seemed simpler, and Star Wars was the biggest franchise around.