Super Star Wars



Super Star Wars is a series action-platformer games based on the original Star Wars trilogy, developed for the SNES by Sculptured Software and Lucas Arts.

The plot of the first game closely follows A New Hope, and consists of 14 levels. The player can control Luke Skywalker (later Han Solo and Chewbacca too), from the Dune Sea of Tatooine, through the Mos Eisley Cantina up until the trench of the first Death Star. The gameplay is essentially this: Luke & Co. is gunning down various Mooks on each level, while fighting their way to the end of the level, where the boss awaits them. In a few of the levels, the player can control vehicles (Luke's speeder, much later his X-Wing), these levels feature and showcase the capabilities of the SNES' then brand new MODE-7 chip, which provides a 3D-like experience. Then the very last level is like an FPS, where the player is up against an endless swarm of TIE Fighters and they have to defeat them by moving a crosshair with a D-Pad and shooting wildly.

The first game came out in 1992, followed by Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back in 1993, and Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi in 1994. All three games were re-released on Virtual Console in 2009.

These games largely had great critical reception, and are regarded some of the best action platformer games made, as well as some of the best movie adaptation games.


 * Action Girl: Leia is a playable character in Super Jedi, and even has a handy Charge Attack.
 * Bag of Spilling: Luke in Return of the Jedi doesn't retain all of his Force powers from the previous game and instead starts with a handful of them. This was most likely for balancing purposes.
 * Bottomless Pit: Frequently on Tatooine levels, but even the Death Star has some of them.
 * Classic Cheat Code: All of the games have some.
 * Continuing Is Painful: With the games being Nintendo Hard, this trope is not surprising. Losing a life means any health extending items and blaster upgrades are all lost.
 * Double Jump: In the sequels.
 * Everything Is Trying to Kill You: The first level, where Radscorpions, Womprats and Mynocs harrass you endlessly. Also in the Cantina level, everyone in the bar is after you, not just Greedo.
 * Infinite One Ups: There is one on Level 5 (Land of the Sandpeople), where there is a chasm you could fall into, and by keeping left, you get to a secret area where you can pick up 7 lives. You're forced to kill yourself after that, but you can do it over and over again up until you reach 99 lives.
 * Instant Awesome Just Add Mecha: Imperial Defense Droid, the boss of the Death Star Hangar Bay level.
 * Life Meter: Pictured as a lightsaber.
 * Ditto for Luke's Force powers.
 * Lost Forever: The Force power ups in The Empire Strikes Back game. Most are found on the main path of the level they're in but the rest are either out of the way or hidden, so it's possible to miss out on these powers if you advance to the next level. Adverted in The Return of the Jedi game where Luke starts with a set of Force powers and doesn't need to find more.
 * Mercy Invincibility: Averted. Instead your character turns red and is pushed back when taking a hit, so falling into a crowd of enemies sometimes can have unfortunate consequences...
 * Nintendo Hard: These games are notoriously difficult, with Super Empire frequently making Top Ten Lists of the most difficult games ever.
 * No OSHA Compliance: Bottomless pits in the Death Star Hangar Bay level without railings.
 * Outrun the Fireball: The final level in Return of the Jedi follows the same scene from the movie where you have to navigate through twisting tunnels and jutting walls while trying to avoid being caught by the fireball from an explosion.
 * Painfully Slow Projectile: The regular Stormtroopers shoot... laser-ball things which you can avoid by running in the opposite direction, since they are moving with the exact speed your character runs.
 * Password Save: Only the second and third game.
 * Recurring Boss: Darth Vader (sans his TIE) returns in both Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.
 * Respawning Enemies: Especially prevalent on the 3rd level, where even the various guns on the side on the Sandcrawler are mysteriously repaired while you were not looking.
 * Sequel Difficulty Drop: While still difficult, Super Jedi is far more forgiving than Super Empire.
 * Sequel Difficulty Spike: Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is regarded one of the hardest, most unforgiving games on the SNES.
 * Spin Attack: Performing a superjump (up+jump) or a Double Jump in the sequels with the lightsaber has Luke spinning and slashing down everything in his way. Leia does the same until she gets a blaster.
 * Stuff Blowing Up: Every boss dies with a lot of explosions, even living ones, such as the Sarlacc at the first level. Naturally, the Death Star in the first and third game have a grand explosion.
 * Super Title 64 Advance
 * Unnecessary Combat Roll: You can perform this with Han.