Star Wars Original Trilogy (Jakks Pacific)

Background

Opening game screen of Star Wars Original Trilogy, along with controller/unit (bottom left)

Star Wars is the most successful science fiction series of all time. The original film, released in 1977, involved a band of Rebels in a far away galaxy banding together against an evil galactic Empire, whose ultimate weapon, the Death Star, had the power to destroy an entire planet. The movie was followed by two sequels over the years, a set of prequels was released starting in 1999, and with Disney buying out creator Lucas Film in the late 2010s, is releasing a new set of films starting in late 2015, taking place several decades after the original trilogy (the films released from 1977-1983) left off. There have been television shows and specials and other films released as well set in the Star Wars universe.

Many Star Wars-themed video games have been released under multiple platforms (console, computer, arcade, etc.) starting in the early 1980s, including the Star Wars Original Trilogy plug it in and play unit, which was released in 2006 (and re-released in 2012) and had four games that took place during the original trilogy of films.

Included games

Assault On Hoth

This is a turret shooting game where the player controls a Rebel officer who commands three gun turrets protecting the Rebel base. The officer must be placed behind a turret in order for it to fire and activate its brief shields for protection against enemy attacks. A stage will be cleared when all enemy Imperial forces have been destroyed. If firepower from the enemy hits a turret, the player will lose a life and the game will end when there are no more remaining lives. If any enemy entity advances to the front line, the player will have to start that stage over if they have any lives left in reserve; if there are none, the game will then end.

Enemy Imperial forces the player faces during a game includes Storm Troopers, Imperial Probe Droids, AT-ATs and AT-STs.

Power-ups

A Rebel Snowspeeder will fly overhead several times during a stage and drop a power-up. The Rebel officer must touch the power-up in order to activate it.

• Ion Strike–slows enemy forces down for a time and prevents them from firing
• All Shield–raises shields in front of all gun turrets for a brief time
• Reflect Shots–causes enemy fire to bounce back at them when the shields are raised
• Extra Life–self-explanatory

Battle Of Endor

The player controls a different character for each stage they play through in this game. In the first stage, they control Princess Leia on a Speederbike flying through the forests of Endor. She must avoid running into trees (which will result in losing a life), as well as firepower from pursuing Stormtroopers (which knocks down the player’s energy meter per hit; once it’s totally depleted, then a life is lost and the game will end when the player has no more remaining lives). After a certain distance is covered, the stage is declared over and the next stage begins.

In the second stage, the player aims Chewbacca’s fire (via onscreen cursor) at Stormtroopers (and other AT-ATs) to prevent the AT-ST he is in from taking too much damage from enemy firepower; if the player’s energy level becomes totally empty they will lose a life. Players must also be careful in not shooting any fleeing Ewoks or else points will be deducted from their score. If the player is able to make it to the Imperial shield generator then the stage will end and the final stage begins.

In the last stage, the player controls the Millenium Falcon flying through the Death Star. They must avoid crashing into various structures, along with pursuing TIE Fighters, which their fire can weaken the Falcon’s health level; once the level runs out the player loses a reserve life and the game will end if there are no more remaining lives. If the Falcon is able to reach the core, the player must shoot it, then the Falcon turns around and the player must pilot their way out while still avoiding the usual structures and the approaching wall of fire behind them (which will also cost the player a life if the fire touches the Falcon). If the player makes it out then the game cycles back to the first stage.

Power-ups

Several power-ups will appear during this stage, which Chewbacca must shoot them in order for them to activate.

• Attack–this allows Leia's speederbike to fire two shots at once in the first stage, speeds up cursor movement/firepower during the second stage, and for the Millenium Falcon in the third stage to fire behind
• Health-restores health (all stages)
• Extra Life-self explanatory
• Ewok Trap-summons Ewoks to attack all Imperial Forces during second stage

Lightsaber Duel

The player first controls Luke Skywalker honing his Light Saber fighting skills with Obi-Wan Kenobi. As the player advances through the game defeating opponents, other characters can be unlocked, such as Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine.

Red Leader

The player controls an X-wing fighter flying through an Imperial fleet. Various targets must be destroyed and/or the player must travel a certain distance in order for a stage to be declared clear and for the player to advance to the next stage. In the majority of these stages, the player will encounter various small Imperial fighters that fly around in certain patterns and fire at the X-wing. The player must dodge the incoming fire and destroy these fighters. Getting hit by an enemy shot (without a Shield power-up in use) will destroy the player’s ship and the game will end when there are no more remaining ships. Shooting every ship in a formation will earn a bonus for the player, however.

At the end of certain stages, the player will come across an experimental TIE Defender, which take many more hits to be destroyed as compared to a regular small Imperial ship. As the player progresses further into the game, more and more TIE Defenders will be added to the end of these stages as the game’s difficulty level increases. Other stages involve the X-wing passing through asteroid belts, where the player only destroys asteroids, with no Imperial ships. Finally, one last stage involves the player flying over a Super Star Destroyer along with battling the usual smaller Imperial spacecraft. The Star Destroyer have gun turrets that can only be destroyed by dropping a bomb on them. At the end of each one of these stages, the screen will stop scrolling and the player must destroy various parts of the command end of the Star Destroyer before they can take out the entire ship and move onto the next stage. The further the player advances throughout a game, the more targets on a Destroyer must be obliterated in order for the Destroyer to be blown up, along with their firepower also increasing all the while.

Power-ups

These are contained in blue spheres that appear multiple times during a stage. Once shot, the power-up will be revealed.

• Laser Coil–strengthens lasers
• Wingman–A-wing fighter(s) assists the player, increasing their firepower
• Shield–absorbs first hit by enemy fire
• Cruiser Support–destroys everything onscreen
• Extra Life–self-explanatory

Starships and starbases found in this compilation

• A-wing
• Death Star
• Millennium Falcon
• Snowspeeder
• Star Destroyer
• Super Star Destroyer
• TIE Defender
• TIE Fighter
• TIE Interceptor
• X-wing

Trivia

• The Battle Of Endor is a rip-off of the Atari Return of the Jedi arcade game, as players zipped through planet Endor on Speederbikes while they were chased by Stormtroopers, then at other times they controlled Chewbacca in an AT-ST, and they had to pilot the Millennium Falcon through the Death Star and in outer space. There were several differences though, as Battle of Endor is side-, rather than 3/4 3-D -viewed as on the original, it is more difficult in this game for players to influence Stormtroopers into trees as on the original (as players could easily force them into trees then), players can’t fly through big trees for points like with the arcade game, nor have Ewoks activate traps to put Stormtroopers out of commission, plus there were no power-ups. Ewoks also could not be shot in the original, and in the second part of the arcade game, players directly controlled Chewbacca, shooting logs and such, and the layout of the Death Star is the same once the core is destroyed and the Falcon turns around and makes its way back out; here the course is different, plus there was also an additional element in the arcade game where players flew over a Star Destroyer and took out some TIE Fighters as well.
• The Battle of Endor is the only game on the unit where players use an enemy Imperial vessel (the stage where Chewbacca pilots an AT-ST).
• Lightsaber Duel is the only non-shooter on the unit.