Collection essentials #259: Super Empire Strikes Back (SNES)

Add another nostalgic early childhood title to the list. Super Empire Strikes Back was one of the games my dad (being a fan of the Star Wars movies) bought during the SNES’s heyday when I was too young to even remember, so it was one of the first games I ever played and I’m not even old enough to remember the first time I did. I'm pretty sure my childhood copy lives at my parents' house and this one shown here is one I acquired in adulthood.

I want to point out that the first Star Wars SNES game, based on the first movie, will not be making the list. I didn’t own it growing up so it has less nostalgia value with me, and I think it is a vastly inferior game to the ones that came after. I do still own it and probably won’t get rid of it, but I don’t love it enough to give it a post.

What we have here is primarily a side-scrolling action game. You start out playing as Luke, who is armed with his blaster and his lightsaber, which the player can switch between. There’s a good amount of variety in gameplay which becomes apparent as you progress. Some levels have you controlling Han or Chewbacca instead of Luke, and each of those guys has a unique move that Luke doesn’t. There are also stages where you pilot a vehicle in which gameplay is completely different. For example, the Hoth level where you have to fly around and take down Imperial walkers takes place from a third-person perspective and you can fly freely in any direction.

I’ve got to discuss the fact that this game is considered really hard. This reputation is somewhat earned, as there are definitely some challenging segments in the game. However, I think the game’s actual difficulty tends to be overstated a bit. It’s true that if you pick up this game out of nowhere, without any context or reading the manual or whatever, you are likely to have a very rough go of it. But with knowledge and experience, it’s not so bad. For example, you can turn down the difficulty mode to “easy” from the default setting in the options before you start a game. You also have to understand that the game is meant to be played slowly and carefully. It may at first appear to be a run ‘n gun title like Contra, but it’s really not. Luke has the ability to block with his lightsaber which is a really crucial thing to utilize. There’s no time limit, so the player doesn’t have to rush at all. And the game also utilizes a password system, so it basically has infinite continues. 

My dad beat this game back in the day. Of course he used passwords and likely died many times getting to that point, but I’d say that’s one of his most impressive gaming feats!

Nostalgia aside, I really like Super Empire Strikes Back. The game can be really fun once you know what you’re doing, and the presentation is of high quality too, translating the famed John Williams score pretty well to the SNES considering the console’s limitations. I wouldn’t call it one of the best action games on the console because it does have some needlessly frustrating moments. My least favorite part of the game is a side-scrolling segment when you’re briefly piloting your Airspeeder and facing some airborne enemies, and with the perspective of the camera your ship is probably the biggest I’ve EVER seen in any kind of shoot ‘em up segment of a game, making it impossible to dodge most attacks, and sometimes it feels like luck whether you can avoid taking enough damage to survive. Some enemies have an obnoxious amount of health to a point that seems excessive, too. This game is not just a nostalgiassential, but legitimately good enough to make this list on its own merit, a very good licensed game from a beloved IP in the SNES library.