Players begin as Luke, blasting their way across Tatooine and then coming across a stranded C-3PO. Thing really get underway after this as nearly every scene in the movie becomes an all out blast-a-thon, regardless of how close it follows the movie. Along the way, other characters can be controlled like Han Solo and Chewbacca, each with a set of attributes.
Splitting up the action scenes are some really good mode-7 stages. The first is a land speeder stage while the final one is the Death Star assault. They look spectacular and control pretty well, which is more than you can say for the platforming segments.
It will only take 3 minutes before the Sandcrawler becomes infuriating. It's bad enough that the enemy is relentless in their attack, but jumping is hardly adequate. You'll constantly find yourself falling all the way back to the beginning when you were just one jump away from the exit. This is just one of the many stages where this can be an issue.
But the difficulty is really the only major issue with the game. Blasting away at the various forms of life in the Star Wars universe is great, aided by some of the best (and most accurate) music and sound effects on the console. The Death Star assault remains incredible even after we've done it on a more powerful system and the action never slows down. The cinemas are also well done, even if the story is radically changed (that will be the last time the Jawas ever sell Luke an R2 unit with a bad motivator).
Every locale has been expertly recreated using every one of the 256 colors the SNES can produce on screen. Bosses are generally huge (the Cantina boss is great) and the character sprites are dead-on copies of the actors. The only real disappointment is the thermal detonator explosion which, to say the least, is pathetic.
If you grew up in the 16-bit era, this was one of those titles you just had to have. It really is a classic, though I'm sure the carts will become quite rare in a few years as more are smashed against walls in fits of anger. If that special edition ever does happen, it needs to made easier and Han should always shoot first.
