Released in 1994

Available in

Genre: Shooting

A conversion of a rare arcade game, Star Wars Arcade was one of the 32X's launch titles and is a shoot 'em up which covers space battles. Using either the X-Wing or Y-Wing fighter, players battle against the Empire's forces in asteroid fields, star destroyer fleets, inside a super star destroyer and across and inside the Death Stars.

The main negative point of this game is the high difficulty level -enemy fighters can quite easily swarm you from behind and land several hits within seconds, and the cannons on the Death Stars and super star destroyers have shots that are very hard to avoid. The time limit doesn't help matters, especially in some of the later stages. It can also be frustrating that you can't shoot at enemies from a certain angle in single player due to them being out of range, but if a second player was present, they would be able to shoot them down as the second player gets a greater firing range.

Graphically, the 32X version is noticeably worse than the arcade version, with less detailed ships and a worse frame-rate, but in no doubt would have been impressive to see on a console in 1994. Approaching the massive Death Star is a sight to behold, as is the scale of the super star destroyer, which you get to fly right through. The music isn't quite as good through -whilst the main Star Wars theme sounds good, the rest of the music is MIDI recreations of various pieces of Star Wars music, which don't sound that great.

Whether you like Star Wars or not, this game is worth checking out as it tends to sell for very little these days. You'd be best off playing it with a friend however due to the difficulty.

For single player games, you get to fly an X-Wing fighter. The X-Wing has four laser cannons and a compliment of proton torpedoes, which can lock onto enemies. You start with 6 torpedoes, but you can gain them back by waiting for a few seconds. Every enemy in the game takes 1 hit to destroy (aside from Darth Vader's fighter, which cannot be destroyed). Two player games let you use the Y-Wing, which has 1 extra shield over the X-Wing. Both ships have the option of slowing down or speeding up, which is useful for letting enemies get ahead of you or for flying through the Death Star trench run faster.

Arcade mode has you fight through several stages. The majority of these have you having to shoot down a certain number of enemy TIE fighters within a time limit, but there are also some stages which involve having to take down a specific target after a long run towards it -such as flying through a super star destroyer to reach the main engines, or the reactor core of the second Death Star. You can also choose between two different views, one view is behind your ship, the other is inside the cockpit. The cockpit view is better as you have access to the radar (which shows where enemy ships are) and also displays how many torpedoes you have.

Arcade mode has you fight through several stages. The majority of these have you having to shoot down a certain number of enemy TIE fighters within a time limit, but there are also some stages which involve having to take down a specific target after a long run towards it -such as flying through a super star destroyer to reach the main engines, or the reactor core of the second Death Star. You can also choose between two different views, one view is behind your ship, the other is inside the cockpit. The cockpit view is better as you have access to the radar (which shows where enemy ships are) and also displays how many torpedoes you have.

Whilst the original arcade missions are present, this version also has a new 32X mode which features many extra levels. A two player option is also available for either mode, with one player being able to fly and shoot, whilst the other gets a separate crosshair for shooting. A training mode lets players play a simplified version of the arcade mode.

The two player mode has one major flaw: you cannot change the controls. Meaning you are stuck with the second player's crosshair being inverted (hold down moves it up and vice-versa). We really hated that, but we did manage to one credit clear it -eventually.

Sound test mode
Pause the game and press up, right, left, A, down, C. You will be taken to a sound test screen. If you exit this mode, the game will restart.

Reset timer
Pause the game and press left, down, A, C, down, up.

Pause timer
Pause the game and press down, B, B, up, right, left.

-Note that all of these codes require a six button controller to work.

This game currently has 21 prototypes available for it. Some of the earlier ones feature plenty of differences. Read about them here.

-One of the game's intro sequences features some A-Wing fighters, which cannot actually be used in the game itself.

-The arcade version of the game seemed to have an extremely limited release, despite having a successful location test in America.

-The arcade version is even harder than the 32X version, as it doesn't give you shield refills after clearing certain stages.