Today is as good a day as any to look at the actual game.
Which has Darth Vader turning into a shark.
In case you couldn’t tell by the fact the manual contained enemies like a giant scorpion and a pterodactyl, Namco’s 1987 interpretation of Star Wars isn’t exactly canon.
As posted over on VGJunk earlier today, the game is a loose collection of Star Wars set pieces, bizarre crossovers and levels and locations that were clearly cannibalised from other games.
Unless we somehow missed the part where there are ancient Egyptians buried underneath Kessel. Maybe it’s in George Lucas’ next re-release!
Aside from the fact there are Egyptian, underwater and floating-platforms-in-the-mountains levels, the game’s big bizarre twist on the source material is that, like in Mario, you fight Vader at the end of most levels. Though, you don’t really fight Vader. You fight Darth Vader who turns into a giant scorpion, and you end up fighting the scorpion. Same deal with a skeleton pterodactyl. And a giant shark.
To see the absurdity for yourself, check out the gallery above.
STAR WARS (JAPAN) (NES) [VGJunk]
shodannet
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 4:22 PMMuhahaha! I actually remember playing this whilst I was in Japan! At the time I knew little Japanese so I had no idea what was being said (I just song along with the tune and discovered many ways to die). I remember when you die, you see darth vader and hear his breathing
reyanimator
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 4:32 PMI saw this on the gametrailers retrospective of star wars, it looks like a rom hack of alex kid in miracle world….I know I wouldve played this to death and then some if I had access to it back in the day, as I did with miracle world.
Neo-Kaiser
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 4:52 PMI think the Angry Videogame Nerd looked into this game.
Aidan
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 4:57 PMwat.
Sheamus
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 5:48 PMChewy still doesn’t get a medal at the end, but neither do Luke an Han, so I think that change is fair.
Chris
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 6:24 PMDoesn’t everyone remember that bit when Darth Vader turned into a scorpion?
Mr Waffle
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 6:41 PMPretty sure it’s in the blu ray edition.
Lazarus
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 7:04 PMhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWaLxFIVX1s
Jarrod
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 6:33 PMFunny you should mention this game, I was playing this last night (for the first time) and wow this game was horrible but so hilarious at the same time. Darth Vaders breathing when you die sounded so creapy.
Shane
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 7:58 AMLove the scared look on Luke’s face when Chewy embraces him the way Leia did…
BTW this game was released after ROTJ, and yet still contains an incestuous kiss!