Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (Game Boy)

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Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is a 2-D sidescroller game for the Game Boy. The levels can be confusing and maze-like and present a challenge, especially since there is no save function. It was released in 1992 by Ubisoft.

[edit] Details

The first level has you in control of Luke Skywalker and you're on Hoth, atop a TaunTaun. Here, Luke is armed only with his blaster pistol, but as players bravely delve deeply in to the caverns of Hoth, they will find Luke's Lightsaber which is, although used at close-range, deals much more damage than the blaster pistol, although it is not dependable against flying enemies for example, Probe droids. The second level is famous for its aerial action as Luke gets inside a snowspeeder and fights against the Imperial Walkers. In this level, the player must defeat all of the walkers in order to complete it. The speeder is armed with blaster cannons and harpoon towcables (which unlike the cannon, has a limited number of shots). If the speeder's health bar decreases completely, the player crash-lands and must fight stormtroopers on foot and keep heading on until they find another snowspedder. However, an alternative (and easier) option could be used in order to destroy all the walkers - if the player has acquired the Lightsaber during level one, they will beable to take out the walkers using it (a small sequence shows Luke running up to a walker, then using his harpoon gun to get up to its belly then cutting it with his Lightsaber). The next level is based in the Rebel Base on hoth, although in the film, Luke does not return there after the battle. Here, Luke will beable to use unmanned AT-STs in order to get past certain obstacles and take out groups of enemies. The downside to this machine is that it can't jump as high as Luke himself, but can cross pits of spikes. In this level, Luke will even receive the famous message from Ben Kenobi, informing him to go to Dagobah to meet Yoda. After the players completes this level, they'll appear in Dagobah. Here, there are unfriendly swamp monsters and other obstacles preventing you from reaching Master Yoda. The levels get harder from there, but also get more interesting and get players straight into the film itself.

[edit] Trivia

The Empire Strikes Back Game Boy seems to be a large inspiration for the newer Ubisoft published Star Wars game, Star Wars Trilogy: Apprentice of The Force.

One of the game's glitches is in the first level: if the player runs away from the wampa boss, the game will stop playing the boss music and instead play normal music, even when the wampa follows the player (which it sometimes does).