Why Super Empire Strikes Back is the one for you and Han Solo

Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1993)

Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1993)

I remember it well: I was an ignorant young child of about six or seven years old, doing pretty well on Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back for Super Nintendo, until hitting a wall in the Battle of Hoth level. Or more likely, hitting the legs of the Imperial Walkers. There I was, shooting a million laser blasts into those things, but getting absolutely nowhere.

It really could have been a million laser blasts I fired as well. Only a child could have that level of patience and determination. But down my Snowspeeder went, again and again. Thoroughly defeated, I asked that font of gaming knowledge, my older brother, for some help. And he told me that I had to use the tow cable to bring those big daddies down, just like in the movie. To which I replied in the utmost shock: “There’s a movie?!?”

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My world was turned upside down, and I was introduced to the Star Wars Special Edition VHS tapes later that night. Proper diehard Star Wars fans will scoff at the Special Editions of course, but I was enthralled.

I think every fan remembers their first exposure to the Star Wars saga. It seems to be almost a rite of passage for parents to show these films to their young kids. And little wonder, when there’s entries in the series as good as Empire Strikes Back.

Talk about a series hitting its stride – this is where the Imperial March was heard for the first time. It’s where Luke met Yoda, and started becoming versed in the ways of the Force, including my all-time favourite Star Wars scene of Yoda lifting the X-Wing out of the swamp. And of course, it’s got Darth Vader at his absolute best, delivering probably the most famous twist in cinematic history.

But the one who really steals the show in ESB has to be Harrison Ford as Han Solo. Yes, the central plot of the movie is Luke’s journey to become a Jedi knight, and he gets the most screen-time. But really, whenever I rewatch this film I do it for Harrison Ford, because the man just throws out ten-out-of-ten, every single scene he’s in.

One of the classic sequences is when Han Solo leads the daring escape from Hoth, piloting the Millennium Falcon through a highly dangerous asteroid field. He flies a lot better than I did on the video game, I can tell you that. But then, most mere mortals would have written the Falcon off in seconds.

Even when that lovable astrogeek C-3P0 comes into the cockpit to admonish Han’s daring, throwing out some nonsense calculation about their odds of survival, Han dismisses the droid with an excellent putdown: “Shut him up or shut him down!” It could only have been delivered by Harrison Ford.

This is all happening against some of John Williams’ very finest musical work as well. And if the asteroid field sequence somehow doesn’t amaze you, then there’s Han’s inimitable “I know” response to Leia’s proclamation of her love. This was Ford’s own suggestion as well, delivered shortly before he gets frozen and sold into bounty.

So, not only does he play it cooler than carbonite, and not only has that one improvised line tempted millions of men into doing the same thing to their girlfriends. But this was also Ford’s subtle way of being non-committal to the next film. That’s right, the man has so much swagger that he could even take something as massive as Star Wars in his stride.

That’s what the top dogs do, you know. You’ll never be able to properly tie them down. And if you thought he looked great delivering the usual George Lucas hammy dialogue, then let’s not forget that he’s a master of the non-verbal stuff as well. Has anything in cinema ever been more expressive than a Harrison Ford stern-look-with-pointed-finger combo?

Also, it’s been 45 years but I still want Han’s blue coat that he wears in this movie. The actual coat went up for auction at a million quid a couple of years back, which I’m not saying is out of my price range by any means, but they could have at least told me that the auction was on, you know?

Nevertheless I did pick up a blue number just like one the main man wore, meaning that as long as I carry a Blaster with me at all times then I’ll always be able to live out my Hantasy. My one is faux-suede, which probably means it’ll fall apart after one bit of bad weather. I wonder if it’s snowproof…?

I suppose you can already tell that I’m a big Han fan, meaning that any chance I got to play as him on my Super Nintendo, I gleefully took with both arms. Of course, Luke is still the main protagonist, so in Super Empire Strikes Back you’ll be playing as him a lot more often, with the odd pinch of Chewbacca here and there.

The first and foremost thing to recognise about this game is that it is considered one of the most difficult games the entire console has to offer, and that is saying something considering the competition.

Personally I never found ESB to be impossible, merely pretty damn hard - but beatable. I suppose when you grow up with a game, and play it from a young age, you have a lot more patience with it. Thankfully this game brings a password system, so you won’t lose all your progress when you run out of lives. That means you can keep battling through to the end.

And that really is the common theme with the three Super Star Wars games, it must be said - almost every yard of progress, every millimeter even, is a battle. Enemies and projectiles are everywhere, and you’ll take many hits. You’ve also got more than one blind jump to contend with, and enemy bosses that take so many whacks you’ll wonder if you’re using a plastic lightsaber.

The game also uses the Super Nintendo’s Mode 7 capability to recreate famous battle sequences and put you in the cockpit of intergalactic star fighters. In ESB, this includes the rendition of the Battle of Hoth that stumped me all those years ago.

Playing out a battle like this on your old Super Nintendo is crazy. Of course, the graphics and particularly the framerate aren’t great. But these sequences tick all the right boxes – you’ll be taking down AT-STs and AT-ATs, and yes, you’ll be using the tow cable once you know it’s there.

This game touches nearly all of the classic scenes of the movie, and you’ll visit all the same planets. There’s probably one or two snow levels too many at the beginning, and it doesn’t help that some of those opening levels are exceedingly difficult. Things actually get a fair bit easier once you leave snowy Hoth and get to the swamps of Dagobah. Then it’s on to the sunset luxury of Cloud City before that final showdown with Vader in the Carbonite freezing chamber.

The music is terrifically rendered as well, although I wish there could have been a bit more of it. It’s funny, but also a bit hokey when the very first level has the Imperial March blaring – we’re only having a little walk up the snowy mountains to check out an asteroid, you know. But the bombastic Asteroid Field tune from the movie is in the game, doubling as the title screen music, and it actually sounds the business.

In terms of improvements from the first Super Star Wars, the lightsaber looks a lot better, there are more levels, I actually find the difficulty to be more manageable, and the controls are slightly better. And of course, there’s the password function I mentioned, meaning you won’t have to beat the whole game in one teeth-gnashing session.

That’s Super Empire Strikes Back then, with great gameplay, graphics and sounds, very faithful to the movie. In my mind, that makes it one of the strongest licensed games to this day. You might complain about the difficulty, as many others often do. But I’d say you need to stop whining. You wouldn’t catch Harrison Ford letting himself down like that, would you?

21 March 2025