I had never realized that it is scientifically impossible for the same person to play both offense and defense at the exact same time until playing Star Wars: Jedi Arena. This is why this game fails – it tries to defy reason in the name of originality.

PRESS FIRE TO START

This game is only loosely inspired by the original Star Wars film and could have easily been released as an ordinary game. If you remember the scene in which Luke trains with the floating “seeker” orb which randomly flies around and shoots at him – this is the premise of the game. Except instead of playing as Luke you play as one of two unnamed Jedis who must protect himself from the seeker while using it to shoot at his opponent on the opposite end of the screen.

The game uses the paddle controllers which move a lightsaber in front of you in a 180-degree arc. You are also protected by several barriers which the seeker’s blasts will chip away at. To attack your opponent, aim your lightsaber in the direction in which you’d like the seeker to fire relative to its position (and since it’s constantly moving you’ll have to be quick to line up your shot). Whoever wears down his opponent’s defenses and hits him with a seeker shot wins the round. The first to win three rounds wins the game.

The game is for one or two players and has four different skill levels to choose from. The difficulty switch is also available for determining how many layers of defense you want.

PLAYER 1 – READY!

I was actually looking forward to seeing how a game with such a simple concept would play out. After all, almost the entire Atari 2600 library is based on the idea that if a game is easy to learn but difficult to master it will be fun to play. At first, Jedi Arena seemed to fall into my favorite genre of action-oriented games that mix dexterity with quick thinking. Unfortunately, this was not the case.

What makes Jedi Arena an unplayable game is that there is absolutely no skill needed to play. It is based on the illogical concept of playing offense and defense at the exact same time, so it’s essentially a game of complete and total chance.

Since the seeker flies around the screen randomly and fires randomly as well, it is extremely difficult to defend against an attack while simultaneously aiming shots against your opponent. You have to decide whether you want to play offense or defense, because you cannot play both, even at the slowest and easiest skill level.

I opted to play strictly offense and more often than not the shots from the seeker would not even reach the opponent’s defenses, and when they did they were often blocked. At the higher speeds it is impossible to aim your shots at all, so the game becomes a mindless button-masher. All you can do is hit the button as fast as you can while hoping the seeker will hit the other player more than it hits you.

JOYSTICKING

The biggest flaw to Jedi Arena is not its play control, but the actual gameplay itself. In fact, the controls here are actually quite responsive. As is usually the case of games that utilize that paddle controllers instead of the joystick, the movement is very fluid.

I did have a lot of trouble trying to finesse the seeker’s shots with the direction of my lightsaber, though. It fires as soon as you press the button, but because it moves so quickly, there’s no feeling of synergy. Eventually I gave up on precision salvos and opted for random button-mashing.

SPRITES & PIXELS

Although released in the “post-crash” era of the Atari 2600, Jedi Arena has some of the most basic and unrefined graphics I have seen on a cart for the VCS. Since the premise is so basic there really isn’t much need for detailed graphics, in fact, the majority of the screen is simply huge fields of color: red, blue and black.

The only notable aspect is the seeker’s shots, which move out quickly and in a zig-zag pattern and mimic a lightning bolt quite accurately.

CHIPPED TUNES

Jedi Arena does have one impressive feature, which is its aural component. When you first start it the Star Wars theme plays and it’s amazing how clear the sound is as well as how true it is to the movie theme.

I also was impressed by the sounds of the seeker’s shots, which sound exactly like the standard electrocution or shock effects you might hear in a movie. While the background sounds are fairly dull, they eventually build up to one of the most impressive crescendos I have ever heard in an Atari 2600 game. It’s just pure electric energy and it’s almost scary. If the game designers had put as much time into the gameplay as they did the sound, this game would be amazing.

INSERT COIN TO CONTINUE

Whenever I review a game like this that is meant to be played by two people instead of one person against the computer, I like to make mention of it. The computer’s AI is unchallenging to say the least, but I think it would be only slightly more fun to play in two-player mode. However, Jedi Arena isn’t dependant upon strategy to play, rather, total randomness. There’s no fun in playing it once, so the replay value is non-existent.

GAME OVER

Jedi Arena could have been at least playable had it not been based on the illogical premise of playing offense and defense simultaneously. Having one player play as the Jedi and the other play as the seeker and then taking turns would have improved the gameplay dramatically. As it is, it’s a pointless, boring game that has nothing to do with Star Wars and is clearly an example of a company attempting to cash in on a popular franchise.

SEE ALSO:
Star Wars: Death Star Battle (3)
Star Wars: The Arcade Game (3)
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (2)

Recommended: No