1983 lightsaber battle video game
1983 video game
Star Wars: Jedi Arena
is a
lightsaber
battle video game written by Rex Bradford for the
Atari 2600
and published by
Parker Brothers
in 1983. It is the first
Star Wars
video game to feature lightsabers.
[2]
The goal of the game, based on one scene in the
original
Star Wars
film
, is to take out the opponent with the Seeker ball while defending oneself from incoming laser blasts using one's lightsaber.
Following the adequate sales of their first
Star Wars
game
,
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
, Parker Brothers went on to continue developing
Star Wars
titles, one of which is
Star Wars: Jedi Arena
, programmed by Rex Bradford. Although the game's reception was mixed at the time of release, with sound effects being praised and primarily the abstract combat being criticized, its legacy is largely negative, with several modern critics referring to the game as one of the worst
Star Wars
games
of all time.
Gameplay
[
edit
]
Gameplay, including a remote and two lightsabers
In
Star Wars: Jedi Arena
, two
Jedi Knights
, one blue and one red, who are depicted from a top-down perspective, face each other during
lightsaber
training. Player one is blue; the red Jedi is either a human- or computer-controlled opponent. Players control their lightsabers with the
paddle controller
to defend themselves from the laser blasts coming from the Seeker ball, fired by the opponent. The Seeker will regularly turn wild and fire laser blasts randomly. The objective of the game is to fire laser blasts from the Seeker at the opponent's shield and finally directly at the opponent by aiming in the direction that the lightsaber is pointing.
[3]
The game has four difficulty levels, changing the Seeker's speed; on the highest level, the Seeker is invisible. The game ends when one player has received three direct hits, and the winner becomes a Jedi Master.
[4]
Development and release
[
edit
]
Although
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
was not a huge success, it sold well enough to encourage
Parker Brothers
to develop more
Star Wars
titles.
[5]
In the December 11, 1982, issue of
Billboard
, it was reported that Parker Brothers was developing its second game cartridge.
[6]
Titled
Star Wars: Jedi Arena
, the game was set for release the following month.
[7]
During
Jedi Arena
'
s production, Parker Brothers relied upon an abstract approach to combat that took advantage of "the unique technologies and situations of the
Star Wars
universe".
[8]
The game was programmed by Rex Bradford
[9]
and inspired by one scene in
Star Wars
in which Luke Skywalker defends himself from the Seeker ball's incoming laser bolts with his lightsaber on board the
Millennium Falcon
.
[10]
The game was released for the
Atari 2600
as scheduled, in January 1983.
[6]
Reception
[
edit
]
Star Wars: Jedi Arena
received mixed reviews from critics in the 1980s. Adam Thompson of
Creative Computing Video & Arcade Games
likened the mechanism of damaging the opponent's shield to smashing bricks in
Breakout
and praised the game's glowing multi-colored laser blasts and the sound effects, the latter of which he felt added realism to the game.
[11]
According to Peter Brown of
GameSpot
, however, the main criticisms of the game were the stationary Jedi and abstract combat,
[6]
for the opposite of which action fans were expecting.
[3]
Benj Edwards, writing for
PCMag.com
, claimed that
Jedi Arena
"may secretly be the best Star Wars video game ever made."
[12]
Legacy
[
edit
]
The legacy of
Jedi Arena
among modern critics is extremely negative. Ian Dransfield of
Digital Spy
ranked it as one of the 5 worst
Star Wars
games ever, noting that the game has not aged well.
[13]
Lewis Packwood of
Kotaku
ranked the game second-to-worst, believing that the game should not have been based on one particular scene in
Star Wars
involving Luke Skywalker defending himself from a "floaty beach ball".
[14]
In the book
Classic Home Video Games, 1972?1984: A Complete Reference Guide
, Brett Weiss criticized the game's controls, its overall "misguided" concept (given that the Jedi never actually engage in a duel), and the gameplay for "[relying] too much on luck".
[10]
Several other sources described
Jedi Arena
to be either lamentable
[15]
[16]
or one of the worst
Star Wars
games.
[17]
[18]
Matt Dorville of
Blastr
ranked the game No. 31 on the website's list of 50
Star Wars
games ranked from worst to best, admitting that
Jedi Arena
was not bad at the time of release and that the game did offer an entertaining gameplay.
[19]
In the book
Guinness World Records 2017 Gamer’s Edition
,
Jedi Arena
is credited for being the first
Star Wars
video game to feature lightsaber action.
[2]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Montfort, Nick
;
Bogost, Ian
(2009).
Racing the Beam
.
MIT Press
. p. 166.
ISBN
978-0-262-01257-7
.
- ^
a
b
Guinness World Records 2017 Gamer's Edition
.
Macmillan Publishers
. October 17, 2016. p. 116.
ISBN
9780606392938
. Retrieved
December 1,
2016
– via
Google Books
.
- ^
a
b
"
Star Wars
Retrospective ? Episode 1"
.
GameTrailers
.
IGN
. May 17, 2016.
Archived
from the original on December 20, 2021
. Retrieved
October 20,
2016
– via
YouTube
.
- ^
Star Wars: Jedi Arena manual
.
Parker Brothers
. 1983
. Retrieved
October 18,
2016
– via atariage.com.
- ^
Clark, Mark (August 1, 2015).
Star Wars FAQ: Everything Left to Know About the Trilogy That Changed the Movies
.
Applause Theatre & Cinema Books
.
ISBN
9781480360181
. Retrieved
October 23,
2016
– via
Google Books
.
- ^
a
b
c
Brown, Peter (May 31, 2014).
"The History of
Star Wars
Video Games Part 1: 1982?1998"
.
GameSpot
.
CBS Interactive
. Archived from
the original
on November 3, 2016
. Retrieved
October 16,
2016
.
- ^
"
Billboard
Vol. 94 No. 49"
.
Billboard
.
Prometheus Global Media
. December 11, 1982. p. 8
. Retrieved
October 17,
2016
– via
Google Books
.
- ^
Wolf, Mark J.P. (June 15, 2012).
Before the Crash: Early Video Game History
.
Wayne State University
. p. 96.
ISBN
9780814337226
. Retrieved
October 22,
2016
– via
Google Books
.
- ^
Montfort, Nick; Bogost, Ian (January 9, 2009).
Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System
.
The MIT Press
. p. 166.
ISBN
9780262254939
. Retrieved
October 22,
2016
– via
Google Books
.
- ^
a
b
Weiss, Brett (March 7, 2012).
Classic Home Video Games, 1972?1984: A Complete Reference Guide
.
McFarland & Company
. pp. 113?114.
ISBN
9780786432264
. Retrieved
October 22,
2016
– via
Google Books
.
- ^
Thompson, Adam (Fall 1983).
"
Creative Computing Video & Arcade Games
Vol. 1, No. 2"
.
atarimagazines.com
. p. 42. Archived from
the original
on November 3, 2016
. Retrieved
October 18,
2016
.
- ^
"7 Forgotten Atari 2600 Classics"
.
PCMAG
. Retrieved
March 4,
2021
.
- ^
Dransfield, Ian (November 16, 2015).
"5 terrible
Star Wars
games from the Dark Side of the Force"
.
Digital Spy
.
Hearst Magazines UK
. Archived from
the original
on November 3, 2016
. Retrieved
October 16,
2016
.
- ^
Packwood, Lewis (May 4, 2016).
"Every
Star Wars
Game Ever, From Worst to Best"
.
Kotaku
.
Gawker Media
. Retrieved
October 16,
2016
.
- ^
Parish, Jeremy; Nelson, Mike (May 25, 2007).
"Retro Roundup:
Star Wars
"
.
1UP.com
.
IGN
. p. 1. Archived from
the original
on November 11, 2016
. Retrieved
October 17,
2016
.
- ^
"The Making of... Star Wars".
Retro Gamer
(52).
Imagine Publishing
: 26. July 2008.
- ^
Gwaltney, Javy (December 19, 2015).
"A Disturbance In The Force: The 10 Worst
Star Wars
Games"
.
Game Informer
.
GameStop
. p. 2. Archived from
the original
on November 3, 2016
. Retrieved
October 16,
2016
.
- ^
"
Star Wars
game retrospective"
.
IGN
.
Ziff Davis
. May 16, 2008. p. 1. Archived from
the original
on November 3, 2016
. Retrieved
October 17,
2016
.
- ^
Dorville, Matt (October 25, 2015).
"50 Star Wars video games ranked from worst to best"
.
Blastr
.
NBCUniversal Cable
. Archived from
the original
on November 3, 2016
. Retrieved
October 16,
2016
.
External links
[
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Action
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Action-adventure
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The Clone Wars
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