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The Power of the 90s – The Blockade Runner Plays Super Star Wars (SNES, 1992)

Power of the 90s Super Star Wars Cover Art

The Super Star Wars games were super popular upon their release and they played a significant role in bringing a new generation of kids into Star Wars at the time, so I’m thrilled to be playing them for our Power of the 90s series. The games are known for their sometimes brutal difficulty, and that’s certainly part of what I remember about them, but after revisiting Super Star Wars with my copy of Volume 42 of Nintendo Power by my side and exploiting a secret free life-farming area, I had a surprisingly smooth experience playing through the game. And it’s absolutely worth tracking down Super Star Wars (even if you don’t have nostalgic memories of playing as a kid) for it’s bright, colorful visual interpretation of the Star Wars universe, it’s 16-bit renditions of classic Star Wars themes, and its giant green womp rats! Check out the videos below to watch my recent playthrough of the game with Star Wars in the 90s-focused commentary.

The Blockade Runner Plays Super Star Wars – Part One:

The Blockade Runner Plays Super Star Wars – Part Two:

The Blockade Runner Plays Super Star Wars – Part Three:

The Story of A New Hope As Told By Super Star Wars SNES (1992):

It occurred to me while recording my playthrough of Super Star Wars that the story screens are so impressive that they would be fun to break out and cut together as their own video. It actually reminds me of reading a children’s picture book version of A New Hope, only with excellent 16-bit visuals and sound!

Nintendo Power:

 

Super Star Wars TV Commercial:  

In case you were wondering if you want this game or not (you do), check out this sweet television ad from the time of the game’s release!

We’ll be back later this month with our Power of the 90s episode cover all things Star Wars in 1993, and we’ll definitely be posting our playthrough for Super The Empire Strikes Back too! Whether or not we can beat the game remains to be seen…


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The Power of the 90s – The Blockade Runner Plays The Empire Strikes Back (NES, 1992)

Power of the 90s NES Empire Cover ArtThe Empire Strikes Back on the NES is first up for our Blockade Runner Plays videos for covering 1992 for The Power of the 90s. Our play through covers the first 30 minutes or so and features some ice cold 8-bit gameplay in Hoth’s icy caves, battlefields, and bases.

These pages from the March, 1992 issue of Nintendo Power provided some helpful tips to players getting their hands on Empire when it originally released, but I found them pretty helpful all these years later too. Empire didn’t get the Nintendo Power cover for this issue, but Darth Vader does grace the cover of the November, 1992 magazine (more on that in our next Blockade Runner Plays).

Click the image below for a gallery featuring the Nintendo Power images (or open them individually at full size from there if you’d like a closer look).

I’m also including a pic of the NES cart from Moby Games, but follow the link to their site for more developer and publisher info as well as screen shots, box art, and more.

155108-star-wars-the-empire-strikes-back-nes-media.pngUnfortunately I don’t have the manual on hand to scan, though I did find an advertisement for the Game Boy game (which Ryan grabbed a copy of recently). This version looks like it was published by Capcom in the U.S. and Ubisoft in Europe, but it was also developed by Sculptured Software and is presumably very similar to its NES counterpart.

empirestrikesback_1992NES Empire is definitely worth a look or play if you get the chance, and I definitely enjoyed my time with it, but as far as I’m concerned the Star Wars games main event would follow later in 1992. Stay tuned to our Power of the 90s coverage for 1992 as we’ll be diving into Super Star Wars next!


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Star Wars: The Power of the 90s – 1992 – The Blockade Runner Podcast, August 21st, 2017

Power of the 90s 2 Cover ArtJoin Ryan and John as they discuss all things Star Wars from 1992. We cover the Star Wars books, comics, games, toys, and home video releases from 1992 in this episode, including Dark Empire Rising, The Glove of Darth Vader, The Empire Strikes Back on NES, Super Star Wars on SNES, the letterbox release of the original trilogy, and much, much more! Find more Blockade Runner Power of the 90s coverage by subscribing to our YouTube page or our podcast on iTunes or your favorite podcast app.

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Collectibles from the Outer Rim: Star Wars VHS Releases!

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Blockade Runner Plays – Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader (Part 1)

Check out the latest Blockade Runner Plays video to see Ryan play through the first level of the still incredible Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader for the Nintendo GameCube. Rogue Leader continues to be mind-blowing all these years later; it’s an incredible technical achievement and few Star Wars games are as immersive and authentic feeling as this one.

Follow Ryan on Twitter (@brawndwarf) for more game streams and games commentary and look forward to more Blockade Runner Plays videos from him soon too!