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TRB Awards
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Star Wars Droids
Produced by:Mastertronic
Year of initial release:1988 Price:£2.99 c |
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Based on the cartoon of the same name, this was more ammunition for the argument that licenses bought for budget games often turn into crap games.
The introductionary scenario sounds reasonably interesting (get R2D2 and C3P0 out of the Fromm gang's lair), but anything related to Star Wars can be made to sound interesting. However looking at the loading screen, you begin to think this wasn't the AAA-quality game that it was supposed to be. Here are the Good Things About Star Wars Droids: the onscreen representation of R2D2 is excellent, except that he's now yellow. R2's animation: - the little there is of it - is also excellent. C3P0 is also yellow, which is the correct colour. Full points there, Binary Design (the developers of the game). Unfortunately, these Good Points didn't make the game worth the original £2.99 purchase price, nor is it worth spending time downloading from WoS.
The Bad Things About Star Wars Droids. C3P0's animation is rubbish. C3P0, in the films, walks somewhat camply but not like he's shat himself as this version does. C3P0 has also been portrayed as a camp scaredy-cat. Out of the two droids, R2D2 is the 'aggressive', butch one. In the game, C3P0 throws crystals which destroy the 'enemy' droids. I suppose it is a bit camp, throwing crystals. Or at least the theory behind it is. Moving swiftly on.... The 'enemy' droids deserve of a mention. These are the most laughable representations of enemy droids possible, even for an 8bit computer game. By using the word marauding - as the instructions do - and that you're trying to escape from an enemy gang, it implies an aura of menace and hostility. These droids don't do either. One of them is a round, yellow, smiley face. HOW CAN YOU CLASS THAT AS BEING REMOTELY MENACING OR HOSTILE, BINARY DESIGN????
So, onto the game. This is as exciting as the enemy droids are marauding. Move C3P0 (with R2D2 automatically following) through the levels. Throw diamond-shaped crystals at unconvincing droids. Move up and down similar levels. Play the subgame. Remember: Star Wars is set in a sci-fi space opera environment. For the subgame, you'd expect something along the lines of R2D2 trying to hack his way into the mainframe (perhaps represented by a painter or a maze game where you're trying to locate the codes, etc). Oh no, not in Star Wars: Droids. You get Simon (a repeat-the-pattern style game) - in the form of lightbulbs. oh please. And the subgame is rubbish - you only have to follow the sequence four times. Where's the skill in that? Please don't play this crap. |