Play Star Wars (Beta) Online

Jump between wobbly platforms as Luke, then suddenly you're barrel-rolling through the Death Star trench—controls are stiff but blasting Stormtroopers with that tiny pixel blaster never gets old. Vader looks like he's built from mismatched LEGO bricks.

File size: 256 bytes

Game Overview

Star Wars for the NES was a 1991 release from JVC and developed by Beam Software, arriving late in the console's life. It was one of many attempts to translate the film's spectacle into the limited, but familiar, 8-bit format.

You control Luke Skywalker through a series of side-scrolling and first-person stages that loosely follow the film's plot. The main goal is to rescue Princess Leia and destroy the Death Star. You jump across platforms in the detention block, blast Stormtroopers with a limited blaster, and pilot an X-wing in a challenging first-person trench run. The controls are stiff, the platforming is unforgiving, and the difficulty spikes sharply. It feels like a constant, clumsy struggle against the hardware itself.