As a franchise, Star Wars is constantly evolving. Regardless of how some people view the post-Disney wave of Star Wars content, there's no denying that the series has continued to try to push boundaries in certain aspects, whether it's in comic book, novel, TV show, or video game form. Over the last four decades or so, Star Wars video games have tried to evolve with the times, and although not all have managed it successfully, each one lays the foundation for the next.
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, the first Star Wars game ever released, turns 40 years old this year. Despite how rudimentary the graphics and gameplay are, without it, there wouldn't be the current catalog of over 100 Star Wars games. It may be incomparable to modern titles like Star Wars Battlefront 2 and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, but 1982's Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is certainly worth revisiting all these years later.
Bringing the Battle of Hoth to Life in 8-Bit
Releasing for the Atari 2600, and then for the Intellivision a year later, 1982's Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back boils one of the most iconic Star Wars set pieces down to a bite-sized 8-bit side-scroller. The player's objective is incredible simple, pilot a Snowspeeder to the left of the screen, and destroy as many AT-ATs as possible.
In the Atari 2600 version of the game, each AT-AT takes a whopping 48 shots to defeat, changing color with each hit to indicate how much damage it's taken. The more AT-ATs are destroyed, the higher the player's score is. As the game continues, more walkers will start to appear on the left side of the screen, increasing their pace and their firepower. If the player loses their five lives, or if the walkers reach Echo Base on the far right side of the screen, then it's game over for the Rebellion.
From both a gameplay and graphical perspective, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is extremely simple, obviously by modern standards, but also by the standards of the time. 1982 also saw the release of genre-defining classics like Donkey Kong Jr., Dig Dug, and Pitfall, amongst others. When compared to them, The Empire Strikes Back stands out for all the wrong reasons, but even so, there's a certain level of unmistakable charm that surrounds this game 40 years later.
While there are only two vehicle models in the entire game, and they're made up of a handful of pixels each, they are instantly recognizable to Star Wars fans. And although the background is comprised of just two colors, it's clear that the environment is meant to be the snow-covered plains of Hoth.
For Star Wars fans in 1982, The Empire Strikes Back for the Atari 2600 was one of the best, and only, interactive Star Wars experiences around. With recognizable Star Wars iconography, and an opening that plays John Williams' beautiful "Force" theme in all its 8-bit glory, The Empire Strikes Back is a fun, albeit simple, Star Wars adventure. And while other Star Wars games have managed to capture the Battle of Hoth in more accurate detail, The Empire Strikes Back provided some solid groundwork, and did just about as well as it could for an Atari 2600 game that released in 1982.
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is available for Atari 2600 and Intellivision.