Star Wars: The Interactive Video Board Game
from Parker Brothers

OVERVIEW
Upon first glance at the contents of the game box, and a quick perusal of the games instructions, I began to wish I hadn't agreed to do this review. It looks complicated. So I walked away from the game, went into a Jedi trance, then came back fresh and ready to tackle the seemingly ominous task at hand. I read the instructions, looked at all the pieces that made up the Death Star game board and, noticing that the tape had "Darth Vader Footage You've Never Seen Before," I did what any other person would do. I said to heck with the game and popped the tape in the VCR. (read: I cheated)

NOTE: This tape is intended to be viewed WHILE PLAYING the game; it's not going to make sense to you if you do like I did and watch it by itself.

     I sat through the opening scroll, as we've all come to expect from any SW film, and through the miracle of modern editing technologies, was transported back to the Death Star in orbit around Endor just as a Lambda class shuttle disembarks from an Imperial Star Destroyer. Without giving away too much of the tape's details, I'll let you know that it's Vader on that shuttle, and he's got plans to take the Death Star out of orbit to attack Drinba IV, a planet that hides a Rebel supply base. (Oddly enough, at the "time" in the SW chronology this must take place, the Death Star's weapons systems wouldn't have been active - see: beginning of ROTJ. OK, so that means continuity must be tossed aside to play the game. While that doesn't ruin the game, it is a psychological obstacle that annoys.)

     The man in the suit, David Prowse, reprises his role as the Dark Lord of the Sith, along with James Earl Jones as Vader's voice (With all due respect to the outstanding job Brock Peters did on the radio Dramas as Vader, NO ONE other than Jones is Vader in my book. However, it seems that in the interim years, Jones forgot HOW to play Darth Vader. Someone on the project needed to remind him that Vader is angry and forceful. Here, he's... believe it or not... mostly soft-spoken. At first you wonder if it's not someone impersonating Jones playing Vader. The kinder, gentler Vader is another psychological sore spot.)

     In an effort to continue the "authentic" look and feel, the project utilized the film's original costumes and props and Dick George Productions was called in to handle set design. Hasbro even went to such lengths as to enlist the services of Gil Taylor, who was the cinematographer on SW: ANH. While Taylor admits the shoot was a demanding and hectic one, he loved returning to a Star Wars set after nearly 20 years. This aspect of the game, despite Jones' soft Vader (with occassional glimpses of the voice we loved to hate) does a nice job of getting the players into the Star Wars frame of mind.

    After some minor assembly, and a lot of instructions, you are ready to stop Vader from blowing up the Rebel base. Before gameplay can begin, each player is issued several items:

• 1 Rebel figure and R2 droid (color coded; choose from Red, Green, Blue, Purple, Yellow or Orange)
• 1 Force Level Indicator (to record Dark Side points)
• 6 matching colored explosives
• 1 Rebel mission card ( which dictates the order in which you place your explosives)

What all the hip Rebel spies are wearing...

MISSION SPECIFICS
Each player is given a unique mission card. You (and each of your "opponents") play a Rebel spy that has infiltrated the Death Star. (Oddly, your "Rebel spy figure" looks remarkably like Luke in his full Jedi cloak - this makes a major comment about the tailors in the Rebel Alliance.) You race against the others to see who, if any, can blow up the Death Star's main systems first, before time runs out and it destroys the Rebel planet. To complete your mission you must plant all six of your explosives around the DS in the EXACT ORDER they are set out on your mission card. Your opponents do the same, but the order, and locations, of their explosives is different.

The game board is a 3-dimensional mock up of the DS and is divided into three main sections (see drawing, left):

1. The Outer Level
2. The Inner Level
3. The Reactor Core.

     Your first three explosive must be placed in sectioned rooms in the Outer level. Explosives four and five in the rooms on the Inner Level, and the final charge must be placed on the Reactor Core access panel. The player who manages to first successfully plant all 6 explosives and thereby stop the tape is the winner. Simple enough, right?......c'mon it can't be that easy.

     There are several obstacles to completing your mission, including an ever-searching Stormtrooper, Vader himself, time and the luck of the draw.

PLAYING THE GAME
After Vader arrives on the Death Star and a few orders are given, Vader suddenly "senses" the presence of all the players through the Force. A screen called the Death Star Progress screen is then displayed; as soon as this screen appears you roll the die and begin play, then pass the die to the next player. It is NOT necessary for a player to be finished making their piece move, for the next player to take their turn. As a matter of fact to speed up game play it is recommended that you roll and pass as quickly as possible since it is a race against the clock.

     Upon beginning the game your figures will be placed in two separate locations. The Rebel figure starts from the Docking Bay, while the R2 unit is in the droid repair center. To activate your droid you must enter the droid center on a roll. The direction of play for the figures is counterclockwise.

     The die has a standard six sides, but the side which would normally have a single dot representing a ONE, has been replaced with a stormtrooper icon. When this side comes up (and it will often) the Stormtrooper advances three spaces. If a Stormtrooper lands on a space occupied by a Rebel the Rebel is sent to the Detention center. If the Stormtrooper lands on a space where a droid is plugged into a Data terminal, the droid becomes uplugged (more on droids and Data terminals follows). If You land on a space occupied by another Rebel, you may take one Data card from that player. It is not defined in the rules, but when I played the game (with my wife) we decided it was an option to take a card and not required.

     NOTE: the game really needs to be played by at least three people, to keep the game paced correctly, and to allow for more of the game to be played. I played with myself and my wife, and besides the fact we kept pausing the tape, and entered the Inner Level before Vader allowed us entry, the game became more or less too rapid (not to mention the fact I spent most of the time in the Detention Block) By the way: it IS cheating to stop the tape, just so you know.

DATA CARDS
Data cards are separated into three main categories: Detention Block Escape Cards, Memory Bank Cards, and Color Key Code Cards. TheDetention Block Escape cards are self -explanatory, if you've ever played Monopoly (probably SW Monopoly), its a " get out of jail free card", usable once , it must be returned to the bottom of the deck after it has been played.

Memory Bank Cards are cards with stills from the movies and two sets of instructions on them, one for use while roaming on the Outer Level, and one for while your on the Inner Level. These cards are for use at specific times during the game and also have icons printed on them. At any time during the game an Icon can flash across the screen, If you have a Memory Bank Card with that particular symbol on it, you may play that card at that time, then return it to the bottom of the deck.

Color Key Code Cards are collected to gain access to the Inner level and the Reactor Core. Two colored code cards are on the bottom of the mission card given to you at the beginning of the game. You MUST hold both of these colored Code cards in order to gain access to the Reactor Core, or else you continue to collect Data cards until you have the needed cards.

FORCE CARDS
These cards are split into two halves, representing the light and dark sides of the Force. Read and play the side pertaining to the light side powers unless you have become Vader's PUPIL . This is the tricky part of the game - whereby one player is seduced by the Dark Side of the Force and then does Darth's bidding, turning on the other players and hunting them down.

     Your journey towards the dark side occurs when you pick cards that "award" you Dark Side points (or the on-screen Vader gives them himself) which you mark on your Dark Side point indicator. At a crucial point in the Game, Vader will call upon the person with the most Dark Side points and that player will become the Pupil ( you are told to get up and talk back to Vader as if you were actually being controlled by him. This may be a major point of geekness (or alchol assumption for the older players) to comply. I wouldn't do it, but you may want to ). At that point your objectives change, you forget you are here to stop the destruction of D'rinba IV and your only mission is to stop the Rebels. You are granted an all access backstage pass by the Dark Lord to complete your new mission. If there is a tie for the highest Dark Side points, Vader has an interesting Tie-breaker, but to find out what that is you gotta play the game.

LAYOUT OF THE DEATH STAR
The Outer Level is comprised of several rooms and conduits - too many to go into here, but several of which are so important you need to know about.

Droid Repair Center
Here you "activate" your droid just by entering this room. If at any time your droid is de-activated you DO NOT need to return there to re-activate him, just roll the die and move your droid.

Data Terminals
If your droid lands on one of these spots he/she/it can plug into the DS' main computer which will enable you to collect Data Cards. You don't need an exact number roll for your droid to enter the Data terminal. (If you need five spaces to reach a Data terminal and you roll a SIX you can just enter the terminal) Only one droid per terminal please.

Data Spaces
Draw one Data card if you land on this space, but only if you have your artoo unit plugged in.

Force spaces
Draw one force card when you land on this space.

Control Centers
These are the rooms where your first three explosives must be placed.

Garbage Conduits These allow you swift transport to other parts of the board during a turn. A move into and out of a garbage conduit counts as ONE space.

HINTS & OTHER THINGS TO HELP YOU OUT
This review is by no means meant to give you a COMPLETE description of how to play the game, and part of the game is actually running into problems and dealing with parts of the game that are INTENTIONALLY confusing. While I won't go into any further detail about the game, I will remind you of some things to look out for (or listen for ) as the game is played.

A intermittent beeping that lasts about 4 seconds - This is a Rebel alert, usually it means there has been a break out on the Detention level, but can also mean other things. Watch the screen for things that pop up while you play. This is the interactive stuff.

The Rebel who is "using the Force" - Vader will, at times, call upon the Rebel who is using the Force, which means the person who last touched the die. Good reason to keep the turns moving quickly, this aspect gives the game a tension and "hot potato" feel.

The Death Star Progress Screen - This is your countdown timer. The closer this gets to 00.00 the less time you have left to complete the mission, so move quickly.

Found Explosives - If at any time one of your explosives is found (by the wandering stormtrooper), you MUST return to that room to replace it before you can continue.

Do Not stop the tape - It's just plain cheating.  If you need to read the instructions several times before playing to get it right do so, but let the tape run. If this were real, Vader wouldn't "take five" so you could have a smoke or pee break in the middle of his attack. So go potty before you play.

HOW I DID
As I stated before, my wife an I played the game alone, which I don't recommend. In the beginning, lady luck was with me, and I had five of my six explosives placed, then Vader ordered a search of the Outer level and it went downhill from there, I spent half of the time in the Detention level waiting for the jail break to sound. After I finally got out, guess who became the pupil? That's right, Mr. Reviewer here. Naturally, my wife came from behind with about 12 minutes to spare and won the game, even with my constant Rebel/Pupil battles.

     All in all the game is enjoyable, IF you can get through the instructions and remember everything you need to do, and do it at the time you are supposed to do it. At times the game IS confusing, but that's by design. Kids will more readily take to the interactive part of talking to Vader, while adults like me will enjoy turning to the Dark Side. Either way, in this race against the clock, you get a sense of what it might have been like for the Rebels on Yavin IV and their mission to destroy the first Death Star.

ECHO STATION Grade: B

( Chris Bishop is a SW fanatic (lunatic is actually a better word) who's collection of SW memorabilia is so large he can claim it as a dependent on his taxes since it occupies an entire room of his apartment. )