May the 4th Be With You!

In celebration of Star Wars day I've got a few Star Wars game reviews from Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM), Video Games & Computer Entertainment (VG&CE),  Next Generation, and GamePro. Previously I posted Star Wars game reviews when there was a new movie in 2017 so let me drop links for those in case you missed them: Star Wars NES Reviews and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back Reviews. This time I'm posting single reviews for the computer port of the original Star Wars arcade game, Star Wars: Rebel Assault on Sega CD, the 32X's Star Wars Arcade, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron for the Nintendo 64, and Star Wars: Masters of Teräs Käsi on PlayStation. The two EGM reviews have been moved from their original pages to line up with the review crew pages from their respective issues; only the top four reviewers apply to the scores as Mike Weigand wrote sidebar reviews for a bunch of other games. I had to chop up the VG&CE review too because, despite its short length, it was actually spread across three pages. Also, I'm not sure what GamePro was thinking; Masters of Teräs Käsi is an average fighter but the reviewer fell just a half point short on controls of giving it a perfect score overall.

EGM #60

EGM #66

VG&CE - August 1989

Next Generation #51

GamePro #112

Gaming Ads: Access Software

Access Software, founded by Bruce Carver in 1982, is best known for the Links golf games and Tex Murphy adventure series. I remember playing Mean Streets, the first Tex Murphy game, on the Commodore 64 for eight hours straight, getting stuck, and never going back to it. I'm fairly certain I was near the end but just couldn't figure out what to do. This was before there the Internet and when you got stuck on a game back then you either had to figure it out yourself, find a magazine with a strategy guide, or fail. Perhaps my save file still works and I'll go back and finally finish it at some point as I'm sure the answer is online today or maybe I can actually figure it out myself now.

When you think of Links you might think first of Microsoft and that's because Microsoft purchased Access in 1999 and continued the series, as well as re-published many of the earlier Links games. Microsoft renamed Access to Salt Lake Games Studio and had the studio develop its first console games for the Xbox (Amped, Top Spin). In 2004 Microsoft sold the developer to Take-Two Interactive and its name was changed to Indie Built. The developer continued to work on the Amped and Top Spin series before being shut down in 2006. Some of the employees who worked for the studio over the years would later found Big Finnish Games in 2012 and release Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure in 2014.

Access Software albums: Facebook - Google Photos