FEELING THE FORCE

Darran looks back at his longtime affection for Star Wars

- DARRAN JONES

I was just three years old when Star Wars debuted so I never got to witness it on the big screen as a kid. By the time Return Of The Jedi made its debut in 1983 I was an obsessive Star Wars fan and remember seeing it at the local Odeon with my dad and sister. The queue seemed to go on forever and the atmosphere was electric.

When my tenth birthday rolled around that year, everything I had was Star Wars-related, from a jigsaw featuring Luke Skywalker pulling a gun on Jabba The Hutt to a smattering of figures and smaller vehicles. I even had the novel which featured a chapter with Luke making his lightsaber which wasn't in the original movie.

Despite the massive impact Return Of The Jedi had on me as a child, it's The Empire Strikes Back that's my favourite Star Wars film and it was an amazing experience to see the Special Edition version on the big screen in the late-Nineties. It's a shame then that so many of the best Star Wars videogames don't focus on that epic movie. Granted, the very first Star Wars game was based on the film (and bloody good it is too) and many games have featured the epic Battle Of Hoth, but good games purely based on