Star Wars: Jedi Arena
| Star Wars: Jedi Arena | |
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Cover art
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| Developer(s) | Parker Brothers |
| Publisher(s) | Parker Brothers |
| Programmer(s) | Rex Bradford |
| Platform(s) | Atari 2600 |
| Release | January 1983 |
| Genre(s) | 2D overhead shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Star Wars: Jedi Arena is a 2D overhead shooter video game developed and published by Parker Brothers in 1983 for the Atari 2600. It is the first Star Wars video game to feature lightsaber action. The goal of the game, based on one scene in the original Star Wars film, is to take out the opponent with the Seeker ball while defending oneself from incoming laser blasts using one's lightsaber.
Following the impressive-enough sales of their first Star Wars game of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Parker Brothers went on to continue developing Star Wars titles, one of which is Star Wars: Jedi Arena, programmed by Rex Bradford. Although the game's reception was mixed at the time of release, with sound effects being praised and primarily the abstract combat being criticized, its legacy is largely negative, with several modern critics referring to the game as one of the worst Star Wars games of all time.
In Star Wars: Jedi Arena, two Jedi Knights, one blue and one red, face each other during lightsaber training. Player one is blue; the red Jedi is either a human- or computer-controlled opponent. The player controls his or her lightsaber with the paddle controller, defending oneself from the laser blasts coming from the Seeker ball, fired by the opponent. The Seeker will regularly turn wild and fire laser blasts randomly. The objective of the game is to fire laser blasts from the Seeker at the opponent's shield and finally directly at the opponent by aiming in the direction that the lightsaber is pointing. The game has four difficulty levels, changing the Seeker's speed; on the highest level, the Seeker is invisible. The game ends when one player has received three direct hits, and the winner becomes a Jedi Master.
Although Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back was not a huge success, it sold well enough to encourage Parker Brothers to develop more Star Wars titles. In the December 11, 1982, issue of Billboard, it was reported that Parker Brothers was developing its second game cartridge. Titled Star Wars: Jedi Arena, the game was set for release the following month. During Jedi Arena's production, Parker Brothers relied upon an abstract approach to combat that took advantage of "the unique technologies and situations of the Star Wars universe". The game was programmed by Rex Bradford and inspired by one scene in Star Wars in which Luke Skywalker defends himself from the Seeker ball's incoming laser bolts with his lightsaber on board the Millennium Falcon. The game was released for the Atari 2600 as scheduled, in January 1983.
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