Star Wars was launched as a video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System in October of 1991. Akila Redmer served as the lead designer, with contributions from individuals such as Kalani Streicher, Kelly Flock, and Mike Ebert. The game's objective involves piloting a landspeeder across Tatooine, delving into caves, recruiting all necessary characters, acquiring a lightsaber and shields for the Millennium Falcon, navigating a meteor shower to reach the Death Star, battling stormtroopers, and ultimately destroying the Death Star. A Nintendo's Game Boy version of the game was also made available in 1991.
Fleeing from the Empire, two droids serving the Rebellion, identified as R2-D2 and C-3PO, successfully escape to the planet Tatooine. Jawas recover them, subsequently selling them to Luke Skywalker and his Uncle Owen. Without the knowledge of his new owners, R2-D2 secretly departs. C-3PO is left to explain to Skywalker that R2 spoke of completing his mission before his escape. Luke brings C-3PO along as he uses his landspeeder to travel across the desolate wilderness, avoiding dangers such as charging banthas and strategic radar stations.
Having learned that the Rebel droids possess the stolen Death Star plans, Darth Vader dispatches a scouting party to Tatooine to intercept them. He deploys Imperial Probes to locate the droids, authorizing the use of deadly force if necessary. Meanwhile, his Stormtroopers establish laser cannons throughout the desert to suppress any resistance against the Empire's operation.
Luke's initial destination is the entrance to the Laser Cave. Luke traverses the dark, expansive cavern, leaping over wide chasms with lethal, sharp bones at the bottom. Another perilous trap Luke encounters involves volatile ooze dripping from the stalagmites on the ceiling.
Continuing their search on Luke's landspeeder, C-3PO's scanners confirm that R2-D2 is being held within the Jawas' massive sandcrawler, confirming that R2-D2 was once again captured by Jawas as he traversed the Tatooine Desert alone.
Upon inquiring about R2-D2's whereabouts, Luke is immediately met with resistance from the Jawas and must fight his way to R2-D2's location. Luke discovers that the inner workings of the Sandcrawer double as traps for intruders, such as Metal Mashers that are made to pound scrap metal with deadly force. Luke also uses these mechanics to his advantage, as he runs along conveyer belts and jumps along anti-gravity Jump Boosters to ascend to higher levels, blasting hostile Jawas along the way. A blue guard droid proves formidable as it emits a devastating energy blast and is immune to Luke's blaster shots. After navigating the maze of the sandcrawler, Luke finally finds R2-D2 at the very top. After being rescued, R2-D2 explains more of his mission to C-3PO: he is searching for his master, who is a resident of Tatooine by the name of General Kenobi.
Before investigating this lead, Luke searches nearby caves for supplies before advancing onwards. With C-3PO and R2-D2 in tow, Luke explores the Tusken Cave, named for its vicious native inhabitants. The uneven ground on the inside sets off deadly boulders barreling towards Luke, who continues to ascend the paths. The cave is also plagued by dripping ooze, as well as crawling Sand Slugs, which Luke dispatches with his blaster. As the cave opens up, Luke is faced with smaller platforms that require long jumps to traverse. He dodges and blasts swarms of sand flies, who instinctively attack and try to knock Luke into the abyss below.
Deep inside the cave its primary inhabitants, Tusken Raiders and Rasta Aliens, recognize Luke as an intruder and attack without warning. In combat with Tusken Raiders, Luke avoids their swinging gaffi sticks and counterattacks when he is out of melee range. The Rasta Aliens carry out their attack with deadly spikes shot from their body.
The next cave Luke searches for supplies is the Rock Hound's Lair. This green-tinted cave is populated by Womp Rats, which hide among rocks and jump out at an unwitting Luke as he explores deeper into the cave. Despite their short stature, Luke is able to pick them off with his blaster from a crouching position. Jumping across small outcroppings, Luke skillfully avoids natural spike pits and leaves the cave with an acquired shield.
Luke notices a smaller cave on the way and investigates, only to find this is the dwelling of several hostile Sand People. Finding them beyond reason, Luke has no choice but to fight back. While their speed and ferocity is unmatched, Luke carefully dispatches of them from a distance with his blaster. On his way out, he recovers a shield.
Acting on R2-D2's lead, Luke takes the droids to the home of Ben Kenobi. The old desert hermit is well-hidden by the hazards of the cave, which is infested with Flying Insectoids. These flying creatures suddenly swarm Luke as he jumps across narrow outcroppings to avoid spiky pitfalls. Precise blaster aim and jumping brings Luke in contact with Ben Kenobi.
Kenobi recognizes Luke, confirming himself to be the general and Jedi Knight of legend now known as Ben Kenobi. Kenobi then bestows Luke the lightsaber of his father. C-3PO interjects to remind them of R2-D2's claim to be Kenobi's property. Despite Kenobi's doubts of owning a droid, R2 projects a message of Princess Leia Organa. The desperate princess has found herself imprisoned, and requests Kenobi bring the droids to Alderaan. Kenobi jumps back into action to help the cause of the Rebellion, and he insists on Luke coming along and learning the ways of the Force.
The group travels by landspeeder to Mos Eisley to find a pilot to deliver them to Alderaan. Shortly after arriving at the spaceport, Luke is tipped off about a skilled pilot in a nearby Cantina by Chewbacca. Luke fights through hordes of hostile bounty hunters (now with a lightsaber at his disposal) as the group makes their way to the booths in the back of the bar. There they finds Han Solo, veteran space pilot at his favorite hang out spot. For a considerable fee, Solo agrees to transport the party to the Alderaan system in his ship, the Millennium Falcon. Han and Chewbacca join the group as they leave the bar and make their way towards the hangar where the Millennium Falcon resides.
Han and Luke fight side-by-side as the party makes their way through the streets of Mos Eisley. They're attacked by Jawas vengeful over the Sandcrawler assault. With the Empire hot on their trail, they must also avoid Imperial Stormtroopers now patrolling the streets to intercept them. The Empire has also now enlisted bounty hunter Boba Fett to bring them in, dead or alive.
The presence of troops increases outside of Docking Bay 94 where Stormtroopers are hoping to intercept Han before he can leave the planet. The heroes fight through them whilst navigating through the dangerous laser security systems of the hangar. Narrowly escaping another wave of Stormtroopers, Han orders Chewbacca to immediately take off once they're onboard the Millennium Falcon.
After the Millennium Falcon blasts out of Mos Eisley, they evade Imperial pursuit by jumping into hyperspace after setting course for Alderaan. Upon reaching their destination, the Millennium Falcon finds itself in an uncharted asteroid field. They deduce this swarm of planetoids is all that remains of Alderaan, destroyed by the Empire's new super weapon—the Death Star.
The asteroid field presents imminent danger to the Millennium Falcon; Han Solo pushes his piloting skills to limit to evade oncoming asteroids and reduce damage to the Millennium Falcon's deflector shield.
After Solo successfully steers the ship out of the asteroid field, the party find themselves face to face with the source of Alderaan's destruction, the Death Star. The Millennium Falcon is helpless to escape after being locked into the Death Star's tractor beam and pulled into a hangar.
Now trapped in the Death Star, the party sets about to disable the tractor beam in order to escape in the Millennium Falcon. They blast their way through Stormtroopers guarding the hangar and ascend upwards through a series of Vacuum Tubes and platforms to find the Control Room. They find the area guarded by Large Sized Combat Droids in the air and Stormtroopers on the ground, but they manage to clear a path so R2-D2 can tap into the Imperial Computer Network. Upon interfacing, R2 is able to produce detailed maps of the interior of the Death Star—not only locating the tractor beam, but the location of the imprisoned Princess Leia Organa as well. As C-3PO interprets R2's discovery, he also makes the grim realization that Leia is scheduled to be terminated, thus adding urgency to their rescue effort.
With R2 locked onto the Tractor Beam's power source, the party follows a series of elevators to disable the unit. They find the area heavily guarded by fixed guns and moving lasers. Luke and Han must climb ladders on either side to reach the Tractor Beam unit with blaster fire (the tractor beam is protected against attacks by Luke's lightsaber). After evading the security system, the unit is destroyed by blaster fire. After leaving, they are back on the trail of Leia.
The party manages to infiltrate the prison block and rescue Princess Leia from her cell, but their ensuing flight from Imperial forces results in them being dumped into Garbage Compactor 3263827. Escaping the rising muck and fighting off the Dianoga, the party fights their way back to the Millennium Falcon and escapes.
The Imperials send a squadron of TIE Fighters to stop them, but the Millennium Falcon manages to punch its way through and escapes to Yavin 4.
However, the Empire had managed to place a tracking beacon on the Millennium Falcon, and followed it to Yavin 4, looking to put an end to the Alliance to Restore the Republic once and for all. Luke and R2-D2 climb into the X-wing starfighter, Red Five, to join the Battle of Yavin. Their only hope is to destroy the Death Star before it gets into firing range of Yavin 4. After fighting through another squadron of TIE Fighters, Luke flies Red Five into the Death Star's Trench. Fighting through more TIE Fighters and navigating the trench, Luke launches a Proton torpedo into the Death Star's exhaust port, destroying the station.
With the Death Star destroyed, Luke returns to Yavin 4, where he, Han Solo, and Princess Leia are congratulated for saving the galaxy from the threat of the Empire.
The game's narrative is largely inspired by the events of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, with adaptations made for the video game format. Characters progress by battling through various scenes. Luke Skywalker is tasked with rescuing R2-D2 from a Jawa sandcrawler, an event that occurs after R2-D2 departs to locate Obi-Wan Kenobi. Additionally, Luke ventures through a series of caves on Tatooine, encountering numerous dangerous creatures. Notably, the game does not depict Obi-Wan's death at the hands of Vader, although the Nintendo Power guide does mention Obi-Wan's demise.
In general, the gameplay follows the conventions of a side-scrolling platformer. Luke primarily uses his lightsaber for attacks and can utilize the Force for special abilities, including floating, speeding, and stopping time. Rescued characters provide assistance through hints and actions essential for game progression. Between planets, the game shifts to a first-person perspective, where the Millennium Falcon engages in combat with waves of TIE fighters to proceed to the next planet. The final stage involves piloting the X-wing against the Death Star. The X-wing navigates a lengthy corridor, culminating in the automatic firing of proton torpedoes to destroy the station. Failure to reach the end before time expires results in the Death Star destroying Yavin 4, ending the game.
Each character possesses unique attributes. Obi-Wan Kenobi has the ability to resurrect Han Solo or Princess Leia up to five times. R2-D2 can display a map of the Death Star's corridors.
The game is known for its high difficulty, providing only three lives and two continues. The Millennium Falcon can withstand three hits before being destroyed, although collecting Millennium Falcon shield items can increase its life gauge to a maximum of nine hits.