Star Wars: The Interactive Video Board Game (1996)

This game features a flat, 2-D board with a plastic, 3D inner ring and catwalk that are raised off of the regular board. The rebels and R2 units look like the Rebel Commandos from the Endor assault and R2-D2 from Return of the Jedi. The stormtrooper is a larger plastic mini, and used during the game when you roll a 1 (a stormtrooper helmet on the die). The game is played in real-time, and the typical game lasts about 45-60 minutes. The video tape is 60 minutes long. Darth Vader does speak to you from time to time on the video tape (yes, you'll have to have a VCR for this game), and it's fairly cool to watch the video just by itself. The video also has some elements of gameplay in them, as well as original music, video clips and the ending sequence of the destruction of the planet (in case you fail) is of the original Death Star blowing up Alderaan (from Ep4).

When setting up, you choose a color for your rebel and R2 unit. Then, you put your R2 unit in the droid control center and the rebel in the hanger bay. Then place the stormtrooper in the Stormtrooper control center. You then take 6 explosives and place them near you. You also shuffle and deal out the Rebel Mission Card. This tells you the rooms you need to plant explosives in and the key cards you need to obtain to enter the inner level. You then start the VHS tape. Darth Vader (played by David Prowse and voiced by James Earl Jones) will come on and goad you. You then begin play. As stated above, play is in real-time, so you have to play quickly. The objective is to plant your explosives and disable the Death Star II (turn off the VHS tape) before it reaches D'rinba IV. The video is 60 minutes long, with movie scenes from the original trilogy and good music. If you get caught by the stormtrooper, you get put into the detention block, and either have to have a card that gets you out or wait for the video to play "detention block escape." After 30 minutes or so, the player with the most amount of dark side points becomes Vader's "pupil." The Pupil is just like the stormtrooper, only you get to search rooms, attack your fellow rebels and foil their plans. If there is a tie, then the youngest player gets to be the pupil. It's a fast-paced fun board game that is sorely lacking these days. This should be re-released with the movie on DVD.