Star Wars - Jedi Arena [Model PB5000]

Star Wars - Jedi Arena © 1983 Parker Bros.

One of the rare games to use the paddle controllers, Jedi Arena has the player controlling his lightsaber in order to deflect the laser blasts being shot by the seeker in the middle of the screen. Since the game uses paddles the lightsaber moves in an arc from side to side while the button causes the droid to fire at your opponent who is on the opposite side of the screen. You can change the angle of the laser being fired by using your paddle controller, this simultaneously moves the lightsaber as well so you can use the direction your lightsaber is pointing as a rough guide as to where the laser bolt will go. However the seeker is constantly darting around, which makes precise aiming mostly impossible. Usually matches end up with the player randomly mashing the button and hoping for the best.

Protecting the Jedi Knights are a layer of force fields. These force fields (3 or 5 which are selected by the difficulty switches) are actually made up of several pieces which are slowly blasted away when the laser hits it. The goal of the game is to be the first person to blast through your opponent’s force field and hit their Jedi. Complicating this goal is the fact that the seeker will slowly build up energy over the course of the battle and will eventually go wild. When the seeker goes wild it will start shooting out lasers at both players incredibly fast and the player is unable to control the angle of the blasts. The only thing you can do when the seeker goes wild is to defend and hope for the best. The game also features an invisible seeker option which adds a lot more challenge to the game, especially when the seeker goes wild.