The third arcade outing based on the legendary trilogy of films; "Empire Strikes Back" eschews Jedi's Zaxxon-inspired gameplay and returns once more to the 3D vector graphics of the first game. Empire features four stages of play, with the first two putting the player in control "Luke Skywalker's" SnowSpeeder, and the second two in control of "Han Solo's" Millennium Falcon.


* The first level, Probots, takes place on the ice planet of Hoth, with the player flying the Snowspeeder over the planet's surface to find and destroy the Empire's search droids that are sending signals to the Empire warning them of the rebels' presence.


* The second Snowspeeder stage sees the player taking on the Empire's "AT-AT" Imperial walkers, as well as a number of smaller, bi-pedal "AT-ST" walkers. On this level, as well as the standard guns, the Snowspeeder is armed with a limited number of harpoons; these can be fired at the AT-AT's legs to send them crashing to the ground. AT-ATs can also be destroyed by shooting a small, highlighted area on the AT-ATs' head.


* The third level has the player piloting the Millennium Falcon and is a repeat of the original game's in-space Tie Fighter battle.


* For the fourth and final level the player must pilot the Millennium Falcon safely through a densely packed and fast-moving asteroid field.


Bonus points can be earned by destroying a certain number of targets. A JEDI letter will also be awarded in addition to the bonus points. Once all the letters that spell the word 'JEDI' have been awarded, players will have attained true JEDI FORCE, making them invincible to the Empire's forces for a limited amount of time.


In all levels of play, collisions with objects and enemy shots will cause damage to the player's deflector shields.