Did You Play The Star Wars Hoth Ice Planet Adventure Game?

I have been told by a few people and about every single media source online that there is a new Star Wars movie coming out this week. I hear this might be something of a big deal too – something about some fans waiting 42 years for the end of the Skywalker saga? All my silliness aside, I have actually already had to enter into a media blackout to avoid any potential spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. With my work schedule I will actually have to wait until Monday before I can actually catch the new film – that doesn’t mean however that I’m not planning on sharing a few vintage Star Wars treats this week. Say like Star Wars: Hoth Ice Planet Adventure Game – which was released by Kenner in June of 1980. While I most assuredly received quite a bit of awesome toys, coloring books, and clothing from The Empire Strikes Back – for the life of me I cannot remember ever seeing this 1980 board game before.

Now I most definitely was lucky enough to get the Star Wars: Escape from Death Star and the Star Wars: Electronic Battle Command Game in my youth – in fact the latter now is on display at the arcade. So I really am at a loss for how the Hoth Ice Planet Adventure Game slipped under my radar – especially considering how blown away I was by the moment in The Empire Strikes Back. What can I say, as soon as I saw those Imperial AT-AT’s marching across the icy plains of Hoth… I was hooked… I even managed to use a savings bond to purchase one of those awesome toys back in the day.

With the Hoth Ice Planet Adventure Game the goal in a nutshell is 1 to 4 Players to travel around the board in their colored Millennium Falcon by way of a spinner. Across the board are numerous events like “Move into Hyperspace – Advance 2 spaces” as well as blue squares – those blue spaces mean you have to pull an incident card and do what is instructed upon it. A Player will need to collect at least 10 Force cards – through the incident cards or battling and defeating the likes of the Snowtrooper, the Probot, an AT-AT, and even Boba Fett. You have to wager a number of your Force cards in these battle and if the spinner is kind you will have won additional Force cards to use in your battle against Darth Vader to win the game.

I find it very interesting that apparently Kenner considered the Probot a tougher foe than the likes of an AT-AT – but I was impressed that when heading into the final battle area against Darth Vader there are all manner of hazards. From Bounty Hunters to Vader using the Dark Side of the Force to steal your cards and even a very tricky one that allows the Dark Lord of the Sith to escape – causing you to have to start all over again!

What about you? Were you lucky enough to own or play the Star Wars: Hoth Ice Planet Adventure Game back in the day?