Star Wars: X-Wing - Collector's CD-ROM

The Good
When I found this on the shelf at my local second-hand games dealership, it was buy one, get two free. I forget the other two I bought, but this game has occupied pride of place on my shelf for about three years. Few other games have sucked as many hours out of my life as this one.

Basically, you take on the mantle of a fresh-faced rebel pilot, assigned to a Rebel cruiser, with the sworn intention of destroying the Imperial scum. So, hop into your snub fighter and charge them lasers!

The biggest plus point has to be the nature of the beast. Just remember how you felt when you saw Luke Skywalker blast the Death Star into a million pieces. Remember how cool you thought that was? Now, you can snuggle down into the confines of a real live X-Wing and teach those imperialistic pigs a lesson!

The graphics are functional, nothing to cheer about really. The sound is very sweet, from the low, quiet murmur during the waiting phases, to the strident song that heralds victory. Sound effects are all completely true to the films, and really add to the sensation of being there. The craft all handle differently, and the missions vary from simple escorting to all-out attacks on major Imperial installations.

The final plus for this game is a major one. It's incredibly, indescribably hard. There is quite literally zero room for mistakes. If you don't perform completely perfectly, you fail. And unlike other games, failing a mission doesn't cause the game to end or a large flashing sign to appear. It can be as little as a small text alert "Shuttle Lambda destroyed" at the bottom of the screen. And you are defending shuttles, and other weak craft, and it is very, very hard. But fun.

The Bad
Most certainly the worst area of this game is the imposing face it presents to newbies. The training starts out with manouvering , at speed, through narrow gates in a tight time limit. If you manage to get past that, you have to do it again, with an even tighter time limit and gun emplacements shooting at you. The Historical Mission are equally tricky, and when you finally feel you are ready for the big time, the actual missions are harder still.

The Bottom Line
An astounding space combat simulation, certainly one of the best. Olden but very much golden, you can pick it up for a pittance. Worthy of $5 of anyone's money, any time, any where.