Star Wars: Starfighter

The Good
S.W.S.F. is basically a starfighter sim-shooter which takes place at the time of the Phantom menace You play the part of 3 characters who each have their own reasons for repelling the Trade Federation, and won't they have an awesome graphical adventure in doing so. The planetary missions are stunning and cover a large surface area, you can fly into craters and valleys without graphical glitching (for the most part), and in space missions you can gaze at the beautiful planetary background. This is not all, the ships leave glitering ion trails, and you can have a sadistic laugh as the Trade federation fighters burn and crash to the ground. Some of the missions are also quite challenging especially mission 9 the bombing of the factory on Eos as the factory defences realy pound your ship, but the sensation of ducking through valleys and strafing the factroy with bombs has excellent replay value.

The Bad
My biggest qualm about the game is that it is just too easy (especially space bound missions). Your ship can take severe weapon fire before you are shot down, but hitting a planet at speed will kill you instantly, as i said only mission 9 is really that challenging. This shortens the lifespan of the game. Graphical glitches as I said are rare, but the most irritating is on eos, if you fly high the surface fogs out and vanishes causing you to lose your bearing and being an ugly boil on a pretty much graphically polished piece of software. The voices in the game are also a bit corny in dialogue, but sometimes hilarious The trade federation commander of the lander seems to be doing an impression of Dr. Evil. But this is a minor fault.

The Bottom Line
As with the movie it is based on. Looks great but is simplistic and a bit hollow. Good news if your a bit rubbish at games, but for a serious gamer you might feel a bit short changed after parting with 45 quid. Perhaps better to rent it out or lend it off your mate as the novelty wares off.

The Good
Starfighter was released during what is arguably called the dark times of LucasArts. Many considered their Episode I work to be some of their worst after having a long standing success rate from Day of the Tentacle all the way through to X-Wing Alliance. There were, however, two saving graces during this time. One was Episode I Racer. The other is Starfighter, a game that takes the best elements of the X-Wing franchise on PC and turns it around into an arcade style action title.

For the most part, it does the job well. There's an original storyline that takes an ordinary young man and puts him behind the flightstick of a Naboo Starfighter, as the Trade Federation battles for control of Naboo trading routes. While the said X-Wing franchise had its own story, as did the N64/Gamecube Rogue Squadron franchise, Starfighter was the first title to really delve into a true tale behind the action, as three characters learn to get along with each other for the better of the Galaxy.

Between the nice cutscenes is a solid flight sim. It's easy to say the game has been dumbed down somewhat from, say, X-Wing Alliance, but since this aimed at a different crowd compared to the PC title, that would be a little harsh to suggest. Instead, it's far more action based and that helps in the long run.

The Bad
There are a few obvious downsides to Starfighter. For one, there isn't as much replayability compared to Rogue Squadron. There are medals to win and one or two other ships to unlock, etc., but it doesn't really seem as detailed to me. Thankfully, though, the single player missions are strong enough to keep the game afloat for a good deal of playtime.

Secondly, there's no real meat to the multiplayer options. In fact, you have to unlock it first before you can play it. Yes, that's an incentive to play the game out, but even when you do there isn't that much to it. A few dogfighting levels, and that's all you get. Far more could have been achieved here, all things considered.

The Bottom Line
Starfighter, in my eyes, was what LucasArts should have worked on in the first place instead of the terrible Episode I title that dragged them down from such high heights. They've been up and down ever since, but Starfighter ranks as one of the highs ... thankfully.