Star Wars Starfighter

You must battle your way through fourteen different levels alternating between three pilots.  The story is what holds the game together, and keeps it interesting enough to complete.  Somehow these three pilots cross paths and determine a mutual enemy in the sinister Trade Federation.  Each pilot has distinctive characteristics, and a unique ship. 

Rhys Dallows is a new recruit for Bravo flight.  He pilots the N-1 Starfighter while trying to protect the Queens ship.  The N-1 is fast, but not much on heavy weapons.  Vana Sage is a sort of bounty hunter retired who owns a ship that’s shaped like the letter T.  It’s called The Guardian Mantis, and it’s actually the most versatile craft of the lot.  The third pilot is a weird looking alien named Nym.  He’s a cross between a squid and the predator.  His bomber is called the Havoc, and it’s easily the most destructive.

Basically our hero’s start down there own paths, but Vana finds a secret Trade Federation Weapons facility.  All three agree this is bad, and eventually join forces to destroy the threat.  To be sure there’s not a whole lot here, but the game is fun to play even if it is short.

If I were reviewing this for a console I’d have to be impressed with the graphics.  As it stands the PC version offers decent visuals.  Hardly anything I would call eye candy, but the explosions I admit were dazzling at times.  The cinema scenes moved the story along at a fine pace.

The sound quality is what you’d expect from a Lucasarts product.  It is very accurate with effects borrowed from the film.  The music is of course by John Williams.  The in-flight pilot chatter added a nice touch to creating an intense combat scene.

The onboard cockpit displays were rather confusing so I stopped paying attention to them.  The computer basically targets all relevant enemy craft for you.  Or you could toggle a hostile up with a press of a button.  This isn’t a simulation though.  There is definitely no in depth control to your fighter available to you.  So if you don’t have a gamepad or joystick Starfighter will not be fun to play. 

This one is also rather easy.  Even the hard setting wasn’t too difficult to blast through.  I was able to fight my way through eighty percent of the game in about two hours.  Okay that was on the easy setting, but the bottom line is simple.  Starfighter is an action arcade game.  It’s not gonna blow you away, or keep you up very late while you desperately try to defeat that next level.  It is what it is.  A fun romp through the Star Wars universe while we all wait for Attack of the Clones to be released.  Don’t worry the month of May is just around the corner folks.      

Install: Easy
The install process took too long.  A modest slide show is included here.

Gameplay: 8
Fast and furious space combat at times, but very little depth.  A tried and true space shooter.  It tries to vary missions calling some escorts, but don’t be fooled.  Your just shooting at the Trade Federation drones.

Graphics: 8
Excellent.  For a Console game.

Sound: 10
Star Wars.  John Williams.  Enough said.

Difficulty: 7
This game is not hard.

Concept: 10
Star Wars is the greatest movie of all time.

Overall: 8
I give it an eight because it was fun to play the sound was excellent, and the story held my interest.  The Naboo N-1 Starfighter is just a very cool looking ship, but I’d take a beat up X-Wing fighter instead any day.