Star Wars: Starfighter (PS2 Review)

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

This type of opening can only stand for one thing; it's time to do a review for one of the many Star Wars games. There is probably no other franchise that has so thoroughly saturated the video game market. Games have been released on just about every system that has ever been created, dating back to the Atari 2600. Many of these have been less than stellar creations, and helped to perpetuate the movie-to-video game conversion curse. However, there have been gems scattered throughout history that have given us many hours of Jedi entertainment. 

Possibly the best of that which has come before was the Rogue Squadron series, which was exclusively released on the now defunct Nintendo 64. Everything about the game reflected the feel of what truly was Star Wars, and the game is considered by most to be one of the top ten titles available on the system. This in itself is no small accomplishment, especially when you take a retrospective look back on all the outstanding titles that came out for Nintendo's 64-bit machine.

This move by LucasArts bewildered PlayStation loyalists, and had an uncountable number of them gnashing their teeth in anguish. While we were forced to trudge through the muck that was Rebel Assault II or Masters of Teras Kasi, N-64 owners were able to scream across the galaxy, taking on the evil Empire. Life was definitely not fair. Nevertheless, upon the launch of the PS2, fans of the series learned that we now would have the opportunity to fly through space. Let us welcome Star Wars: Starfighter to the fold. Even if it wasn't in an all-out assault on the Death Star, this was exactly was players had been clamoring for; a chance to submerge oneself in the Star Wars universe. How did it all turn out? You are about to find out. Cue up the booming orchestrated John Williams’ musical score and let us begin.

Starfighter takes place in the Episode 1 timeframe. The Rebel Alliance and the Empire are distant blips on the Star Wars radar and here your main concern is the happenings of the Trade Federation. By assuming the personages of Rhys Dallows, Vana Sage and the pirate Nym, it is up to this ragtag group to stop the Federation from succeeding in their evil plans of conquest. 

Action is the name of the game in Starfighter. You have 14 basic missions, each with three different difficulty levels to challenge your piloting ability. Every individual mission has multiple primary and secondary objectives to accomplish. It is through completing these extra mission objectives that medals can be won and these are usually responsible for unlocking items later on in the game. There are six additional single-player bonus missions along with a two-player mode, which can be accessed with the completion of the regular portion of the game. Some missions will grant the player wingmen, whom can be given simplistic orders to attack or defend specific targets. However, don't expect these assets to win the battle for you as you lollygag about chasing down the stray scarab fighter. Most of the time you can expect them to simply harass the enemy and very rarely take out their target only after a long drawn-out effort.

The game has both space and planet surface missions, which means that your surroundings are constantly changing. All of the environments are lush in texture and have a very deep visual horizon. There is basically no popup and usually the game's framerate is very smooth with just the rare hiccup here and there. One might expect to see this more often, since the amount of enemies on screen at one time can be rather daunting, especially when you are without any tactical support. Nevertheless, LucasArts did a relatively good job of keeping the game moving without bogging down the PS2's processing power. You have to remember that this game came out very early in the lifecycle of the PlayStation 2 and developers were still trying to come to grips with the ins-and-outs of the new system.

The control for all the craft is just as one would expect to experience. The fighters all skip nimbly along, while the bombing craft seem to lumber through the skies. The analog control in the game is spot-on and is neither too sensitive nor not responsive enough. You always feel in total control of the craft, even when flying through the claustrophobic canyons in some of the surface levels. Each individual ship has the ability to have its button configurations customized to the desire of the player, which of course pleased me exceptionally. You also have the ability to swap the Y-axis, so that up is down or vice-versa. All of the craft have primary and specialized secondary weapons that gives the player different avenues to explore when taking on the missions. When your ship is hit with enemy fire, the DualShock 2 rumbles strong enough to let you know you are in trouble without shaking itself out of your grip. Your onscreen ship also bucks around when taking fire, at the same time, which makes the experience even more realistic. The other grand inclusion to the control scheme is the visual zoom button. When using this option, you are given the ability to get up-close and personal with the forces fighting against you and it really helps in picking off distant targets with great accuracy. I really have found it difficult to find a chink in Starfighter's armor when it comes to the presentation and the Starfighter team really deserves a pat on the back for bringing such a well-grounded product to market.

Another one of Starfighter's high points is in the audio portion of the game. Available in only mono or stereo sound, you still are surrounded by a universe that sounds very much like that of the one found in the movies. All of the voice actors give a stunning performance and the background music is nothing less than stellar. Anything that moves, clicks or whirls have that trademarked Star Wars sound and really helps to draw the player into the game. Once again, no fault could be found in this department; however the inclusion of Dolby Surround Sound would have been a nice touch and really would have put this game over-the-top in its scoring.

Even though the game was introduced before the Sony PlayStation 2 went into online mode, there are quite a few extras for the game. Upon completion of certain missions and the game in itself, special modes, missions and ships are unlocked. One nice thing is that, once these additional ships are unlocked, they can be used in any of the missions to clean up the details that the original ships couldn't handle. There is a built-in cheat code section for the game, which can turn the whole encounter literally upside-down.  Also, entering the proper codes will allow you to view multiple slideshows and artwork concerning the creation of the game and the people behind it. LucasArts left a lot of extras hidden away on the disk for fans of the series to discover, including a handful of hidden touches (like the droid riding the chris corrpedoes in the Charm's Way mission) that only the observant player will find scattered throughout the missions.

To bring this whole review to an end, I would have to give Star Wars: Starfighter credit for bringing a complete package to market. Although the first-time-through playing time can be a bit short, the replayability of the secondary objectives and medal award system drive a player to go back to redo what they have already experienced. In fact, while writing this review I felt the pull of the Force beckoning me to play through the game yet again. If that isn't a sign of a good game, then I guess I'm completely lost in the void. A definite must-have for fans of the movies and action junkies, pick this one up at your next opportunity and I'll guarantee you a good time.  

Difficulty:7

Control:9

Visuals:8

Sound:7

Replayability:7

Overall: 8.7