Version reviewed: PC

Aah Episode I, whatever you think of the film the corresponding games have been less than stellar. 'The Phantom Menace' was a frustrating adventure game, 'Racer' was halfway decent but uninspired racing game and then the was the lackluster action arcade game 'Battle for Naboo'. Things were looking a bit desperate for the Star Wars franchise, could Starfighter help to put it back on track?

Rather that sticking to the plot of Episode 1 Starfighter creates it's own story, dovetailing into the movie plot towards the end of the game. It's centered around 3 disparate pilots, Rhys Dallows a clean cut republic fighter, Vana Sage a gun for hire and Nym a pirate captain. The plot contrives to bring these characters together and they team up to take on the might of the Trade Federation and save Naboo from invasion. Let get this out of the way at the head of the review, the plot for Starfighter isn't the best, it doesn't really have a consistent thread running thorough it to draw you in and carry you along. Action chops and changes from one area to another, seemingly driven more by the level designers desires to include a variety of different missions rather than an appetite to tell a story. Some might say that that plot isn't really important in this type of game and to a certain degree they'd be right, however without an engrossing plot the drive to play on is just not as intense.

If the plot's not up to much then can the gameplay make up for it? If you've played any of the Star Wars action arcade games you'll know what to expect here. The game is divided into 14 relatively short missions, taking place in a variety of locations ranging from outer space and including planets such as Eos, Lok and Naboo. The space based missions are standard shooter fare, mainly requiring the protection of a ship from the incoming waves of droid fighters. The land based games requiring protecting a convoy or protecting or destroying an area. At only 14 missions the game seems a bit short, most missions only take about 10-15 minutes to complete and most missions need only a few attempts before you can learn how to conquer them. Should you expire during a mission you'll have to start over from the top, there's no way to save your mission during a game.

Each pilot has their own ship so that gives you 3 different ships to master, the handling of each is very similar, although maneuverability and top speed vary the differences aren't really large enough for each craft to present a different proposition. However each craft does have different secondary weapons, either a form of guided missile or a dumb bomb. There's no choice involved as to which player to attempt a mission as an so no choice as to which ship you'll be piloting, fortunately you're almost always in the best ship for the job. Rhys's guided proton torpedoes are handy for the space based combat levels, where as Nym's unguided bombs make for handy heavy ordnance for bombing runs.

Graphically the most noticeable thing about Starfighter is the explosions, they still pack a punch and help elicit that 'yeehaa' feeling when you've taken your target down. Other than that the graphics are beginning to show their age now, the textures used for the ground on the land based missions is very plain and a lack of vegetation doesn't help to bring it more to life. However the game will support up to 1280x1024, possibly higher, and the polygons swish around very smoothly on a modern system.

As is common with the newer Star Wars games the sound track is 100% John Williams tracks taken straight from the movies, and the sound effects appear to be direct from Skywalker Sound. Freed from the need to sound like a character from the films the voice acting is above par and is frequently used over the radio as background chit-chat during the missions in quite an effective manner.

To encourage replays of the game each mission has 3 medals up for grabs, Bronze, Silver and Gold. Correspondingly there are 3 secondary objectives for each level, completing each one moves you up the medal classification. If you're the dedicated kind of player who wants to obtain all the medals then this will indeed add to the longevity of the game as some of the bonus objectives can be very hard to achieve. Earning medals gives you access to a few fun bonus levels and the ability to fly through the main missions in a few different ships.

The Xbox release was released as 'Special Edition' and includes some extra bonus levels and a new 2 player mode and claims to have improved graphics, we've not tested this yet, we'll update this review if we do sometime.

Overall Starfighter is just standard Star Wars action fare, there's nothing here to particularly raise it above the like of Rogue Squadron, and it's brevity at just 14 missions does mean the experience is over sooner than you might like. If you're looking for an Episode 1 shooter choose this over Battle for Naboo, if you're after a quick blast of pick up and play action then Starfighter might be worth a look, or consider The Clone Wars instead. If you're looking for something with a bit more depth then still consider X-Wing: Alliance.