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If only you could shoot Jar-Jar...

By James Anthony

You wanna piece o' me!? Is that what you want?

Oh, lordy, lordy, lordy. If there is one game that can show off the processing power of the Playstation 2 - and give you a hugely enjoyable game to boot - then it's Starfighter.

You'll notice some truly stunning graphics out of the corner of your eye, but the gameplay is so fast and furious you'll barely have time to breathe - let alone stop to enjoy the scenery.

The development crew at Lucas Arts must have been on intravenous caffeine because once the action starts - like, straightaway - you barely get time to rest your poor fingers and thumbs.

Enemy attack fighters, ground units, space ships, missile destroyers, tanks, hover cannons - you name it - will come at you at frightening speeds and numbers. The dogfights are amazingly all over the place - like the real thing - with the areas of space around you absolutely chokkers with anything that flies. The missions are varied and will keep you on your toes as you try to defeat the Trade Federation hordes in both the cold vacuum of space and on planet surfaces.

There are major objectives to meet, such as protecting a base or knocking out an enemy missile freighter, and then there are bonus objectives such as completing it in a certain time, or not losing any units. The bonus missions are the icing, but you can pass on to the next level by just making your main objective.

Battle-driods have hover tanks at their disposal

Some landscapes are remarkably Earth-like with wonderously textured rocky cliffs that are gorgeous to look at. Other planets are dark, lava-covered places, or ones with rolling green hills. The space missions are fast and furious and are set among some excellent scenes. Whether in space, or on planet surfaces, the imagery is almost surpasses even PCs for quality.

You begin with a training session and, once you have qualified, get to hit the wideness of space and kick some Trade Federation butt.

There are three characters you interchange with throughout the game. Rookie pilot Rhys Dallow, who has an N-1 Starfighter, Vana Sage, an experienced pilot who flies a triangular Guardian Mantis, and Nym, a Feeorin bandit who loves nothing more than stealing massive hauls of Trade Fed goods with his Havoc bomber.

The swapping-character system gets you to fly the three different fighters and all have their strengths. Personally, Nym's starship, the Havoc, is my fave - particularly for ground-support operations - where the energy bombs are exceedingly devastating.

The first of 14 missions is Royal Escort where you have to protect the Queen of Naboo from a horde of enemy fighters. Not only do you need to have your trigger finger ready, but also avoid getting mashed in an asteroid belt.

May-day, May-day! It's not May anymore, but June

Next up, Contract Infraction sets Vana against masses of enemy Scarab fighters and nasty hunter-seeker craft that look like metallic scorpions. Whatever the major objective it is basically a free-for-all shoot-em-up.

Secrets on Eos has you in a surreal space world under a shield and you need to knock out the defensive guns, the shield's pylons and then the generators to open the way for your attack craft.

Piracy Above Lok has Nym out to cripple an enemy superfreighter, then capture and hopefully hold on to it while knocking out Scarab fighters intent on getting the cargo vessel back.

This trainee starfighter's favourite scenario is protecting a rebel base, however. The graphics are drool-producing - particularly the protective dome, which the power of the PS2 not only makes look good, but also allows you to fly over the top of and see through its translucence to the units beneath.

The scenario also gives you a target-rich environment and you can blast the hell out of major mobile artillery pieces, tanks, soldiers, fighter craft and drop ships, all from the Episode One movie. The swines just keep coming and you have to be really psyched to take them all out. Brilliant stuff.

If there is a quibble about Starfighter it is that occasionally you find yourself flying at very strange angles and the program seems to take a while to get its perspective right. But, on a positive, that does add to the dogfight-mayhem feel of the game.

Star Wars Starfighter has to be the premier PS2 title released to date and will be a huge and addictive amount of fun for all of the family (including Mum).


Game: Star Wars: StarFighter
System: Playstation 2
Players: 1
Memory Card: Yes
Developer: LucasArts
Distributor: Sony

Rating: 80%


(Ratings Key/Explantion)


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