The first thing to point out is that if you have an Xbox then skip this review and the game and proceed immediately to our coverage of the more recently released Starfighter Special Edition for the Xbox. This version includes everything you are about to hear about plus many new additions that make that the version of choice.

Those of you firmly entrenched in Sony’s camp can relax. The original Starfighter is still an excellent game achieving high marks in every criteria – it just falls a bit short in the multiplayer category.

Starfighter follows a storyline that is loosely based on the events of Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace. You will see many familiar ships and locations, but none of the specific battles or characters from the movie are referenced.

Instead, you play the part of three new characters, each with their own ship and agenda. As you play the ongoing campaign missions you will cycle through these characters as the story dictates, often with our three heroes meeting in unforeseen and often highly volatile situations. Not only does this put a unique twist on the storytelling aspect of the game, you are also challenged with learning three unique ships and combat styles.

The buttons and command structure is really intuitive and controlling your ship has never been easier with the twin thumbsticks. There are some definite advantages to flying in space rather than skimming the surface of some alien planet, as there is no “up or down” in space. The three ships you get to pilot all come equipped with a variety of weapons that always seem to suit the mission you are about to undertake.

The campaign consists of 14 missions – admittedly, a bit on the short side, and while these missions are very linear in their presentation and objectives, you are presented with several bonus objectives that will reward you with medals and unlock additional bonus craft and a two-player mode. While these bonus objectives are purely optional, the rewards more than make up for the effort in obtaining them.

Missions come in two flavors; space and planetside. These are then broken up further into attack, defend, escort, etc. It’s nothing you haven’t seen or done in any other game of this type, but the fact that you are doing it in slick Star Wars ships set against a cool Star Wars story more than makes up for the lack of creativity.

The scale of Starfighter is impressive. Capital ships are massive, and the vastness of space is recreated with wondrous nebulas and star fields. At times there may be more ships, explosions, and debris flying around the screen than you can count. It all makes for a very epic quality to the title.

Another nice feature is the fact that you often have wingmen at your disposal. You can command them with the traditional cross-interface that easily allows you to issue orders with a single tap of the D-Pad; each direction representing a different command.

There is also a zoom view that is something I have been waiting for since my tour of duty with the Colony Wars games. This sniper view actually allows you to zoom in on targets that would otherwise be merely a few pixels with a crosshair around them. Now you can see an enemy ship and watch it explode into fiery debris as you pump it full of lasers.

The gameplay graphics in Starfighter are excellent. The textures are colorful and detailed with excellent lighting effects. There is an abundance of rich vibrant special effects with colorful lasers, explosions, and space scenery that looks like NASA photography. The ships are well modeled and leave colorful rocket trails behind them. This is extremely useful when plotting an enemy’s course and trying to lead your target.

Planetside missions feature creative and colorful alien landscapes. The surface of Naboo is lush with green valleys and rocky canyons that will blur by as you race through them. This is an obvious lack in overall detail on these planets. Only buildings and landscape features pertinent to the mission are rendered with finished detail. Everything is there in lesser quality to merely support the main graphics.

The PS2 will start to chug during the larger space battles when you have multiple ships flying around and explosions filling the screen. This is only a minor drop in frame rate; nothing compared to the greater hit you will take on the planet missions. All of that detailed terrain comes at a price, and things can and will get choppy from time to time. While it is noticeable and often annoying, it never really affects the gameplay.

Sound effects are perfect, but what do you expect when you have access to Skywalker Ranch and a library of every sound effect used since the 70’s. Lasers sound like lasers, and ship engines all sound unique and realistic, while explosions will rock your game room.

The dialog is all delivered by professional sounding voice actors who bring our three heroes to life. All of the supporting cast dialog is as equally well scripted and acted out giving this game a very cinematic flair that we have come to expect from LucasArts.

The two-player game offers two modes of play; canyon race and capture the flag. This is barely enough to satisfy anyone’s multiplayer urges, but still better than nothing. The split-screen action doesn’t seem to suffer from frame rate problems as you might suspect – perhaps due to the reduced field of vision and subsequent reduction in rendered detail.