Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter

"Not bad, but not good either."

Jedi Starfighter is the sequel to Star Wars: Starfighter. It is based loosely around Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. It was released just prior to the movie, but doesn’t really follow closely with Episode II’s plot. Regardless, fans eager for Episode II bought this to help ease their eager waiting.

The flight combat itself is nicely done. You can play one player mode, or two player cooperative (split screen.) The story is somewhat weak. You’re taken through a series of missions, where you have to complete certain objectives within each mission. The storyline tying these missions together is somewhat dull and unimaginative. The difficulty varies from mission to mission. Some missions will be a breeze, while others are borderline impossible, and will leave you yelling at your PS2, if you’re anything like me. There are a number of unlockable missions as well. Each mission also has secret objectives for you to complete. The game doesn’t tell you what they are, unless you’ve accomplished them.

In this game, you’ll pilot a couple different ships. For some missions, you’ll get to fly as Adi Gallia herself in the Jedi Starfighter. In addition to its normal lasers, you can use several of Adi’s powerful force powers. The force shield, force lightning, force reflex, and force shockwave are all at your disposal when you’re in Adi’s seat. In other missions, you’ll play as Nym, and pilot The Havoc. This ship is much slower then the Jedi’s ship, yet it packs more of a punch as well. It’s also armed to the teeth. In addition to lasers, it has two types of missiles, mines, and bombs.

Music wise, the game is solid. I have no major complaints about the music from mission to mission, other then the fact it isn’t varied enough for my tastes. Still, it gets the job done. The sound effects are likewise solid. No complaints here. The voice acting is… well… it varies. Sometimes the voice acting is great, in some missions I wanted to mute my TV just to shut these people up.

The controls are decent. No major complaints here. They get the job done. Some of the special effects are quite nice, especially the force powers. Some of the force powers will look quite cool, especially if you get the timing down and end up using the most powerful force effects.

Rent or buy? I suggest a rental first, unless you were a fan of the original Star Wars: Starfighter. This game isn’t worth shelling out $50 American, unless you’re sure you’ll like it first. This game isn’t bad, but there are a lot of things they could’ve done better, IMO.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 09/27/02, Updated 09/27/02