Star Wars: Flight of the Falcon

"Force? What force?"

Forget about the Jedi Academy, because the force is not strong in this one. Flight of the Falcon takes gamers through several of the most widely recognized locations in the Star Wars universe: Tatooine, the Death Star, Bespin, Endor, and more. Pilot a number of different vehicles, such as the Millenium Falcon, an X-Wing, a landspeeder, and a speeder bike. Zoom across planets and through space while blasting away the Empire's legions of TIE fighters. Sounds good, doesn't it? Unfortunately, it doesn't play as well as it sounds.

Gameplay - 3
This is what drags the game down the most. The gameplay is simply boring to begin with, and it doesn't help that each level is about 5 minutes long doing the same thing over and over. Shooting down TIE fighters in a manner reminiscent of Shadows of the Empire is fun for a while, but after the 10th fighter things begin to get boring. While it can be amusing at times, the graphics kill any sense of enjoyment.

Graphics - 2
Graphics aren't everything, but it's true that they can make or break a game. In this case, they break it. Though the game looks very pretty in screenshots, the framerate chugs along incredibly slow. You can see the walls move along at about 4 different distances from the camera, and in a 3D shooter, this isn't acceptable.

It's hard to see into the distance in levels such as the Death Star Trench. (Huh? I died? Oh, I see, there's a wall there!) Even surface levels crank slowly; too slowly for the speed your vehicles fly at. If you're not careful you can get motion sick from trying to concentrate on the flying.

We know the GBA is capable of more than this. An early title, Iridion 3D, had spectacular 3D effects. Walls would fly by smoothly and cleanly. Not here. Jerky framerates are the leading cause of death in Flight of the Falcon.

Hit detection is right on, but when you can't see where you're going, it doesn't mean much, does it?

Story - 5
I know it's Star Wars. I love Star Wars. Unfortunately the plot is brought along by a couple sentences for each level. If you haven't seen the movies, don't expect to know what is going on; the game completely bypasses Hoth. Still, you don't need to know what's going on to play a shooter, so this section is hardly important.

The box promises several plot twists. Oddly enough, these twists are made up of things even I didn't know, such as the Millenium Falcon having to fly through Tatooine's dune sea to avoid detection by Star Destroyers. Funny, and I always thought the ship was going up when it left the hangar.

This section gets five extra points just because it's Star Wars.

Sound - 8
The one section where this game manages to shine. The John Williams score doesn't exactly boom, though; in fact, it tends to sound rather tinny. Still, nearly the entire soundtrack of Star Wars is present throughout the game's missions.

The sound effects are pretty good. The explosions are muffled, but the lasers sound nice and powerful and the ever-so-familiar drone of TIE fighters is certainly present. Kudos to the development team for getting this part of the game right, minor though it may be.

Replay Value - 4
After you beat the game's 13 or so regular missions (which range from anywhere between 2 and 10 minutes long), there's a bonus level to play. This is a simple, old fashioned side-scroller where you collect power-ups and blast TIEs. The bonus level is actually more fun than most of the regular game. It's a nice little addition, but there's not much else here to prevent it from collecting dust on the shelf.

Conclusion
One more problem with this game: a password save feature. Passwords are supposed to be a thing of the past! Instead, you get a password every time you beat a chapter, which can take up to a half hour of monotonous TIE-shooting and crashing into walls. If you don't mind writing stuff down, though, the password is only a 4-character combo, which is nicer than having to type in ''xhj385hslgka&*fHGn''.

Old-skool Star Wars fans will enjoy this one for a few minutes, if only for the SW factor it has in it. Other gamers had better steer clear of this one.

Overall Score - 4/10

Don't fall to the Dark Side. If you need a fix for Star Wars, you're better off spending 20 more dollars and getting Rouge Leader.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 02/17/04