STAR WARS JEDI STARFIGHTER

Well, I somehow managed to wait two days before playing this game since the movie came out two days after this, but once I started playing, it was very hard for me to stop. The reason I had to stop was because of E3, which is also the reason for this late review (that and a combination of a hectic E3 schedule and a vacation last week).

JEDI STARFIGHTER takes place during the storyline of ATTACK OF THE CLONES, but its story runs parallel to the events that are taking place in the movie. You are Adi Gallia, a Jedi Master seen in THE PHANTOM MENACE (and the reason I guess she isn't seen in ATTACK OF THE CLONES). Anyway, a rumor of the Trade Federation being up to something sends Adi Gallia off on her mission, where she meets up with Nym and other characters from the first STARFIGHTER game.

The game's graphics are somewhat of an improvement over its Playstation 2 counterpart, but the game comes nowhere close to showing off the Xbox's real power. The game's graphics, while improved, look almost exactly like those of the first STARFIGHTER, which means that Lucasarts really didn't bother with upgrading the graphical engine much.

If you've played the first STARFIGHTER, you'll feel right at home with the controls of this game. The biggest difference in the control scheme, though, is the addition of force powers when you're piloting the Jedi Starfighter itself. While Adi actually uses the force herself, the powers are transferred from the ship to the enemy ships. Force powers include force lightning (don't only the Sith Lord use this one?), a Force field (no pun intended), shockwaves and a time slowdown.

The sound and music are both good, of course, as most of them come directly from the movies. The music always helps a STAR WARS game out anyway, just because of how good the music is. The voice acting is pretty good, although I do have one complaint. While it isn't a big one, Mace Windu's voice just plain out sucks. It reminds me of the sickness in my stomach when I first heard Obi-Wan Kenobi's voice in the OBI-WAN game for the Xbox released a while back. It's like the voice actors are actually trying "too" hard to sound like the character they're imitating, and end up sounding nothing like them.

There are plenty of things to unlock in JEDI STARFIGHTER too. Other than unlockable ships, like Jango Fett's Slave One, there are also trailers for some upcoming Lucasart's titles.

The new multiplayer modes are a nice addition, especially the cooperative mode. Hey, in my opinion, some of the worst games in the world could be saved if they had a co-op mode.

In the end, JEDI STARFIGHTER is another Lucasarts game that cashes in on the STAR WARS franchise name. Fortunately for us, it's a good game, and one worth playing. Now, let us see how those other ATTACK OF THE CLONES games are coming along...