I must admit that I’m a
really big fan of the Star Wars franchise that when a Star Wars themed game is
announced I just can’t wait to get my hands on it. So far there have been a
crop of Star Wars games that have been surprisingly stellar (Star Wars
Galaxies, anyone?) but others have been far too disappointing to even
mention here. The Game Boy Advance has seen its share of Star Wars games but
none of them center on an oh-so familiar and beloved spacecraft . . . the
Millennium Falcon.
The game’s story follows
Han Solo and his Wookie sidekick Chewbacca before we met them in the cantina at
Mos Eisley in the planet of Tatooine in the first Star Wars film. The two find
themselves smuggling good for big-time gangster Jabba the Hut but, as fate would
have it, Han and Chewbacca are forced to dump their contraband when Empire
cronies board their ship, the Millennium Falcon. Things turn ugly pretty
quickly for the pair but, thanks to the fastest ship in the galaxy and their
fateful encounter with Obi-Wan and Luke Skywalker, they fly into history as the
saviors of the universe.
Fans of the Star Wars
franchise will love the way the story just clicks together with the events we
are already familiar with thanks to the original trilogy. Everyone’s favorite
smuggling vessel not only takes on familiar enemy ships but gamers will get to
visit familiar areas. Remember the scene when Luke Skywalker is closing in on
the reactor that inevitably destroys the Death Star? Well now you get to
experience the massive Rebel assault–as well as lend a hand at throwing Darth
Vader out of the fight–through the Falcon. In fact, if it wasn’t for the few
times you take control of a speeder bike, an X-Wing and a landspeeder, the game
really chronicles the history of the Millennium Falcon.
The bad news is that the
controls make flying the Falcon seem stiff and way too awkward. The
behind-the-ship view doesn’t really give a clear indication of how far the enemy
is from you. This makes targeting your enemy very difficult even with your
secondary weapon fire. The problem lies with the target reticule that stays
fixed in one position even if you move the ship around in all kinds of crazy
positions. As I mentioned above, there are times when you take control of other
vehicles but the action remains the same even if you’re controlling an X-Wing.
The only real variety comes when you’re driving a landspeeder (it becomes a race
to get to Point B from Point A before the time runs out.
The game throws plenty of
enemies at you (from the weak Tie Fighters to the huge battle cruisers) and all
you have is two different weapon fire and limited boost. Yet what can really
be tiresome is the fact that the levels seem to drag on longer than they
should. After fending off the fortieth wave of Tie Fighters, gamers will be
quickly tired of the repetitive action. There’s an extra mini game that’s worth
playing but I’m afraid gamers will not be sticking around long enough to find
it.
Visually, Flight of the
Falcon fails to be anything close to what the back of the box cover just happens
to capture. The Falcon itself is not as neatly rendered. In fact it looks
pretty darn bad as it chunkily moves from side to side. You will, though,
manage to make out the other vehicles in the game such as the landspeeder and
the enemy Tie Fighters but the huge triangular shaped battle cruisers look
awful. The environments, though, are not bad at all. In fact, gamers will be
pleasantly surprised how faithful the game’s many environments look.
The sound will have you
scratching your head and wondering why the game isn’t able to play an accurate
rendition of the opening Star Wars theme but wonderfully captures the Empire
March as well as the familiar sound effects associated with Star Wars. You’ll
find a few of the original trilogy’s music as well as the menacing sounds the
Tie Fighters make when they zoom past you. Laser fire is astonishingly well
done and you’ll hear it often in this game.
Flight of the Falcon fails
to achieve the one thing we would have loved the most–fly the Millennium Falcon
while taking on Imperial Tie Fighters in style. The game makes the fastest ship
in the known universe feel like a clunky old Lincoln Mercury of the sky and the
most heartbreaking thing about it is that all the right things that would have
made this a great game are all here. Hopefully next time the good folks at THQ
will recognize all of these faults and bring us a more action-packed game
featuring our favorite Star Wars ship.
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#Reviewer’s |
Gameplay: 4.0
Thanks to the poor controls and the
fact that the levels seem to drag on forever, Flight of the Falcon just feels
like a very forced and flawed experienced from the very start. There are a few
things that do keep the game from being a simple shooter in outer space, such as
the ability to zoom through the forests of Endor on a speeder bike. Still these
are just minor distractions that just hide the fact that this game is just way
too repetitive.
Graphics: 4.2
Not as beautiful as the screen shots
on the back of the game’s packaging leads you to believe, this game suffers from
a few bad textures when it comes to the vehicles. The Millennium Falcon just
doesn’t look sleek at all and things such as the Imperial battle cruisers look
like bad imitations. All is not bad, though, because the backgrounds do look
pretty great. The level set in the forests of Endor, for example, look lush and
neatly detailed.
Sound: 6.5
The Empire March still sounds cool
and hearing it through the GBA’s tiny speakers is surprisingly good, but why
does the main Star Wars theme sound nothing like it? Forgetting this weird
mystery, though, we’ll concentrate on what the game does get right. The sounds
of Tie Fighters and speeder bikes sound straight out of the film and listening
to the explosions and laser fire just puts us there in the Star Wars universe.
Difficulty: Hard
You’ll often be attacked by swarms
of enemy ships and, thanks to the sluggish movement of the Falcon, fighting them
off isn’t an easy feat. Your biggest challenge is trying to stay alive through
long levels that just don’t seem to want to end. Let’s face it, folks, the
Falcon might be the fastest ship around but in this game the thing can hardly
even dodge a distant laser.
Concept: 5.5
It’s actually a great idea to
experience the best dogfight sequences of the original trilogy through the
pilots of the Millennium Falcon. You get to participate in the first Rebel
assault on the Death Star as Han and then destroy the second Death Star as Lando.
There are also moments in the game where you take control of other vehicles,
such as a speeder bike in the forest planet of Endor or the landspeeder in the
dusty plains of Tatooine. While they add variety to the game, it really doesn’t
make much sense in a game that clearly follows the Falcon as a smuggling ship to
a ship that plays a crucial role in the fall of the Empire.
Overall: 5.0
Unfortunately Flight of the Falcon
doesn’t really take off at all. All the right elements are here and nothing
would have been more satisfying than piloting the beloved Millennium Falcon as
Han Solo himself, but the game feels stiff and often times rather empty. There
are levels that add more variety to the game but I feel that gamers will not be
sticking around to play them. If you love all things Star Wars, keep away from
this one . . . it will completely disappoint.
