Gaming Target - Xbox: Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter

Written by Patrick Geurs on March 28, 2002

First Impressions: The force is strong with this one, and I don't mean Luke either.

One of the pride and joys of the PS2 launch lineup was a game called Star Wars: Starfighter. The game later came to the Xbox with a bunch of enhanced features in the form of a УSpecial EditionФ. Now the sequel, Jedi Starfighter is heading to an Xbox near you. While not necessarily a УspecialФ version as it is a multi-platform release, Jedi Starfighter is sure to bring several thrills and loads of fun.

Jedi Starfighter picks up where the last one left off. Featuring 3 new playable craft, and over 40 new enemies to fight, the action is no doubt going to be intense. Basically the galaxy is in turmoil (like when isn't it?) and Mace Windu dispatches one of the council's top Jedi to investigate what is going on. What transpires leads to a web of adventure, excitement and betrayal, all within the viewpoint of your HUD.

Gameplay will remain generally the same. You have your lasers and your missiles. However, since you are a Jedi, you have the use of force powers in flight. Yeah, you heard right. Now you can also fight off craft with say, lightning. Also available in the force power lineup are force shield, force shockwave, and force relax (though I have no idea as to what the last one does).

One thing that is much improved over the original Star fighter game is the multiplayer aspect. Instead of just 2-player head-to-head action, now, you can fly all 20 missions in a co-op mode with a friend. It's always fun to do a mission as a team, instead of by your lonesome, even if there are AI teammates. The AI team in Halo was good, but usually NPC's are somewhat stupid.

Lastly, and perhaps the coolest part of all of the game (ok I got it bad, sue me) is that this is the first game utilizing scenes from the upcoming Episode 2 movie. So this will almost let you in more so to the storyline before the movie is available. If you are as anxiously awaiting Episode 2 as much as I am, you will more than likely want to pick up this game on that reason alone, even if only just as a collectible.