So what sort of game is Starfighter? It's a spaceship-based shooter with first and third person camera options. The story follows the actions of 3 main characters - each with a distinct starship you must control for several missions. There are 14 initial missions with 6 additional bonus missions awarded for expert ability. Each mission has primary and bonus goals. The primary ones must be completed for the story to progress, but the bonus ones are entirely optional. Typically there can be up to 3 bonus missions per stage. Completing one of the bonus missions is generally easy. Completing 2 is challenging. Completing 3 will only be done by the best pilots - especially at medium or high difficulties. The story is told across 3 worlds - with missions occurring both in space and planet-side. Missions take the form of either attack or defence duties - both of which require a large amount of shooting at targets both large and small - spaceborne and ground. Each ship used has specific characteristics that must be used in differing ways. One is light but highly agile while another has great firepower but moves slowly. One strategy used for all available ships will fail. Each must be used according to it's own strengths and weaknesses. To start with players will not be given the choice as to what ship they use for each mission. That is reward that must be won...

Graphically Starfighter is a competent title offering a large amount of detail, action and variety without compromising too much on framerate. In the space missions there are the typical planetary spheres and occasional space debris. Several fighters can be on screen at any one time but it is very rare to have them all close up. They are most likely seen as flashes of light in the distance, or a dot within the targeting window. That's not to say that all ships look small in space - merely the fighters. Freighters, repair ships and battle stations are readily found. Freighters are several times the size of a fighter, whereas the battle stations are so large that your fighters can fly into its large hangar bays! Planetside the landscapes resemble sandy wastelands with hills, rivers and valleys. While expansive, they are not limitless. Starfighter allows you to fly a fair distance from your target area, but will 'bounce' you back if you stray too far.

The music, sound effects and voiceovers are typically Star Wars. Grand instrumentals, R2 units beeping their responses and the rest are as authentic as it gets. Part of the control scheme has you barking orders at your wingmen. The D-Pad simplifies the control scheme to four order types. Pretty much all buttons are utilised on the controller. Some can be ignored for the earlier part of the game, but should be brought into play sooner rather than later. Attempting to play the game solo – while fun will eventually find you failing missions. Knowing when and how to best use your wingmen is crucial. This isn't something that is obvious to start with though. It's only after restarting the same mission for the 3^rd time that the thought dawns on you that there's something missing in your strategy.

Therein lies the problem…

During each mission you are told what your next objective is to be, but rarely get any sort of directions. There's no visual cue to tell you to 'go that way'. Some missions are ok. You can usually work out the goal by simply looking around. Other missions are not so helpful. You do have a button that'll cycle through all available targets – which is needed, but sometimes the targets are out of range so you have to go look for them. The AI of the enemy requires some questioning. Rather than doing their best to stay in one piece during a dogfight by ducking and weaving, they instead elect to meander on predictable lines making for generally tame target practice. The only reason why it's not a total walk over is that they attack in big numbers, and when they do get a lock on you they more or less stay locked on. Included for your attacking pleasure is a sniping option that allows you to zoom in on any target making it easier to hit. Unfortunately at long distance fast targets are hard to hit straight on. It would've been logical to add a targeting icon that predicts where the target will be when your gunfire/missile arrives. It's a minor annoyance as at long distance the enemy is of little threat so picking them off at that range is more of a bonus than anything.

Starfighter is a good game in its own right that has some rough edges. If flying around the Star Wars galaxy, fighting the forces of evil is a necessary task – then one could do far worse than Starfighter to fulfil that role. The control scheme is intuitive at it's most basic but rewards some experimentation to get the most out of it. While there are only 14 missions in the game (excluding the extras) they are long in length and rarely completed under 5 minutes. Many will require retries to complete successfully or to a point where the various secret stages and options are unlocked. Starfighters' worth a look purely because it does what it does well. Star Wars fans will be impressed with the attention to detail. Gamers will be happy (would've been happier with some tweaking) with the easy, fast, frantic and challenging gameplay. It's a game that almost anyone can pick up and play – and enjoy.