The story line
The game follows the story line of the last three movies, which means it begins at the end of “a New Hope”, and ends at the end of “Return of the jedi”. Luke Skywalker is a young pilot from the planet Tatooine. He works on a farm with his aunt and uncle. They need some droids, so he buys two, but these two have a history and he gets involved in a galactic war. He joins the rebels and fights against the evil empire. This empire is ruled with an iron fist by the emperor and his sidekick “Darth Vader”.

The beginning of the game
The game starts with the assault on the “Death Star” and you will play with a young Luke Skywalker. The “Death Star” is a spacestation that can blow up a planet with one shot. Your mission is to destroy this spacestation. This is the last part of the fifth movie. If the “Death Star” is destroyed, you can go to every key point of the movies, you will go to the ice planet “Hoth”, to the forest moon of “Enodor”, to “Cloud City” and to the second “Death Star”. The empire must be stopped at all costs, and you are the pilot to do this.

Space ships
The game consists of ten levels in which you can fly freely. The four main spaceships are: x-wing, the most used and best spaceship in the game, a-wing, a fast but a bit low on shields, b-wing, not very fast but it has very good shields and y-wing, not very fast but it has very good weapons. The game also features some hidden ships, like “the millennium falcon”, TIE fighter and the “Naboo Fighter”, but these ships are only available after you complete the game, and win some medals. These medals are “bronze, silver and gold” and can be won after winning a level, but you must score some points to get them. The gold medal is somewhat difficult to get, and it’s not very likely that you'll win one.

The enemies
They are great in numbers but not in fighting. The A.I. is a bit low. The obstacles are the only thing that are difficult in the first few missions. You will easily fly into them, but the enemy fighters can’t kill you. They only fly by and do nothing. Just kill them quickly and then they won't be a burden. Somewhere in level five the enemy will go after you, and they will not stop until you or they are dead. This is one of the good things about the game, but you will be depressed if one flies into you like a Kamikaze pilot. The fighters will always fly in pairs of three or four, and will break off to attack you separately. They will also call for back-up, and will attack you with everything they got.

The game play
The game is easy to learn, because it only uses four buttons, but for special attacks more buttons are necessary. There's a training level for people who need a bit more attention and who are not familiar with the controls. This training level is a bit tricky, but very well designed, especially the fact that when you're playing at night, this level is also at night. The tricky part is that the missions are complicated, but challenging. It is a game with a long life, because you will always improve yourself, and you will always want to go a bit further and better. It’s also a challenge to get all the spaceships. These ships are very difficult to get, and it will take a long time to get them. For example, “slave 1” will be at your disposal, after you finish all the missions, and get a silver medal on all of them.

Graphics
The producers, Lucas arts and factor 5, have pushed the Gamecube to its limits. The explosions look very real, and you can see things under water. If you look closely, you can see people running on the surface. The cut movies are very good, and look like the real movies. They put in some real footage from the movies, but these are only in the beginning. The shades of people, buildings and spaceships are very real, and look the same as the object they project.

Sounds
The only real thing that bugged me in this game was the sound. It’s not real and has nothing, you can’t get a real experience from the sounds. The spoken words are good, but they’re not the same as in the movies, it’s a cheap copy of the real thing. The only good thing is the sound of the TIE fighters. They look the same as in the movies and give a cold sweat idea especially if they are behind you.

Positive points: It takes a while before you complete all the levels, and takes you some time to get every medal for it. It’s very difficult, so it’s not a game that you can finish in a day.

Negative points: Only one player, only ten standard missions, it’s very difficult to get all the gold medals.

Memory card: 3 blocks

Sound: 8
Graphics: 9.5
Game play: 9
Originality: 8.5

Sum 35/40