A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (actually, it's ours), I was playing a lot of old Super Nintendo games on my PC with emulators. Then I thought, hey, I have a 600mhz with 256 ram, and lots of hard drive space, so why don't I try one of these new-fangled hi-tech 3D PC games? Well, this is actually quite an old game but if you have anything close to my PC's specs, and you are anything close to a fan of Star Wars, this is truly a fantastic ride. I recommend one has a gamepad or joystick (...). My gamepad works great (it is similar to the old Playstation One controller). I plug in my headphones (also recommended), pump up the volume, and off I go into space, flying around in the infinite void, shooting tie fighters, star cruisers of the evil empire, and generally having a ton of fun.
This version of the game also has a whole additional game on it also, and with a 3D video card (even the most basic), the graphics are amazing. Dated, but hey, this puts the graphics of the old SNES to shame. It is VERY easy to set up and get started, and can be as tough as you want it. I've hardly even scratched the surface of all the various features and levels and know I have a lot of future fun in store for me with this. The music, while in midi form, is (to me) almost indistinguishable from MP3 quality stuff. And you get a lot of music. All sorts of variations on John William's great Star Wars scores.
There are also a ton of options. You can turn the music up or down, or off. You can turn the sound effects (also great) up or down or off. You can play your OWN music (MP3's) if you want while playing the game. Try some electronica/trance, or some Pink Floyd! Get creative, have fun. You can give yourself unlimited weapons and make yourself and your ship invulnerable to damage. The possibilites truly are endless. This is halfway between an arcade type shooter and a true space combat simulator, with various levels of both. In a short time, I have played the game for dozens of hours already, and am still discovering new things, and cool features. There is a neat pilot training feature, a "film" room, talking characters and background voices, it goes on and on. I can't believe I waited so long to buy/play this, but then, I am but a young, struggling Jedi-starfighter who has been deserted on a lonely planet for awhile.
If you have ever wanted to fly off into space in a variety of ships and enjoy the trip without leaving your PC, and if you are at all even the most casual Star Wars fan, you just gotta buy this, and now! You don't know what you're missing if you've never played. Smoke 'em if you've got 'em, and/or have a drink to warm your innards, turn down the lights, get that gamepad or joystick in hand, put on the headphones, and escape into the ride of your life. .. Amazing! And I haven't touched any of my old SNES rom games since buying this. Best [$$] you'll ever invest in a whole universe of fun, which you can visit any time you want to escape from earthbound reality for awhile. Did I mention that although it's a jewel case, there's a HUGE free instructional manual? What are you waiting for?
I know more recent and better graphically-enhanced Star Wars games are out there, and I've sampled them, but the system requirements on this make it playable for almost ANYONE with a PC, and for now, I'd like you to stop reading this, and go click this classic gem (and still unequaled in many ways) into your shopping cart NOW! You will thank me later, and as always, "May the Force be with you..."

Rating: 5 [ Best Star Wars Game Ever ]

This is is the best game you can buy from Lucas Arts. Period.

Rating: 4 [ Okay, a bit dated though. ]

As I said in the title, although this is a good game, it is a bit dated by today's standards, but when it first came out it was top of the line, and set some of the standards modern flight games use.
The gameplay is pretty simple, you fly as an Alliance pilot against the Empire on various types of missions with a variety of craft. You get to fly everything, X, Y, B and A wings, which are all good quality ships, each having it's own design intention. The Ywing is a bomber, while the Awing is more of a recon/interception craft, that sort of thing.
The missions are strictly space orientated, no planetary battles whatsoever(like Rogue Squadron on N64), but I have no complaints about that, it is 'Star' Wars after all. In general, I found the missions entertaining and realistic, but the trouble was, if your ship was destroyed, you had something like a 25% chance of getting caught by the Empire, and if you were caught, you would be stripped of rank and points if you tried to 'revive'(restore) your character.
The gameplay also lags seriously in some places. When targetting, you can't see what the enemy craft is doing, nor can you get an accurate hull/shield damage assessment, which is present in future versions, but the lackthereof makes this game harder to play. The lasers are also incredibly inaccurate, particularly on the Xwing, which is what you fly most of the time. It's hard to explain, but you have to move your ship to obtain a laser lock depending on which side your lasers are firing from, which is
really annoying.
Graphically speaking, the game is nothing fancy, it incorporates the sort of squarish, chunky graphics of the pre-pentium era. This particularly shows during the mission briefing scenes, when the mouth of the briefing officer keeps moving even after he's stopped talking, that's funny.
Sound wise the game is good, though it might benefit from a soundtrack here and there, but the sound effects are good.
This game is a classic, good in it's day, but now it is old and dilipated, Xwing vs TIE fighter or just TIE fighter beats this game. My advice, don't waste your money on it unless you're a real SW fan or flight sim game fan, there's a lot of better stuff out there.

Star Wars: X-Wing (Jewel Case) (CD-ROM)

Star Wars: X-Wing (Jewel Case)

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Amazon Customer Reviews of this item: (Average Rating is 4.75/5.00)