LucasArts
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Slap on your Rebel flight attire and hop into the cockpit of your favorite Rebel Alliance
fighter, because X-Wing for the Mac is packing and ready to kick some butt! This complete compilation
of the original PC game and it's add-on components is sure to put a big smile on any space sim
fan's face.
The game takes place in the vast Star Wars universe. You play the role of a rookie pilot looking
to beef-up his/her status in the Rebel Alliance. There are three types of flying situations in X-Wing:
Training missions, Historical Combat, and Tour of Duty missions. In Training missions, you find yourself
piloting your way through a maze of various platforms with gates and laser turrets mounted on them. The
object is to successfully navigate your way through the gates before the time expires. I found the Training
missions to be very difficult and not really all that nessecary. Historical Combat missions provides you
with a chance to get a feel for the different fighters you'll be piloting. These fighters are: the A-Wing,
the B-Wing, the Y-Wing, and of course the X-Wing. Each fighter has it's own advantages and disadvantages.
The Tour of Duty missions are the real thing. You are briefed on each mission and without completing them correctly,
you cannot advance in your career as a Rebel Alliance fighter pilot.
First things first, the graphics. One thing that really stands out about this game's graphics
are the cutscenes. I was suprised at the high resolution used to render these scenes which really
does bring them to life (especially the intro sequence. TRƒS SHEIK!!!). Though the actual space
fight action scenes lacked textures on the ships, it really didn't take that much away from the fun.
The explosions were well done and proved to be competition for more recent space sims (Wing
Commander...). The lasers fired by the ships were also well done and had a cool effect when a pursuing
ship fired upon me. One graphic bug I found was that when I played on my PowerBook, the ships would leave
pixel trails. According to the ReadMe that comes on the CD, this is normal behavior. The game just wasn't
designed to run on a PowerBook (can't blame 'em).
X-Wing's sound and music really added to the whole experience. The MIDI soundtrack was by no
means cheesy or annoying as MIDI soundtracks are expected to be. It included music from the original
score written by John Williams. The speech was very clear and I couldn't detect a trace of compression,
though the graphic/speech syncronization could have been done better (ie. the briefings). There was
nothing to complain about the sound effects. They were clean, crisp, and taken straight out of the films.
The sound in X-Wing is one of it's strongest points and really blew me away. I did find a very annoying music
bug which caused one note to play continueslly in the background. The only solution to this problem was
to quit and restart which isn't too convenient when you're about to blast the pants off of an Imperial pilot.
All in all, I felt that X-Wing surpassed my expectations and will probably do the same for you.
It remained faithful to the Star Wars universe with the use of characters from the films and original
sounds and music. One thing that it can't rely on is it's control options. After playing this game
for the first time with a keyboard, I found myself forking out 60 more bucks for a joystick. Keyboard
play is much too sluggish and mouse play is just unthinkable (TOO FAST)! Really, if you don't own
a joystick (GravisPad won't do it) and don't plan on buying one, you'd best sit this one out. Otherwise,
grab it fast! It sure is a fun one!!! May the force be with you...
TEST COMPUTER:
601 80Mhz PowerPC Processor
16MB RAM
256k Level 2 cache
Mac OS 7.5.5
Double-speed CD-ROM
REQUIREMENTS:
25Mhz 68040 or PowerPC (33Mhz 68040 recommended)
Mac OS 7.1 or higher
8MB RAM (5.5MB free)
Double-speed CD-ROM
JOYSTICK HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
RETAIL PRICE:
Around $30.00
LucasArts Home Page
DOWNLOAD (8500 kb) from ftp.lucasarts.com
Rating:
Reviewed by: Amir Kavehrad
