![]() ![]() ![]() Initially, I was impressed with how quickly Battle For Naboo came out - it was announced for the PC just this past January. While merely annoying in the ground-based missions, this becomes extremely disorienting in the space missions. This is thanks mostly to invisible boundaries that tightly confine you to a small amount of maneuvering space - try to go up a hill and you suddenly hit an invisible wall and are magically flipped around. Whether flying the Naboo Starfighter in space or piloting the ground-hugging Gian Speeder, you’ll have great difficulty getting from point A to point B without wobbling and swerving like a horribly drunk driver. That would be the control, which is absolutely atrocious. We haven’t even got to the really bad part yet. You have to spot them on the radar, and then fly towards them until they "pop-up" out of thin air right in front of you. Then there’s the fact that the visible range of enemy targets is extremely limited. (Not that clearly hearing such clever quips as "You’re blaster fodder!" over and over is a huge plus.) The video is plagued with herky-jerky performance, and the sound - normally a LucasArts strong suit - is prone to frequent annoying pops and distortions. The blocky terrain and unvaried, featureless textures are like something out of the mid-1990’s. The pilots consist of two spliced 2D images that look quite comical. Say what you want about Episode I: at the very least, it had high production values, which can’t be said for this game. It’s far kludgier to control, and the graphics look like something a five-year-old drew for the kitchen fridge. However, while I enjoyed Rogue Squadron quite a bit - particularly the memorable opening Snow Speeder versus AT-AT scene - Naboo quite simply sucks eggs. You’ll have piloted seven different craft, including the cool Trade Federation Gunboat, when all’s said and done.īattle For Naboo was developed by the same folks that brought us Rogue Squadron, and is meant to deliver the same raw arcade experience. Missions range from blasting waves of cardboard-cutout Battle Droids in your Heavy STAP to taking out Federation bases with your Naboo Starfighter. You are a pilot for the Naboo Royal Security Forces, charged with helping to save Theed from that oh-so-fear-inspiring Trade Federation. Released to critical acclaim on the N64, Battle For Naboo is one of the saddest excuses for a licensed game to hit the PC in quite some time. If there’s a better example than Battle for Naboo of a decent console game getting ported to the PC with no extra effort, I never want to see it. Given a choice between Jar Jar and Battle For Naboo, we’ll take Jar Jar. ![]()
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