The same team at Factor 5 that worked on Rogue Squadron for N64, possibly the best flight-combat game of its time when released in 1998, developed Battle for Naboo. As one of Rogue Squadron’s biggest fans, I was expecting a lot from Battle of Naboo. Thankfully, I got just about everything I was looking for. Read on.

The first thing you will notice about Battle for Naboo (actually you should notice as soon as you read the title) is that it is based on last year’s new Star Wars movie, Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. For me and most of the rest of the population, this is the biggest downside to the game. Even if you liked Episode One, you have to admit that there is less lore and legacy surrounding it, and thus, less for the developers to put in the game. Since only a few ships were featured in the movie, Factor 5 was forced to create a few of its own ships to put in the game. And the story about the Trade Federation fighting the planet Naboo is not nearly as intriguing as that in the original Star Wars movies. But I have to hand it to Factor 5 for trying to make the story more interesting than it was in the movie. Actually, I have to admit that I found myself much more involved and interested in the characters in Battle for Naboo than I did in the Phantom Menace movie. In any case, if you can get past the Episode One license, this is actually a better game than Rogue Squadron was.

The gameplay in Battle for Naboo is almost exactly like that in its predecessor. This is to be expected as Battle for Naboo is built on an upgraded Rogue Squadron engine. The controls work the same in the game, with B firing, A thrusting, Z being brake, C-Left controlling missiles, and the control stick handling steering and up and down motions. The only change, and it is a fairly major one, is that R is now used for sharper turns. This is extremely useful, as Rogue Squadron often got frustrating when TIE fighters could circle you thrice over in the time it took you to make one 180 degree turn. Now your ships can turn as fast as your enemies can.

Another major change in Battle for Naboo is the inclusion of levels where you never leave the ground. In Rogue Squadron, you had a free range of motion with every ship on every level. However some of the levels in Naboo have you racing around city streets in a grounded Speeder (much like one of the levels in 1996’s Shadows of the Empire). Others have you at the helm of armored Trade Federation boats, which obviously can’t fly. This certainly doesn’t make these levels any better, but it doesn’t restrict the fun either, since the levels are well designed.