''Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter'' is a 2002

action Action may refer to: * Action (philosophy), something which is done by a person * Action principles the heart of fundamental physics * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video gam ...

video game for the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...

and

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox networ ...

, developed and published by

LucasArts Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game brand licensing, licensor, former video game developer and video game publisher, publisher, and a subsidiary of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George ...

. It is the sequel to '' Star Wars: Starfighter''. ''Jedi Starfighter'' takes place just prior to the events of ''Attack of the Clones'' and during the Battle of Geonosis. On November 17, 2015 it was re-released for the

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...

in North America as part of the ''

Star Wars Battlefront ''Star Wars: Battlefront'' is a series of first- and third-person shooter video games based on the ''Star Wars'' franchise. Players take the role of characters from the franchise in either of two opposing factions in different time periods o ...

'' limited edition console bundle.

Gameplay

In the game, the player controls different star fighters from the ''Star Wars'' universe. Each mission revolves around protecting friendly ships and destroying enemy ships. Each mission also has one bonus and one hidden objective completing of which unlocks bonus missions, videos, and starfighters. In Cooperative mode, the second player either controls a ship or a turret, depending on the mission. Starfighters are equipped with different weaponry which can be highly effective in certain missions. The use of the force weapons in the Jedi Starfighter present a unique aspect to the genre. Force weapons are activated by holding a button which begins to turn the screen purple, and releasing it before the screen becomes white. Holding the button for just the right amount of time will cause the force weapon to last longer or destroy more targets. Holding it too long or too short will reduce its effectiveness. Although unlimited in number, force weapons take several seconds to "recharge" while Adi is regaining her mental strength.

Plot

Set before and during the Battle of Geonosis, the story features

Jedi Master Jedi (), Jedi Knights, or collectively the Jedi Order are fictional characters, and often protagonists, featured in many works within the ''Star Wars'' franchise. Working symbiotically alongside the Galactic Republic, the Jedi Order is depicte ...

Adi Gallia and the hot-headed pirate from the previous game, Nym, as Gallia tests out the

Republic A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a State (polity), state in which Power (social and political), political power rests with the public (people), typically through their Representat ...

's new weapon: the

Jedi Starfighter The following is a list of science-fictional ''Star Wars'' starfighters. Within the ''Star Wars'' setting, a starfighter is defined as a "small, fast, maneuverable, and heavily armed starship used in direct confrontations between opposing force ...

. She meets Nym, now forcefully exiled from his base of operations on Lok by the

Trade Federation The Clone Wars, also known as the Separatist Crisis, is a fictional three-year conflict in the ''Star Wars'' franchise by George Lucas. Though mentioned briefly in the first ''Star Wars'' film (''A New Hope'', 1977), the war itself was not depic ...

in the first game. The Trade Federation is greedily seeking to create a potent weapon with which to use in the upcoming

Clone Wars The Clone Wars, also known as the Separatist Crisis, is a fictional three-year conflict in the ''Star Wars'' franchise by George Lucas. Though mentioned briefly in the first ''Star Wars'' film (''A New Hope'', 1977), the war itself was not depic ...

conflict, and expand on the growing

Separatist Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, regional, governmental, or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seekin ...

movement that is expanding to oppose the Republic. Many old favorite characters from the original game are included in this one, including Nym's chattery Toydarian partner, Reti, and most of Nym's old crew. New characters include Jinkins, a Bith briefly mentioned in Star Wars Starfighter, Captain Orsai, a brave cruiser pilot, Kole, Nym's demolition expert, and the evil Captain Toth, the leader of the Saboath mercenary army and the mastermind who came up with the deadly Hex Missile Threat that the Trade Federation wants to use in the upcoming conflict.

Development and marketing

On PlayStation hardware, the PlayStation 2 version was released digitally on the

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE). It is the successor to the PlayStation 2, and both are part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. The PS3 was first released on ...

in 2015 via the PS2 Classics library. In 2016, the PlayStation 2 version was ported to the

adding PlayStation trophy support with HD upgrades. On Xbox hardware, the Xbox version was added to the

backwards compatible In telecommunications and computing, backward compatibility (or backwards compatibility) is a property of an operating system, software, real-world product, or technology that allows for interoperability with an older legacy system, or with inpu ...

list for the

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...

, although this added small bugs with minor slowdown during menu selections and transitions, minor performance issues during cutscenes, and HUD elements randomly becoming solid instead of transparent.

Reception

''Jedi Starfighter'' was met with positive reception upon release.

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

and

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

gave it a score of 81.96% and 81 out of 100 for the PlayStation 2 version, and 78.35% and 78 out of 100 for the Xbox version. ''

Official UK PlayStation 2 Magazine An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless of whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority (either their own or that of thei ...

'' thought highly of the game, giving it a score of 8 out of 10 and describing it in this way: "Starfighter returns with a few welcome innovations." In Japan, ''

Famitsu , formerly , is a line of Japanese Video game journalism, video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly f ...

'' gave the PS2 version a score of 32 out of 40.

References

External links

LucasArts page
* {{Portal bar, Speculative fiction, Film, Video games 2002 video games Cooperative video games LucasArts games Multiplayer and single-player video games PlayStation 2 games Space combat simulators