>> Acknowledgments

Thanks to Nate for instilling my VHS run with digital beauty. Thanks also to Mike Uyama, DJGrenola, and of course Radix for all your awesome work! SDA wouldn't be what it is without them.

>> General Comments

Here's the Forum Topic. Thanks to Plagnus for some feedback, and hopefully next time I'll run a less obscure game!

Well, there was a request for more Star Wars games on SDA. In response to that request and with my former experience as the Star Fox 64 runner, I bring you a run on Star Wars: Starfighter! Yeah! What!? You've never heard of it? Well, I'll have you know it wasn't so mediocre as people seem to think. Ok, yeah it was! The best treatment it got though was to have a sequel made, Jedi Starfighter, which is a much better game with more depth to it. Unfortunately I think all of the Starfighter games have been lost in obscurity. Well not anymore! I hope you enjoy the run!

Miscellaneous Note: inaccurate in-game level timer!

The lever timer in this game has a tendency to be glitchy. I've gotten times of 0:02 and 127:XX before for example. I've noticed this on levels 1, 3, 7, 9, and 14 I think. I'm guessing that the CD skips or something causing the timer to reset at some point. Sometimes it's predictable. I got 0:02 several times on Mission 9, and if I get below 2:10 on Level 1, 5 seconds are subtracted from the displayed time. If any individual level runs are done in the future timing must be done according to the video time, NOT the in-game timer.

>> Level Comments

I was a bit lazy with these, but I don't think the game really warrants in-depth level comments. I'm ready and willing to answer any questions or hear any feedback in the forum topic or by private message.

1. "Naboo Proving Grounds"

   Great first level for a speedrun - Canyons, mines, boosting, and some enemies. This is one of my best times there.

2. "The Royal Escort"

   This is a space shoot-em-up level. Sniping enemies could get frustrating, but the level is very straightforward. Rhys's trainer, Essara is killed by a Mercenary in the cutscene after this level.

3. "Contract Infraction"

   Here I first play as Vana. Her secondary weapon is a "tag" that allows her lasers to track a tagged and targeted enemy - this also takes down shields.

4. "Secrets on Eos"

   Vana finds a secret base. I take out the shield generators and that's it!

5. "Piracy Over Lok"

   Here I first play as Nym. His ship is a bomber which carries...bombs! This level can be done ridiculously fast with very good luck taking out the groups of fighters (2:30!), but a typical run is doing good to get below 3 minutes. I think mine here was a 2:50.

6. "Valuable Goods"

   This is a fixed time level that always lasts 6:34. I have actually died here by an embarrassing collision with a Scarab, so I complete the objectives, then just stay away from Scarabs for a time of...6:34 - yay. I tried to make it entertaining anyway!

7. "Eye of the Storm"

   This is a fun level, though it's the longest. I think that taking out the initial dropships and the first two waves of bombers is maybe the only thing that contributes to speed... other than that, there's a lot of waiting at the end (protect the leaving freighters...). I enjoyed finding a good strategy for the level, but was annoyed that it didn't really matter.

8. "Taking the Offensive"

   Here, as Rhys, found the quickest order in which to take out the satellites. The reason I leave the freighters for last is because one of them is auto targeted allowing me to command Reti to take it out while I'm taking out Satellites, which is more efficient...doing the level in a "U" shape instead of zig-zagging all over turned out to be faster.

9. "The Critical Blow"

   This is a difficult, but cool level where Nym takes out the secret base Vana found earlier. I work to efficiently move between the buildings. Starting out I take out the turrets on the buildings while my bombs are recharging, because they pose a threat, and I don't lose time waiting for bombs. This was one of my best completions of this level.

10. "The New Resistance"

    This is a hectic level that can vary depending on how quickly Reti works in the freighter. Other than that I play Vana, and just move from one target to the next using lots of wingmate commands. I take out fighters as they enter the level because it's easy to die if you don't and too time consuming to take out fighters any other way. I have to wait a few seconds for Reti to abandon the freighter any way.

11. "Midnight Munitions Run"

    This level goes down as the most annoying. As Rhys I escort Reti through canyons and enemy forces to the end of the level. If I die, or if Reti dies, which is a seemingly random occurrence, the level is over. Both happened several times making this level the biggest run-killer. For the final run, I did very well here however.

12. "Rescue on the Solleu"

    This is almost a fixed time level. The boats won't leave the cave until I take out the shield, and they won't dock until I take out the island turrets. So I after the first 5 seconds...it's a fixed time level. I almost always get about a 7:20 here. This is however, the prettiest level in the game, in my opinion. I did my best to make it enjoyable!

13. "Last Stand on Naboo"

    This is one of the coolest and most memorable levels in the game since you play Nym defending a massive shielded base on Naboo. I worked hard to get the time down here, which took a lot of strategy to figure out which order everything must happen in. A medal is awarded for 12 minutes, and I tore the level apart in about 6! Definitely a good near-end-of-game level.

14. "The Final Assault"

    Ah the showdown. After taking out a bunch of dishes and droids, Rhys squares off with the Mercenary who killed his trainer, Essara. This battle moves into the droid control ship, which makes for a pretty cool last level. Before I figured out the fastest way to get the level to progress to where you can actually kill the Mercenary, this was a very difficult level, and a potential death trap. I took him down very quickly thanks to my torpedoes, and high tailed it out of the exploding ship for the classic space shooter ending.

>> Final Thoughts

So basically I was very satisfied with this run. I'd say it's definitely beatable, but that it would take a level of attention and effort that I doubt this game is really worth. I'm now playing Jedi Starfighter, which is AWESOME compared to this game. In light of a truly superior space shooter I'll go ahead and admit that Star Wars: Starfighter is a rather mediocre game. It was fun while it lasted. I'm not sure what I might run next. I didn't expect to run anything after Star Fox 64, but here I am again. On my "list" are Descent 2, Jedi Starfighter, and Star Wars: Rogue Squadron. I started working on Rogue Squadron, but it's a very difficult game to master, so I'm not sure anymore. Until next time I hope you enjoy this run and if you haven't seen them, check out my Star Fox 64 runs, which are really much better than this! Thanks for reading my comments!

This run is the property of Brett Ables. I also go by 'flutefreak7' and 'psonar' on the internet and I may be reached in the forum for this game or by private message here on SDA.