I must admit that I’m a really big fan of the Star Wars franchise that when a Star Wars themed game is announced I just can’t wait to get my hands on it.  So far there have been a crop of Star Wars games that have been surprisingly stellar (Star Wars Galaxies, anyone?) but others have been far too disappointing to even mention here.  The Game Boy Advance has seen its share of Star Wars games but none of them center on an oh-so familiar and beloved spacecraft . . . the Millennium Falcon. 

The game’s story follows Han Solo and his Wookie sidekick Chewbacca before we met them in the cantina at Mos Eisley in the planet of Tatooine in the first Star Wars film.  The two find themselves smuggling good for big-time gangster Jabba the Hut but, as fate would have it, Han and Chewbacca are forced to dump their contraband when Empire cronies board their ship, the Millennium Falcon.  Things turn ugly pretty quickly for the pair but, thanks to the fastest ship in the galaxy and their fateful encounter with Obi-Wan and Luke Skywalker, they fly into history as the saviors of the universe.

Fans of the Star Wars franchise will love the way the story just clicks together with the events we are already familiar with thanks to the original trilogy.  Everyone’s favorite smuggling vessel not only takes on familiar enemy ships but gamers will get to visit familiar areas.  Remember the scene when Luke Skywalker is closing in on the reactor that inevitably destroys the Death Star?  Well now you get to experience the massive Rebel assault--as well as lend a hand at throwing Darth Vader out of the fight--through the Falcon.  In fact, if it wasn’t for the few times you take control of a speeder bike, an X-Wing and a landspeeder, the game really chronicles the history of the Millennium Falcon.

The bad news is that the controls make flying the Falcon seem stiff and way too awkward.  The behind-the-ship view doesn’t really give a clear indication of how far the enemy is from you.  This makes targeting your enemy very difficult even with your secondary weapon fire.  The problem lies with the target reticule that stays fixed in one position even if you move the ship around in all kinds of crazy positions.  As I mentioned above, there are times when you take control of other vehicles but the action remains the same even if you’re controlling an X-Wing.  The only real variety comes when you’re driving a landspeeder (it becomes a race to get to Point B from Point A before the time runs out.

The game throws plenty of enemies at you (from the weak Tie Fighters to the huge battle cruisers) and all you have is two different weapon fire and limited boost.   Yet what can really be tiresome is the fact that the levels seem to drag on longer than they should.  After fending off the fortieth wave of Tie Fighters, gamers will be quickly tired of the repetitive action.  There’s an extra mini game that’s worth playing but I’m afraid gamers will not be sticking around long enough to find it.

Visually, Flight of the Falcon fails to be anything close to what the back of the box cover just happens to capture.  The Falcon itself is not as neatly rendered.  In fact it looks pretty darn bad as it chunkily moves from side to side.  You will, though, manage to make out the other vehicles in the game such as the landspeeder and the enemy Tie Fighters but the huge triangular shaped battle cruisers look awful.  The environments, though, are not bad at all.  In fact, gamers will be pleasantly surprised how faithful the game’s many environments look. 

The sound will have you scratching your head and wondering why the game isn’t able to play an accurate rendition of the opening Star Wars theme but wonderfully captures the Empire March as well as the familiar sound effects associated with Star Wars.  You’ll find a few of the original trilogy’s music as well as the menacing sounds the Tie Fighters make when they zoom past you.  Laser fire is astonishingly well done and you’ll hear it often in this game.

Flight of the Falcon fails to achieve the one thing we would have loved the most--fly the Millennium Falcon while taking on Imperial Tie Fighters in style.  The game makes the fastest ship in the known universe feel like a clunky old Lincoln Mercury of the sky and the most heartbreaking thing about it is that all the right things that would have made this a great game are all here.  Hopefully next time the good folks at THQ will recognize all of these faults and bring us a more action-packed game featuring our favorite Star Wars ship. 

Gameplay: 4.0
Thanks to the poor controls and the fact that the levels seem to drag on forever, Flight of the Falcon just feels like a very forced and flawed experienced from the very start.  There are a few things that do keep the game from being a simple shooter in outer space, such as the ability to zoom through the forests of Endor on a speeder bike.  Still these are just minor distractions that just hide the fact that this game is just way too repetitive.

Graphics: 4.2
Not as beautiful as the screen shots on the back of the game’s packaging leads you to believe, this game suffers from a few bad textures when it comes to the vehicles.  The Millennium Falcon just doesn’t look sleek at all and things such as the Imperial battle cruisers look like bad imitations.  All is not bad, though, because the backgrounds do look pretty great.  The level set in the forests of Endor, for example, look lush and neatly detailed.

Sound: 6.5
The Empire March still sounds cool and hearing it through the GBA’s tiny speakers is surprisingly good, but why does the main Star Wars theme sound nothing like it?  Forgetting this weird mystery, though, we’ll concentrate on what the game does get right.  The sounds of Tie Fighters and speeder bikes sound straight out of the film and listening to the explosions and laser fire just puts us there in the Star Wars universe.

Difficulty: Hard
You’ll often be attacked by swarms of enemy ships and, thanks to the sluggish movement of the Falcon, fighting them off isn’t an easy feat.  Your biggest challenge is trying to stay alive through long levels that just don’t seem to want to end.  Let’s face it, folks, the Falcon might be the fastest ship around but in this game the thing can hardly even dodge a distant laser.

Concept: 5.5
It’s actually a great idea to experience the best dogfight sequences of the original trilogy through the pilots of the Millennium Falcon.  You get to participate in the first Rebel assault on the Death Star as Han and then destroy the second Death Star as Lando.  There are also moments in the game where you take control of other vehicles, such as a speeder bike in the forest planet of Endor or the landspeeder in the dusty plains of Tatooine.  While they add variety to the game, it really doesn’t make much sense in a game that clearly follows the Falcon as a smuggling ship to a ship that plays a crucial role in the fall of the Empire.

Overall: 5.0
Unfortunately Flight of the Falcon doesn’t really take off at all.  All the right elements are here and nothing would have been more satisfying than piloting the beloved Millennium Falcon as Han Solo himself, but the game feels stiff and often times rather empty.  There are levels that add more variety to the game but I feel that gamers will not be sticking around to play them.  If you love all things Star Wars, keep away from this one . . . it will completely disappoint.