Star Wars: Starfighter? How About ‘Star Wars: TIE Fighter’ (1994)

With the rumors swirling about the latest Disney Star Wars flick, Star Wars: Starfighter, casting more question marks on the Skywalker heritage, how about something truly about starfighters?  Namely, 1994’s space combat sim, Star Wars: TIE Fighter for the PC by LucasArts, a game that, despite its age, still has better world building than what we got with most of Disney Star Wars. 

You play as an Imperial pilot fresh out of the academy, trained by the best. You know the survival rate for Imperial pilots is low, but you strive to be the best and meet the challenge head on. Shields? Who needs those when you have your instincts and the speed and maneuverability of your TIE Fighter.  Your humble beginning as a TIE pilot stationed on a remote space outpost near Hoth explodes into a world of political intrigue and adventure, as those who would undermine the Empire make themselves known, from the common space pirate and smuggler, to formidable rebellion, and even your fellow Imperials. You are the instrument of your superiors and the Emperor’s will. 

As you progress in the campaign, the game puts you in command of various craft in the Imperial arsenal, such as the TIE Bomber, Interceptor, the experimental TIE Advanced and TIE Defender. There was also a heavy fighter/bomber craft called the Assault Gunboat. Each craft had their strengths and weaknesses depending on their load out and the mission specs. Each mission briefing and debriefing was also voiced with great world building elements that fleshed out each mission.

Of course, your character crosses paths with famous Star Wars characters, and I must say, the writing for those scenarios was excellent. There was a whole campaign dedicated to being part of Thrawn’s plans for bringing order in the outer rim as well as the development of the TIE Advanced and TIE Defender, which will always be canon to me as opposed to what we got in Tales of the Empire. Other campaigns dealt with aggressively solving political disputes, as well as flying escort for Darth Vader and the Emperor just as Imperial forces were staging for Endor. The writers respected the characters as they didn’t do anything too crazy or act out of character. I will admit that whenever Vader took the field it was fun watching him take stuff out.  

For its time, the gameplay was pretty complex and had a fairly decent learning curve. You had to toggle between shields (if your craft had any), weapon charge, and engine management. You could target individual systems of ships, swap out modes of fire, or any other ordinance your craft was equipped with. After playing that game I always wondered what the pilots did when they fiddled with their consoles in the movie. Now I know. For me, it was best experienced with a joystick and keyboard, but you could use your mouse too. 

Presently, there has been a recent revival of this style of space combat sim with 2020’s Star Wars: Squadrons by Electronic Arts. Despite the excellent graphics and tweaked gameplay, while fun in that aspect, was tarnished for me, since it was set in the New Republic timeline of Disney Star Wars.  I didn’t really find the story campaign engaging, or replayable. Sure you could unlock various cosmetic items for multiplayer and whatever faction you flew for, but for me, it was about the roleplay and story and from that aspect it just didn’t feel alive enough. Speaking of multiplayer, that was pretty fun. If you could find enough players. The servers kind of depopulated a few months after release. It was a shame since that would put the brakes on future projects of this nature. 

Amazingly, the modding community has kept the love for this franchise alive, creating and updating a mod for X-Wing vs TIE Fighter that brings a player modified campaign of the original TIE Fighter game. Created by a wonderful individual known as Angel, it’s a labor of love and if you’re new or a fan of yore I highly suggest checking it out. His YouTube channel with the links in his description are below:

There was also an anime inspired video made by OtaKing Animation. Check it out:

In my humble opinion, Star Wars: TIE Fighter is arguably one of the best games LucasArts ever created in the 90’s. This game  always has a special place in my memories of the good times. If Disney really wanted to make a great movie or show about Starfighters, TIE Fighter’s campaign should have been their blueprint.

You can purchase TIE Fighter and related games such as X-Wing and X-Wing vs TIE Fighter at GOG.com or Steam.

Long live the Empire!

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