There is absolutely no reason why any stars wars, Nintendo 64, and video game fan should miss Battle for Naboo. COMPLETE
The bad: Lack of multiplayer really hurts, camera takes time to get used to in larger levels
Game-play: 10/10
Graphics: 10/10
Sound: 10/10
Value: 9/10
Tilt: 9/10
Average Score: 9.7/10
Just when I thought I wasn't missing out on anything Nintendo 64 related, Star Wars: Battle For Naboo absolutely blew my mind with fantastic game-play that cannot be beaten on any console. This could be the best Star Wars game ever made. It completely follows everything from the scenes in the Phantom Menace and actually is better than the movie itself!
The game's plot is intelligent and amazing enough for you to love it. The trade Federation has been taxed highly, and looks to steal Naboo's resources in order to stop this. They will destroy anybody that stands in their way. You are Gavyn Sykes, a lieutenant in the volunteer Naboo security forces from the movie, and you need to stop the Trade Federation from destroying the planet and develop a resistance to stop them.
When you pop the game into your Nintendo 64, you'll notice the excellent intro. Jar Jar Binks is walking around when he is killed by the Nintendo 64 logo! That just ROCKS SO MUCH!! When Jar Jar Binks gets killed, you know this is a great game. After watching the impressive intro, you scroll in the main menu, where to my disappointment, there isn't any multiplayer at all. What were they thinking not putting multiplayer on here? It's a Star Wars game so I do expect multiplayer to come. Considering this is the only flaw that affects the game, it's easy to get past that.
There are 15 colorful and addicting missions for you to complete in order to free Naboo from the Trade Federation. To my delight, all you do is fly around killing enemies and following orders. This is rarely frustrating and tedious for you to completely scream at the game, and while it is challenging, it is forgiving. You can get 1-ups, and when you die, you can start where you last were. The controls are nearly flawless to boot, providing first person views and missiles in addition to your lasers. My only complaint is the lack of checkpoints, but it seems the levels are short enough that you won't even care. The camera is good for the most part, using the R button, but it takes time to get used to because enemies circle all over the place. If you can get by this, welcome to greatness.
When I first played this game, I thought it was extremely tedious because I didn't know what to do. For some reason I thought the game was being cheap with me because I kept failing my mission, since I didn't know what to do. When I found out I was supposed to follow Captain Kael, the game became so much fun and I was never bored at all! Combat against other enemies fighters, droids, and ships never feels repetitive or unnecessarily complex. It's just arcade style fun packed into a classic Nintendo 64 cartridge.
But the thing that really gives this game a ton of replay value is collecting medals. Obviously, the 3 kinds of medals are bronze, silver, and gold. Getting to the gold means not losing a life, killing all of the enemies, having near perfect accuracy on your enemies, and collecting bonus stuff. This makes the game even more of an extremely fun challenge to complete, and unlocks cool aircraft planes for you to use and secret levels for you to unlock. Usually many games would use boring and furiously complicated concepts to accomplish this, but Battle For Naboo got it right without any of these problems.
The games graphics look beautifully detailed with the Star wars atmosphere you came to know and love. If you have the Expansion Pak, you can make the already beautiful game an understatement. This is the best looking shooter on the 64, because it moves so smooth without any slowdowns when massive packs of enemies are on the screen everywhere. Sykes looks a little blurry, but he looks fluid and well drawn, it's hard to remember it anyway. The skies are filled with beautiful sunset atmospheres, rainy swamps, and even cloudy worlds. Hell, this looks like a Gamecube game! The explosions are the best and most realistic I've ever seen on a Nintendo 64, even beating Ocarina of Time and Goldeneye 007 to the test!
The game's audio is flawless, without any problems or annoying lines for you to say. The Narrator sounds awesome and his deep bass voice is greatly digitized and will intimidate you deeply. The muffled voices you'd usually hear in a microphone if you were in a plane sound great. Shooting, screams, and explosions sound right in place and never feel weird or crazy. The orchestral soundtrack has all the themes from the franchise, and on a Nintendo 64, it surprisingly sounds EXACTLY like the films! I love the game's opening theme, which gets you pumping and thrilled for what is a masterpiece. Thankfully as well, it never loops or gets boring. You'll always want to listen to this excellent soundtrack.
But the thing that stands out is the fact Factor 5 created the Nintendo 64 Star Wars games near flawlessly and reminded you of the classic Super Nintendo games, as well as a couple of great arcade games. There's absolutely no reason why any Star Wars, Nintendo 64, and video game fan should miss Battle for Naboo. It's got everything a shooting fan wants with more. The missions, large levels, great combat, innovative replay value, smooth controls and camera, superb graphics and memorable soundtrack all stand out and will turn heads towards the tv. In conclusion, this game is a classic, get it today!