Bought My First 486 For This Game : )
Visually, Rebel Assault transports you to many locations of the beloved Star Wars universe. At various points, your aspiring rebel character can pilot the treacherous caverns of Tatooine, navigate an asteroid belt, and make a daring raid on an Imperial Star Destroyer. Since each mission is attached to the overall plot of the game, I don't want to spoil the "what's next" surprise associated with completing each level. Suffice to say that you will find yourself immersed in the rich visual detail, and will feel as if you are really in the story.
The excellent musical score serves to further absorb you in the tale. As in the movie series, the mood and level of the music fits the location. When navigating the asteroid belt, for example, it seems that the crescendos and driving rhythms are timed with your heartbeats.
Alas, if only I could stop here! I love Star Wars. I am from the first generation, the kids who stood in line for hours to see the original. In 1977, it captured my 10 year old soul in a unique way that has never been duplicated. It feels almost like betraying a part of my childhood when I report that playing this game just isn't very fun.
The controls during certain missions range from touchy to downright impossible. Since finishing a level requires the completion of various tasks, certain parts of Rebel Assault may require you to spend several hours repeating the same mission, ad nauseum. Ironically, the graphics really let down in some areas, such as the asteroid field. In this mission, you must direct your fighter through a field without striking the flying space rocks. Pretty straightforward, right? It would be, except for the fact that it is nearly impossible to tell when you are going to hit one, since there is no way to tell how close you are to a particular obstacle. Add to this the fact that the X-Wing used in this mission handles about as well as a shopping cart, you can easily waste hours trying to complete the chore. In addition, some areas require you to perform a task AT AN EXACT INSTANT in AN EXACT TIME to be considered complete. In this respect, Rebel Assault has a quality similar to Dragon's Lair, the old stand-up cartoon game. This makes the game so incredibly linear that any replay value is lost.
If you look at this game from the perspective of what was available during the early nineties, you will understand the reason I scored this game so highly in sound and graphics. These alone lend a high tilt value to Rebel Assault, since it was unlike anything available at the time. However, the game-play experience ranges from mildly fun to downright frustrating, a fact that saddens my aspiring rebel heart.