Star Wars: Episode I: Battle for Naboo

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Star Wars: Episode I: Battle for Naboo
Developer(s)	Factor 5 LucasArts
Publisher(s)	Nintendo 64 NA LucasArts EU THQ Windows NA LucasArts
Designer(s)	Brett Tosti Holger Schmidt
Native resolution	320 × 240 640 × 480 (Expansion Pak)
Platform(s)	Nintendo 64, Microsoft Windows
Release date(s)	Nintendo 64 NA December 13, 2000[1] EU March 23, 2001 Windows NA March 12, 2001[2]
Genre(s)	Action, Shooter
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ELSPA: 11+ ESRB: T
Media	128 Mbit (16 MB) N64 cartridge, CD-ROM
System requirements	233 MHz Processor 64 MB RAM 8 MB Graphics card
Input methods	Nintendo 64 controller, Keyboard and mouse, Joystick

Star Wars: Episode I: Battle for Naboo (sometimes referred to as Star Wars: Battle for Naboo) is an arcade-style action game co-developed by Factor 5 and LucasArts. It was published by LucasArts and THQ and released for the Nintendo 64 and Windows. It was released for the Nintendo 64 on December 13, 2000, with a Windows version released three months later on March 12, 2001. The game is a spiritual sequel to Star Wars: Rogue Squadron released two years earlier on the same platforms.

Set in the fictional Star Wars galaxy, the game takes place entirely during the events depicted in the film Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Players control Gavyn Sykes, a Lieutenant in Naboo's Royal Security Forces. As the game progresses, Sykes and the Royal Security Forces fight the Trade Federation in fifteen missions that take place on or in the space immediately surrounding Naboo.

Contents 1 Gameplay 2 Synopsis 2.1 Setting 2.2 Plot 3 Development 4 Reception 5 References

[edit] Gameplay

Like the game's predecessor, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, Battle for Naboo is a fast-paced, arcade-style action game.^[3] Each of the game's fifteen levels introduces mission objectives that must be completed to progress to the next level. Enemy aircraft are primarily composed of Trade Federation Droid starfighters and air mines. Ground defenses are more varied and include battle and destroyer droids, laser and missile turrets, AATs, MTTs, gunboats, and STAPs.

Depending on the level, the player can control several different air and land vehicles. Aircraft are the Naboo Starfighter, the Naboo Bomber and Police Cruiser, while land craft are the Flash and Gian speeders, the Trade Federation Gunboat and the Heavy STAP. Each vehicle offers a unique armament arrangement, as well as varying degrees of speed and maneuverability. The game restricts the player to a particular craft for each level; however, some levels offer the player the option to change craft mid-level. Seven bonus power-ups are hidden in different levels throughout the game. These bonuses improve a craft's weapons or durability and are applied to each eligible craft for the remainder of the game.

The player's performance is measured throughout the game, and performance statistics are checked after each level against four medal benchmarks. Each benchmark contains six categories: completion time, number of enemies destroyed, shot accuracy, number of friendly craft and structures saved, number of bonuses collected and lives remaining. If a player's performance exceeds one of the level's four benchmarks in all five categories, a medal—bronze, silver, gold or platinum—is awarded upon completion. Unlike other medal benchmarks, platinum medal benchmarks are undisclosed to the player. Acquiring medals promotes the player's rank and helps unlock hidden content.

[edit] Synopsis

[edit] Setting

Battle for Naboo takes place in the fictional Star Wars galaxy. The overarching conflict is an escalating battle between the Trade Federation and the people of Naboo. All 15 missions occur during the events depicted in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. The taxation of trade routes is in dispute and the Trade Federation has sent an invasion force to the planet's capital city of Theed hoping to capture the planet and steal its resources.^[4] The planet's queen, Padmé Amidala, has left the city for Coruscant to try to gain support from the Galactic Senate. To help defend the planet, Lieutenant Gavyn Sykes must form a resistance movement.^[5]

[edit] Plot

The game starts with an opening crawl resembling the ones featured in the Star Wars films. Further story details are presented through the game's instruction manual, pre-mission briefings, characters' conversations during the game and in-game cut scenes. During the Trade Federation's initial invasion of Theed, Lieutenant Gavyn Sykes and Captain Kael are able to escape the capital and head into the surrounding farmland. The two attempt to protect civilian farmers, but Federation presence is too strong, and they retreat into the nearby swamps.^[6] There they learn of a smuggler hidden in the mountains who might aid them.^[7] With the help of farmer Ved Deviss, Sykes and Kael find Borvo the Hutt.^[8] Borvo agrees to assist the resistance movement against the Trade Federation after the group helps him escape Federation forces.^[9]

In their first strike against the Trade Federation, Kael, Sykes and Kol Kotha, a mercenary agent of Borvo's, destroy the communications satellite Comm 4. The satellite's destruction temporarily disables one of the Federation bases on the planet, allowing the terrorists to successfully attack it and destroy numerous droids and heavy equipment. During the fight Sykes commandeers a Federation gunboat and uses it to liberate labor camps along the Andrevea River, escorting the freed prisoners to a rendezvous point among the ruins to the north.

However, in the midst of this escape Kael disappears, and Sykes begins a search and rescue mission for the missing Captain. Sykes discovers a mortally wounded Kael near his crashed fighter, and it is revealed that master diego had shot down Kael after he'd learned of the Hutt's secret plan to sell the escaped prisoners into slavery. Seeking vengeance and the freedom of his people Sykes hunts down Borvo, assisted by a disgruntled Kotha who disagreed with Borvo's betrayal, and though the Hutt barely escapes to Nal Hutta the prisoners are saved in time.

Now in charge of the resistance on Naboo, Sykes leads a mission to liberate the notorious Camp 4, a detention center where the Trade Federation placed most of Naboo's important leaders. It is then that Sykes is contacted by Queen Amidala and Captain Panaka, and the plan to finally liberate Naboo is set in motion. Taking part in the diversionary attack on Theed to allow Amidala to infiltrate the Palace and capture the Trade Federation Viceroy, Sykes joins with the rest of Bravo Flight in the climactic assault on the Droid Control Ship. Partnered with R2-C4 Sykes single-handedly knocks out the Droid Control Ship's Shield Generator, a pivotal victory which allows young Anakin Skywalker to destroy the ship from within and ultimately begin his fateful journey down the path to the dark side. And with the Droid Army disabled Naboo is freed.

[edit] Development

After the success of Star Wars: Rogue Squadron in 1998, LucasArts and Factor 5 began initial testing for a follow-up in February 1999. The team discussed how to improve on what they had done with Rogue Squadron and began planning the development of a new game engine. Possible plot ideas involving the film Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace were also discussed. After it was released in May 1999, the team sat down and watched the movie several times in an attempt to find interesting characters, situations and craft for the game. Factor 5 stated that tying a movie plot into a vehicle combat game was difficult. They included as many characters and vehicles from movie as possible and attempted to mix these elements with entirely new content.^[10]

During the development process, LucasArts supplied most of the art and level-design, while Factor 5 provided the programming, tools, sound, and most of the cut-scene and art post-production work. After contemplating the idea of reusing Rogue Squadron's game engine, the team decided it was necessary to develop a new engine from scratch. Being more familiar with the Nintendo 64, Factor 5 was able to write Battle for Naboo's microcode by identifying the previous engine's strengths and weaknesses. Factor 5 stated that many of Battle for Naboo's technical aspects (such as a farther draw distance) "simply would not have been possible" using the Rogue Squadron engine. The game utilizes a particle system that was written in microcode for the Nintendo 64's reality signal processor. The team first developed the technique to display falling snow in Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, another Nintendo 64 game being developed simultaneously by the company. The result allowed Battle for Naboo to have rain and the snow effects that display up to 3000 particles at any given time without compromising the game's frame rate and without using the system's central processing unit. Explosions and fountains also utilize these particle effects.^[10]

Skywalker Sound supplied the development team with sound directly from The Phantom Menace for use in Battle for Naboo. Because its music is fully interactive and in real-time, the game required new material to be composed and pieces from the movie to be rewritten. Factor 5 again used its own sound drivers called MusyX to handle the game's sound, as it did with Rogue Squadron (then called MOsys FX Surround).^[10]

Unlike Rogue Squadron, which was developed and released for the Nintendo 64 and Windows simultaneously, Battle for Naboo was ported to Windows and released two months later. The Windows version features enhanced resolution and textures and includes a mouse-supported menu interface.^[11]

[edit] Reception

Reception
Review scores Publication Score N64 PC GamePro [12] Editors' Choice - GameSpot 7.3/10[13] 6.4/10[14] IGN 9.0/10[3] Editors' Choice 7.4/10[15] Nintendo Power 4/5[16] - PC Zone - 6.2/10[17] Aggregate scores Game Rankings 82% (15 reviews)[16] 57% (24 reviews)[18] Metacritic 84/100 (9 reviews)[19] 54/100 (17 reviews)[20]

Many reviews compared Battle for Naboo to its predecessor, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron. GamePro remarked that Battle for Naboo shares the same "exciting aerial combat, sturdy controls, and... absorbing story line",^[12] while IGN's Fran Mirabella III wrote, "Battle for Naboo proves to be a worthy follow up to Rogue by improving on nearly everything that held it back from perfection."^[3] GameSpot's Ryan Davis, however, remarked that the game remained fun despite of the "general lack of innovation over its predecessor". He also called the title "one of the best Episode I titles to hit the market".^[13] The Nintendo 64 version received mostly positive reviews, and received an aggregate score of 82% and 84 from Game Rankings and Metacritic, respectively.^[16][19]

Battle for Naboo's controls were described as tight and responsive.^[3][13] Reviewers praised the addition of ground vehicles, which were completely absent from Rogue Squadron. Both Davis and Mirabella remarked that this addition keeps the game from getting stale or redundant.^[13][3] However, both reviewers also believed that the game's Episode I setting is less engaging than Rogue Squadron's original trilogy setting. Mirabella states that "any fan of Rogue Squadron should enjoy Battle for Naboo just as much if they can get past the Episode I barrier."^[3] Davis echoed this criticism, writing that the game's setting "does not carry the same impact as the story of the original [trilogy]."^[13]

With aggregated scores of 57% and 54 from Game Rankings and Metacritic, respectively, Battle for Naboo's PC port garnered significantly lower review scores than its Nintendo 64 counterpart.^[18][20] Many complaints about the PC version stemmed from the fact that the game was not optimized for the PC when it was ported.^[15] Citing relatively low polygon counts, slower frame rates and lower sound clarity, reviewers noted that the game's visuals and audio were noticeably worse.^[15] IGN described the graphics as "[not] all that impressive on the PC";^[15] However, both GameSpot and IGN praised the game's improved textures over the Nintendo 64 version.^[15][14] Of the audio, GameSpot's Giancarlo Varanini writes, "[it] isn't that bad, but it isn't quite as good as the audio in other similar games", and goes on to describe the music as sounding "tinny." Varanini also takes issue with the PC version's aiming controls, stating that because Battle for Naboo was originally designed for the Nintendo 64's analog controller, it is difficult to aim using a PC's digital keyboard.^[14]

[edit] References