Star Wars: Rebel Assault

Story
The player controls the actions of Rookie One, taking on the evil Galactic Empire, going through events (plus some original ones) covered in the Star Wars movies of episodes four and five (A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, respectively).

The game is divided into 15 "Chapters", which involve training, piloting various craft, and destroying various Empire targets. Each Chapter has a specific objective (or more than one) in order to advance to the next one. If the player takes too much damage to their shields during a Chapter, they will lose a life; run out of lives and the game will end.

Scoring
Scoring and bonuses after completing a Chapter varies.

Chapter 1
Introductory level (divided into two parts) where the player pilots a T16 Skyhopper through Beggar's Canyon in order to get familiarized with the controls. In the first area, in a behind the ship perspective, the player needs to steer clear of the Canyon walls; if Rookie One's ship takes too much damage, it will be destroyed and the player will have to start over at the beginning of the level again if they have any reserve lives left.

In the second area, it switches to a top-viewed mode where the player again needs to keep clear of Canyon walls and rock formations while shooting down as many target drones as possible that appear throughout the area.

Chapter 2: Asteroid Field Training
Graduating to an A-Wing Fighter, Rookie One pilots his craft through an asteroid field, dodging asteroids when given the onscreen command to do so (depending on difficulty level chosen) and shooting the ice asteroids.

Chapter 3: Planet Kolaador
This Chapter is pretty similar to the first one, although this time around the player pilots an A-Wing and must navigate even tougher terrain on the crystal planet of Kolaador (where the flying areas are much more enclosed and have a much smaller margin for error), keeping pace with his Commander Ru Murleen's ship.

Chapter 4: Star Destroyer Attack
Taking the first actual mission into space, Rookie One is sent up against a Star Destroyer, where he must take out the ship's turbo lasers, shield generators, and a few T. I. E. Fighters that appear in between passes along the Destroyer. Once all the targets on the Destroyer have been obliterated, Rookie One must fire photon torpedoes to take down the Destroyer for good.

Chapter 5: Tatooine Attack
This repeats Chapter 1's path, although this time around Rookie One is flying an X-Wing and must destroy three T. I. E. Fighters in order to advance to the next section, which involves shooting as many AT-STs (and possibly two Shuttle Tydiriums) as possible as the player flies over Mos Eisley.

Chapter 6: Asteroid Field Chase
Several T. I. E. Fighters escaped from the previous Chapter, so the player must go through this asteroid field while dodging a few asteroids (again, by onscreen prompts) and destroying the T. I. E.s and ice asteroids along the way.

Chapter 7: Walkers
Taking place on Hoth from the episode five movie, Rookie One pilots a snowspeeder that makes passes around an Imperial AT-AT, which the player must shoot all beige sections of the AT-AT in order to take it out of commission, along with choosing an attack flight pattern during this Chapter.

Chapter 8: Stormtroopers
Here Rookie One's snowspeeder runs out of power, forcing him to land and clear the rebel base of Stormtroopers while on foot. If Rookie One doesn't take out the Stormtroopers quick enough, they will shoot and chip away at his shield levels, which a life will be lost and the player will have to start over if they have any lives left if their damage meter maxes out, or if they pick a wrong hallway to pass through and end up being surrounded by Stormtroopers at the other end of the hall.

Chapter 9: Protect Rebel Transport
Back in action, Rookie One needs to shoot as many T. I. E. Fighters for as long as possible in order for the rebel transport ship to escape.

Chapter 10: Yavin Training
This Chapter is pretty much like flying on the Tattoine Chapters and dodging canyon walls, only with more targets to shoot as the Rebels await the arrival of the Death Star in their system.

Chapter 11: TIE Attack
Unlike previous Chapters where Rookie One (who has now become known as "Blue Three") has to shoot down as many T. I. E. Fighters as possible without losing a life, later on in this level, one of the game's characters, Captain Simms, is present, which if the player is not able to destroy several T. I. E. Fighters that are on his tail in time, they will destroy him and his ship, which the player will have to start the level over without having their energy levels being reset. Other than that, this is the usual "wipe out all enemies without taking too much damage and getting killed" Chapter.

Chapter 12: Death Star Surface
Blue Three flies over the Death Star's Surface, shooting surface guns and towers and avoiding their fire and colliding with them in an overhead viewpoint, like the second part of the first Tattooine Chapter.

Chapter 13: Surface Cannon
A cannon on the Death Star must be disabled before entering the trench, which Blue Three will have to circle around it will shooting targets around its base; in between passes, T. I. E. Fighters must be destroyed as well, along with dodging their fire.

Chapter 14: Power Relays
This Chapter is pretty much a rerun of the previous one, where it alternates between the cannon and T. I. E. Fighters, although this time around Blue Three's Fighter dives beneath the cannon's platform to shoot its power relays so the Rebels can then pursue an attack on the Death Star's trench.

Chapter 15 Death Star Trench
The usual ending to a Star Wars game involves a trench run such as this one, requiring Blue Three to destroy surface and platform guns during the first section, then the second part adds force field generators that must be taken out, as well as dodging Death Star walls that will cause damage, along with launching photon torpedoes at the target shaft at the end to destroy the Death Star.

Third-Person Flight Controls
(for behind the craft-viewed Chapters)


 * Steer ship--D-pad or joystick
 * Steer ship, sharp turns--up and left or up and right on D-pad or joystick
 * Fire lasers--button A

Aerial Flight Controls
(for above player's ship perspective Chapters)


 * Move ship--D-pad or joystick left and right
 * Increase/decrease thrusters--D-pad or joystick up/down
 * Photon Torpedo--A button

First-Person Flight Controls
(inside the cockpit perspective Chapters)


 * Move ship/Crosshair--D-pad or joystick
 * Fire lasers and Torpedoes--A button

Third-Person Shooting
(Chapter 8 only)


 * Point blaster--D-pad or joystick
 * Shoot blaster--A button
 * Shuffle left and right--hold B button and move D-pad or joystick left and right

Choose flight path
(Chapter 7 only)

Choose path--left or right on D-pad or joystick while pressing the B button

Extras
Music, sound effects and voices can be turned off, the player can choose between flight and pad control, as well as difficulty level (easy, normal and hard) and restarting the game.

Differences between versions

 * There is at least one level missing as compared to the PC version. Considering the entire volume of the CD isn't even 400 out of its 600 meg capacity, it probably could have been easily included in this release.
 * The graphics are better in the 3D0 version, especially as far as the video quality for the cutscenes go. There are several minor differences, such as additional displays, like ones that keep a total of how many AT-STs were shot in Chapter 5 and the damage percentage for the AT-AT in Chapter 7. Also, several brief slowdowns seen in this release during cutscenes do not exist in the 3D0 version.

Trivia

 * Cutscene footage is taken from the episode four and five movies, along with some entirely new footage shot just for the game.
 * One of the passwords for the game is "KLAATU", in regards to the robot from The Day the Earth Stood Still movies.
 * The game has been criticized of its cutscenes with the superimposed faces on actors' bodies, which the bodies usually do not move until the character speaks, especially by the video game criticin regards to the unintentional hilarity of it. Also, the original voices from the movies were not used; people other than the actors from the movies did the Darth Vader, C-3P0, etc. voices on this game.
 * Complaints about the (lack of) color palette have also been aired, as a lot of the game is done just in white. The graphics for the 3D0 are definitely better, as some areas are difficult to tell what is going on (especially the overhead-viewed second part of the first Chapter, as it's hard to tell when the player is plowing into a rock formation until it's too late, as the same goes for Chapter 12 on the Death Star surface, with its not only lack of details, but grainy visuals).
 * Plot hole: in the Tattoine Attack Chapter, why can't the T. I. E. Fighters just fly out of the trenches?
 * For some reason, the sound effect of the Millennium Falcon flying overhead from the episode four movie is used a lot for when the X-Wings fly by during several of the cutscenes, even when the Falcon is never seen a single time during the game.
 * The game also had ports to the PC, Macintosh and 3D0 as well.

Links

 * Video game critic's review (F)
 * Passwords available on Stage Select for normal and easy levels,along with an additional photo from part of the game's intro