Here you go; you can tidy it up with bold, underline, etc.
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Star Wars: Episode 1: The Phantom Menace - Review
Platforms: Sony PlayStation, PC
Generally, games inspired by movies don’t do well. However, the Star Wars series goes from strength to strength, gathering better graphics and sound with each new title released. And this, one of the first games released based on the new movie The Phantom Menace, is no exception.
Gameplay
The plot of the game follows the movie very closely, and some may find this a bad thing. Others, however, will enjoy being able to explore all the various locations seen in the film. Naboo, Otoh Gunga, Tatooine; they’re all here, and are free for the player to explore. This gives the game a lot of replay value, as you can go back and see where all those secrets were. Mos Espa is truly interesting, as you can talk to almost anybody you meet (watch out for the thugs, though!)
All the characters from the movie are in the game, from Obi-Wan Kenobi down to Mawhonic the pod racer. They all blend in well against the settings. And new characters are included to aid you in sidequests you may encounter. These take you away from the plot of the film and show you the lives of inhabitants. The sidequests range from searching for someone to freeing captured civilians.
A lot of people have complained about the angle of which the camera is behind the player; it is a bit different, but it doesn’t take much time to get used to. The angle is easily changeable on the PC version with a code.
Sound
If there is one area of games that LucasArts is good at, it’s sound. The wonderful music is taken directly from the movie, and changes depending on what situation you are in. The sound effects are all here as well; not just the average lightsaber ‘Vwing’, but down to little details like people talking in the background and footsteps.
Some of the movie cast are back for the game, namely Ahmed ‘Jar Jar Binks’ Best and Jake ‘Anakin Skywalker’ Lloyd. But the other characters are in the game, and their voice actors do a tremendous job at making you believe they are who they are pretending to be.
Graphics
Now, here’s where the PC wins hands down. The camera movement between cutscenes is smoother, and the characters look more realistic in high-resolution. However, the PSX doesn’t slow down if there are lots of characters on screen; this happens a few times on PC if you don’t have a good processor.
Cutscenes
While they don’t live up to Final Fantasy 8 or such, the FMVs in this game look really good. The character’s faces and bodies don’t look as good as the droids or ships, but they are good enough to supply a nice link between levels.
Overview
This game came out about the same time as the movie, back in 1999. I’ve seen it around for PC for Ј19 (roughly $30), and I bought my PlayStation version when it came out for Ј25 (roughly $40). I bought the PSX version as I didn’t have a very fast computer at the time, but an advantage to PlayStation owners is that TPM comes with the music video for "Duel of the Fates", a great piece of music from the film. It includes some great behind-the-scenes footage. Overall, this game is well worth getting if you love Star Wars, or if you love games that give you freedom to explore and interact with creatures in a galaxy far, far away…
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Dave Maul
[This message has been edited by Dave Maul (edited July 21, 2000).]