It’s an understatement to say I was pleasantly surprised. Even if I had had high hopes for this game, I would have been impressed. I’ll try not to rave too much about George Lucas and his creative genius, having done so ad nauseum in my review of Star Wars: Demolition, but what can I say? The man knows what he is doing. Not only does the game blend seamlessly into the Star Wars timeline, but it also utilizes the N64’s strengths and manages to avoid its weaknesses, ultimately providing an excellent package.

You play as Gavyn Sykes, a lieutenant in the Naboo Security Force, which is essentially the military police and pretty much the extent of Naboo’s martial force. The game begins at the point of the Trade Federation’s invasion of Naboo, and runs parallel with the plot of Phantom Menace without making any direct references to the movie. This is one of the things I love about Lucas and his marketing. Playing Battle for Naboo adds a depth to the Star Wars storyline that you won’t get, no matter how many times you watch Phantom Menace with a Darth Maul mask on your face.

I recommend this game to anyone who thinks Episode I was geared too much for kids; while this game doesn’t deserve an M rating by any means, it is still a relatively realistic and mature portrayal of war. As you attempt to accomplish various missions, you come across civilians in peril, helpless to stop the Trade Federation droids from toasting their farms. Sometimes you can help them; sometimes you can’t. Hearing a father cry "Where are my children?" tends to blot out any disturbing memories of Jar-Jar Binks. Speaking of said pariah, there are no Gungans in the game whatsoever. One mission makes a reference to them, and that’s the extent of it. You definitely do not hear anyone say "Meesa thank you." Meesa thank God.

The plot is linear, but in my opinion a good linear plot is far better then the mediocre non-linear plots that seem to proliferate games these days. In addition, this allows the saving of games without a controller pak; you can save directly to cartridge. In fact, your progress is saved automatically, but you can always go back and repeat a level if you want to earn a higher medal.

So, as Lieutenant Sykes, you start the game in Theed as the droid army attacks. After rescuing your captain, you flee to the countryside and there take part in a rebel campaign against the Trade Federation, by land, sea, air and space. Depending on the missions, you get your options of vehicles to pilot; some familiar from Phantom Menace, some new. The STAPs, Speeders and Naboo starfighters are all vehicles you’ll recognize, and the latter two make up the bulk of the missions. But also available are a Trade Federation Gunboat (which I loved, because it reminded me of the COBRA Water Moccasin I used to have when I was a kid), a police cruiser similar to the starfighter, and a bomber.

There are a few extra vehicles hidden away that can be unlocked when extra levels are completed, or certain medals are awarded. While the game itself is not extremely difficult, unlocking these extra vehicles is tough, and definitely raises the replay value of the game. There are also bonus items in the form of advanced weapons and shields, none of which are necessary to complete the game, but highly useful. Each vehicle has its standard laser blaster and a secondary weapon, torpedoes, missiles, heavy lasers, projectiles or bombs. I would have liked to see a little more variety of weapons for each vehicle. As it is, each vehicle comes with a set secondary weapon and that’s it. But the high speed of most of the gameplay doesn’t really give you much time to wish you had a few more missiles to cycle through.

The plot is simple, but there is enough creativity to be engaging. At first I was merely playing for the sake of blowing up droids, but after my captain was killed by betrayal, I was playing for a whole new set of reasons. And after seeing a few farms get blown up, you really want to stop the Trade Federation. Of course, it helps that most people will have the Phantom Menace movie to add to the effect of the storyline, but as I said, that’s where Lucas excels, utilizing a myriad of formats to tell one hell of a story.

I’m still not a fan of the N64 controller, but Battle for Naboo does a good job with what is there. Most of the buttons are utilized, and adapting to the awkward hand position necessary may take a few rounds, but isn’t too bad. And when you do acclimate to it, everything clicks into place. This is made especially apparent when flying the aircraft, after a little practice you’ll be executing barrel rolls and dropping out of the sky to blast droid starfighters like a Jedi. The radar at the top of the screen is especially useful, though it would have been nice to have some sort of Z-axis for the space levels, as it gets a little hard to get your bearings at times without references like mountains.

The graphics are excellent considering the platform. While they are still a tad grainy, for the most part the detail is high, and the landscapes are smooth. The game makes excellent use of the N64’s manipulation of 3D objects and space, the scaling is excellent and the environments are quite large. Big enough to get lost in, that’s for sure. The color scheme is a little simple, but since the game takes place on "pastoral Naboo" I’m willing to let that slide. Sound is excellent, the laser blasts sound just like how Star Wars lasers are supposed to sound like, as do the screams of the fighters as they fly by. All of this audio and visual excellence did seem to be a little too much for the N64 at times however, as the game froze up on me twice. That’s annoying. Highly, highly annoying. But if it’s the price of such high quality gaming, then I will reluctantly pay it.

All in all, this was one of the most engaging games I’ve played in a while. The difficulty level isn’t too high, most experienced gamers wont have any trouble getting through the levels. But getting through the levels with a gold medal awarded at the end of each one — which is accomplished by getting certain statistics like Time Completed and Accuracy at a high enough level — is another matter entirely, and trust me, you’re gonna want to do that when you’re done with the game.