Star Wars Battle Pod

This was supposedly the game I have been waiting all my life for.  Being a vetran of TIE Fighter and X-wing, I have dreamed of a cabinet like this to play TIE-Fighter on.  And there has been a dearth of Star Wars space flight sim games (or ANY space flight sim games) for over a decade.  (Star Wars Attack Squardon (which I played in the beta) was the first hope I had seen of any Star Wars space sim, but that was canceled before going into a public release.

This game is exclusively in the American Arcade Dave & Buster.  I greatly appreciate the existence of Dave & Busters as the last vestige of arcades in America.  Even Fun and Games in Framingham has succumbed to the kiddie element of games.  Of course Fun Spot stands out as the mecca of classic video games, but it's distant New Hampshire location has limited me to a single visit so far.

Exterior cabinet

Unfortunately, Star Wars Battle Pod does not live up to my dreams of a successor to TIE Fighter. The game does do some things right. It's got a great looking cabinet.  One of the most outstanding features is the "control panel" on the outside of the cabinet, which lights up an looks like it was taken straight out of the Death Star.  Also, most prominently, it has a HUGE screen the encompasses your entire field of vision (this did give me sight motion sickness, which is only the second game ever to do so).  Of course the game takes advantage of the John Williams incredible Star Wars score, though at times it seems like the cut it off a bit prematurely at times, just before it hits some of the highlighted moments.  Also, the controls are quite authentic looking, with a joystick an speed control.

Control layout

The look of the game is also quite impressive, capturing the most iconic battles in Star Wars.  Faithfully recreated are the battles of Yavin, Hoth, Endor land and space battle as well as a never before seen after the destruction of the first Death Star in "Vader's Revenge"  (reminiscent of the game TIE Fighter).  Unfortunately, while watching the cut scenes, it's hard to overlook the low resolution of the game but this isn't something that will not distract you in the heat of battle.

The first major short coming of this game is that it is very arcadie.  The game flies you through some incredible scene, but you have no control over what direction you fly in. making the setting more of an active background.  You can only control the speed, and move around your target recital.  Since you cannot control where you fly, you also cannot crash, nor bump into the surrounding ships or Death Star.  The only time you face danger is if you don't shoot the highlighted enemies in time, which will lead to them firing on you (which cannot be avoided, very similar to the game Time Crisis) and causing you the loss of one of your three layers of shields.  The game it also quite easy, as I was able to complete 2 of three levels I played only failing the expert  level of Vader's Revenge.  One other short coming is there is no option to continue, either paid or not. So you would have to pay and replay the whole level once you fail.  This is also a bit of a let down, as the levels are quite short, but also rather expensive.  It costs about $3.00 per play, and each lever last only 2 or 3 minutes. 

I would LOVE to own one of these games and see if it can be converted to play TIE Fighter.  Even better than that, would be if it could also play multiplayer.