November 14, 2007 - Some people just love Star Wars. I personally love Star Wars so much I spend every day at work contemplating deep questions such as whether hating Jar Jar Binks makes me an intergalactic racist or if Jawas had access to universal health care. Thanks to these truly deep questions I was excited for the opportunity to review LucasArts’ Star Wars Battlefront Renegade Squadron for the PSP. The Battlefront series has made its way onto the Mac, PC, Xbox, PS2, and PSP in differing editions. I haven’t played any of the previous versions of Battlefront and given that Renegade Squadron is exclusive to the PSP, I really looked at the game without contrasting it to previous editions.

The most exciting part of any new Star Wars game (for dorks like me anyways) is that a new game adds new experiences and storylines to the ever-expanding Star Wars universe. The first Star Wars game landed in the arcade back in 1983 with spectacular (for the time) wire-frame graphics. Since then there’ve been plenty of games pumped out under the Star Wars license from 2D side scrollers, to 3D adventures, and flight simulators. The current Battlefront series was created to allow players to play a comprehensive part in the various epic battles from the Star Wars movies. Renegade Squadron delves deeper into the history of Star Wars by focusing on a super secret Rebel force called the Renegade Squadron. This secret force has been under the command of Hans Solo and Col Serra. Through the campaign mode you’ll learn about and play in their adventures.

Games like Battlefront are a necessary and welcome addition to the Star Wars mythology for die-hard fans. If left to their own devices, Star Wars fans will add to the mythology themselves in some pretty interesting ways (check out some of the craziness on YouTube). I personally have, due to the absence of new Star Wars games in my life, almost completed my nine volume set illustrating Ewok Kama Sutra.

From the main menu you have the choice of jumping into single player or multiplayer action, customizing your avatar, setting your in-game options, or taking advantage of the “learn to play” feature. The “learn to play” feature is a set of instructional movies that teach you how to play the various modes in the game. This is a great idea for people (me) who have an abysmal track record when it comes to reading the instruction manual cover to cover. In-depth games like Battlefront generally have a learning curve that takes a while to get the hang of. Although it takes a bit of an investment on the part of the gamer, it can pay dividends in the enjoyment and replay value of the title.

Players may be disappointed to find their favourite main characters (such Darth Vader, Hans Solo) missing from the customization menu. Renegade Squadron has a heroes feature which gives you the opportunity by asking you during gameplay if you’d like to play as one of the characters. You can play as a hero until a lightsaber meter that keeps track of your health and time runs out. The more players you kill the more time is put back on your lightsaber.

The single player and multiplayer modes are all based on conquest, space assault, or capture the flag modes. Conquest pits you against other players in an effort to capture offensive command posts while defending your own. Once you've captured all the command posts in the map you win. Depending on the map, you’ll have the option of playing for the Rebel Alliance, the Empire, the CIS, or the Republic. A command post is used by your team as a reinforcement spawning point and a place where you can change weapons and/or gear for your avatar. One of the great things about the conquest game mode is that you can jump into various vehicles during the fight.

The controls in the game on-foot and in vehicles took awhile to get the hang of at first (learning to use the R shoulder button to lock onto enemies is a necessity). During space battles I found no matter which ship I chose it was a challenge to control.