Star Wars: Flight of the Falcon

Star Wars: Flight of the Falcon is a shoot 'em up released on November 21, 2003 for the GBA, developed by Pocket Studios and published by THQ.

Why The Falcon Couldn't Fly

 * 1) Ugly pixelated 3D graphics. The Game Boy Advance simply wasn't powerful enough to handle this type of game, and it wouldn't be until the release of the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable that a 3D flight sim would be feasible in mobile form.
 * 2) High polygon models cause the frame rate to lower especially in the race to get to Docking Bay 94, making it difficult to steer properly, and also makes your laser shots go very slowly.
 * 3) It is impossible to correctly line up a shot due to crappy aiming mechanics. There is a crosshair that points to where you'll shoot, however it doesn't help because the crosshair is placed deep in 3D space and the perspective has a deep field of view.
 * 4) Some of the levels require you to shoot down a certain amount of enemies to win. If you take too long Star Destroyers will start attacking you. If you get to the end of the stage without destroying the required amount of enemies your ship immediately implodes and you lose any progress on destroying the ships, meaning you have to do the entire level all over again!
 * 5) The race to get to Docking Bay 94 is horribly designed. You need to race to the end before time runs out and the amount of time is very low. You have no time to react properly and if you hit something you lose too much time to successfully reach the end.
 * 6) It is difficult to dodge enemy fire. With the game's shoddy graphics and choppy framerate you can barely even see enemy shots before they hit you.
 * 7) To unlock the levels of the next episode/movie you must complete all levels of the previous episode all in one session without running out of continues. The A New Hope episode has six levels that have to be beaten in one sitting before any other episodes can be accessed. If you just start in the middle of the episode it doesn't count to unlocking the next episode.
 * 8) The first stage from Return of the Jedi is extremely difficult. You have to destroy a very large number of TIE Bombers, survive a massive number of enemies without dying once (the level has no checkpoints), and you can only miss a few TIE Bombers without failing the mission. The limited visibility and awful aiming mechanics make it very hard to both spot and shoot down enough Bombers before they disappear forever.
 * 9) To add insult to injury, the flying segments from Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (which is considered by most people as one of the worst games ever made) are better than most of the gameplay in Star Wars: Flight of the Falcon and can actually be fun at times, unlike this game, where you are likely to be frustrated instead.

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