The folks over at Lucasarts have teamed up with Luxoflux,the makers of Vigilante 8, to give us a game for any boy who dreamed of blowing up his Star Wars toys but was too afraid that he would get in trouble with his parents. The premise of the game is simple and straightforward: Jabba the Hut is holding his own version of a demolition derby circuit where anything goes. There is no complicated plot to follow or any complex character motivation. You just need to blow everybody else up before they blow you up.

This is Vigilante 8 with Star Wars themed setting and spacecraft. There is nothing particularly new or innovative about this game, but it seems to really appeal to a love for the Star Wars mythology while satisfying a need for destruction. The vehicle choices are excellent. It could have easily been a boring assortment of Tie Fighters, X-Wings, and Corellian Starships, but instead we get little Boba Fett with his jet pack, the Rancor Beast with a mounted laser canon, and the bounty hunter Aura Sing on her swoop. There are some great standards as well like a modified Landspeeder or an AT-ST. There is something for everyone here. The detail on the vehicles is spectacular. After playing this game, you might wonder why anyone would want to play with the toys anymore. This incredible detail extends to damage that the vehicles take while fighting. When your Snowspeeder is on its last legs, it looks it.

The weapons are simple blasters that have been mounted on each vehicle and there are four secondary weapons that you can find throughout the courses. This may not seem like a lot in a day where we rate our shooters by the number of different ways you can kill your opponents, but trust me, the limited number of weapons actually enhances gameplay. I fear that if there had been too many weapons the player’s focus might shift from the actual goals of the game to getting their favorite canon. All of the weapons have special moves when fully charged and you won’t be disappointed with the effects. My favorite has to be the Rancor’s grab and throw move when he’s at a full charge. The only problem with the combat aspect of this game is the auto-targeting feature. It switches between opponents at a snail’s pace. I’ve missed a few opportunities to demolish some of my opponents right in front of me because the targeting system didn’t switch over fast enough. There is a manual override that I highly recommend using.

There was a surprising amount of variety when it came to gameplay options. The various modes of play include a tournament, a high stakes game, a droid hunt, a simple battle game and, of course, multi-player. The tournament is self explanatory, except that you have to pay attention to how much money you’re making. Repairing sheilds and recharging weapons through the game costs you credits and if you don’t walk away with enough prize money, you won’t be able to unlock other characters. High Stakes mode gives you the option of placing bets on yourself, which was a nice touch. You play until you get to 10,000 or you run out of money. Droid hunt is a simple "blow up as many as you can before the time runs out" scenario. Battle mode is simply a matter of picking your opponents and vanquishing them. The multi-player on the Dreamcast enables up to four players at once which will provide a nice opportunity for bonding with friends and family.

The battle arenas themselves are almost flawless. There are plenty of choices like the ice planet Hoth, the swamps of Dagoba, or the capital on Naboo. The attention to detail is where this aspect of the game really shines. For instance, when you’re battling it out on the surface of the Death Star you have to avoid Tie Fighters in the trenches and Hoth has roaming AT-ATs. The only problem with the arenas is that the backgrounds are constantly being drawn in which can be a little distracting at times, but the level designs are so well done that you want to forgive this one minor flaw.