I just finished playing through Tie Fighter for the first time in at least 8 years. I wore out several joysticks playing X-Wing and Tie Fighter as a kid and I always favored Tie Fighter for the simple reason that you were playing to serve the Emporer. 90% of Star Wars games are presented from the Rebel and Jedi perspective so this changes things up like playing as the Germans in [insert any WWII shooter here]. Also, you actually fly some ships without shields which adds a level of difficulty missing in X-Wing.

The Video Game Journey isn’t about long meandering reviews and I’ll get to the point quickly on each post. Star Wars: Tie Fighter is one of the best games ever. Considering it’s 1994 release, the game is still extremely playable and addicting. The X-Wing Collector Series release is playable right out of the box in Windows XP so if you want to play this classic let me know, I’ll let you borrow my copy and a USB joystick.

Tie Fighter = 9.5

I’ve started compiling a list of games to play that include the best, the underrated, the obscure and anything that can be considered “worth playing”. I don’t want to play every single game that was ever made, but there are definetely gaps in what I have played and what I remember playing. The motivation for this little exploration was caused by my recent replay of Tie Fighter, quite possibly one of the best games ever.

For example, I played Giants: Citizen Kabuto 6 or 7 years ago and really don’t remember much about it. Looking at old reviews you can see that it was highly regarded by most, but the specifics of the game escape me. The spreadsheet I’m developing will let me track my own rating and thoughts about the game. I’ll add it to the list now and mark it as “Needs Replay”.

Other games I’ve played might not need another play through like Final Fantasy Tactics. Incredible game, but I played and beat it in the past year. There are plenty of other tactical RPGs that I never had the chance to play like Tactics Ogre.

I’ll take suggestions on pretty much any system or genre, if there’s a game that stands out to you I want to hear about it. One I just thought of, Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine for Genesis.