Developer: LucasArts Publisher: LucasArts Minimum System Requirements: Windows 95 90 MHz Pentium 16 Mb Ram 50 Mb required. 150 Mb free for caching during game play. 4X C.D. ROM drive PCI graphics card 16 bit soundcard Microsoft DirectX 5.0 (Which is included on C.D.) Multiplayer Requirements: 100 MHz Pentium 28.8 Kbps modem recommended Real Time Strategy Of all the real time strategy games, this one is one of the more intense ones out there. Since Lucas Arts has been releasing all these games as a build-up towards the three new movies coming out starting early next year, it has been hard to weed through the mundane and find the really cool games. This is one of them. If you like Age of Empires, Civilization II, Starcraft, or even Total Annihilation you'll like this game and the characters you're playing aren't nobodies, they're all the characters you know from the movies. Graphics Well the main control screen isn't really awe-inspiring. But this is it. This is where all the game play starts from. You control everything from building your ships and troops to using Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader for a diplomacy mission. You can play as either the Alliance or the Empire (depending on your mood, I guess). The agent can give you all kinds of advice and if you want, you can manage your garrisons and production. I found the graphics to be fairly blase except in the battle scenes or when you receive messages from the field which show you awesome screen shots. Sound The sound is nothing to be impressed by but it uses all the sounds and music from the movies. I found I had to turn the volume up on my speakers to hear the music well. Start Me Up!!! After deciding if you want to be the Alliance or the Empire you are taken to the control screen. The first thing that you want to do is send your special agents(Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Han Solo) out on missions, be it recruiting more agents, espionage on a system from the enemy or diplomacy on a neutral planet. Make sure to check out each agent's status to see what their strengths and weaknesses are. The next thing to do is start building troops and ships. This is the most important aspect of the game because it won't be long before the enemy will be there with their guns blasting. Battle Whenever a ship from the other side drops out of hyperspace where one of your fleets are positioned, you are thrown into battle. The battle sequences are cool because you get a three dimensional view of the battle and you can control each individual ship. (You can have the battle simulated and just wait for the results but it is more fun this way). There is an encyclopedia that you can access for the whole game and it is very handy in these situations. The screens tell you what weapons each ship has and its top speed etc... Missions The missions are the main part of the game. They are how you recruit more special agents, search out new areas, throw support towards your side in systems and hopefully have systems join your side. Strengths: Battle scenes, control over production, competitive head to head combat, funny captions. Weaknesses: Sound, need for better instruction at beginning, uneven graphic presentation. MAKE SURE YOU READ THE MANUAL. IT IS NOT A GAME YOU CAN JUST 'PICK UP'. Rating: Only Total Annihilation is better but otherwise it is a solid entry. The Joystick is up! Availability: At any retail computer store. Star Wars Rebellion was reviewed by GameBoyz reader, Chris 'Ace' Fletcher using his: Pentium 166 MHz 32 Mb Ram 2 Mb Video Card