Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter was the sequel to both Star Wars: X-Wing and TIE Fighter and was first released in 1997. Though the game lacked a comprehensive campaign mode (like the well fleshed-out, highly praised story-based campaigns of its predecessors) it included a series of non-connected single player missions. Its main selling point, however, was that it would allow online play for players to hone their interstellar dogfighting skills against fellow wetware-based intelligence. In this sense, it perhaps could be best compared to Electronic Arts' Battlefield series or other games focusing strictly on online play... Or it would, if the netcode wasn't so terrible that it's unplayable even with modern connection speeds.

That said, critics and gamers alike were disappointed by the lack of a single-player campaign mode, so LucasArts released an expansion pack, Balance of Power only a few months afterwards. The expansion contained a campaign each for the Rebellion and Empire, and greatly expanded the playability of the game.


Tropes used in Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter include:
  • Hitbox Dissonance: As long as your cockpit doesn't slam into enemy containers, your craft doesn't take Collision Damage (especially with the B-Wing). Lasers and other projectiles work as expected.
  • Spoony Bard: The Z-95 Headhunter. Also the TIE Fighter, TIE Bomber, and TIE Interceptor. Once you get the expansions, the Y-wing is pretty useless compared to the B-wing.