App Store Essentials: Star Wars Trench Run

This is the app you're looking for

There’s no denying it: with its accelerometer controls, the iPhone was made for a Star Wars X-Wing game, and when Trench Run was announced a month or so again, my attention was well and truly captured. Flying an X-Wing and blowing up the death star. On my iPhone! Ready to play anywhere! Sounds amazing, right? But now that it’s out is it classic Star Wars quality, or Phantom Menace rubbish?

Let's blow this thing and get out of here!

Star Wars Trench Run is based on one of the most iconic scenes of the Star Wars franchise: the battle and destruction of the Death Star from the original Star Wars movie. Anybody who has played Star Wars: Rogue Leader on the Nintendo Gamecube has essentially played this game before. Using the accelerometer, the player must pilot their X-Wing through dog fights with TIE Fighters, complete the titular trench run (which is a considerably more complex affair than the movie version), shake off Darth Vader and destroy the Death Star itself.

The game opens with some footage from Episode IV and then takes the player to the main menu where you can choose to play the game in ‘mission’ or ‘arcade’ mode. In mission mode, each ‘stage’ of the battle must be played in sequence from approaching the Death Star, dogfighting, completing the trench run, and blowing up the Death Star.

Red 5 standing by!

It sounds quick and simple but while the scope of the game may well be a bit narrow, simple it ain’t. Even on easy mode, this game is no walkover. The initial dogfight stage is a gentle introduction to help you get the hang of your controls — tilt up and down, left and right to control the ship, tap the lower-right section of the screen to fire and the lower-left to slow down time (very useful later on). The TIE Fighters fly with their signature roar across space to the rousing John Williams score – wear your headphones for a top notch immersive experience. With the Death Star sprawling below you and the red planet of Alderaan above, you must twist and turn and be quick on the trigger to take the empire out.

Use The Force, Luke...

Once you have shot down your allotted number of TIE Fighters, the next step is the trench run itself. In the movie, the trench run was a canyon like chasm with a few gun towers: in this game, it’s full-on obstacle course that even The Force will have a hard time saving you from. Initially, you’ll need to dodge vertical blockades, blow up gun towers, and fly through some circular holes. Once you’ve been lulled into a false sense of security, the difficulty level kicks it up a notch.

Odd place for a window, but stunning view

The next stage pits you against even more obstacles. As well as the gun towers and horizontal blockades, you’ll be up against even more guns, vertical obstacles and gaps that are barely wide enough to fit through. It’s not easy, and even if your reflexes and piloting prowess would put you up there with Red Leader, there is the small matter of the sometimes-impossible-to-perceive limits of how high and low you can fly. I’ve lost count of the amount of times a horizontal block has come flying towards me that I am certain I can fly above, only to find that I hit the ‘ceiling’ of where the game will allow me to go and I disappear into a ball of flames.

There are a few other flaws – at times, the action on-screen is almost too dark. Some of the obstacles are so shadowy as to be almost black and at times you can barely make out what you are doing. If you’re playing in a location that casts bright reflections on the glass screen you can pretty much forget about achieving any level of accuracy. Some in-game brightness settings would be nice, but for now save this one for playing in a darkened room or make sure the brightness of your iPhone is set to max. These aren’t show stoppers by any means and you’ll learn to live with these quirks in no time.

Darth Vader. Not a particularly nice fellow.

Once you think you’ve begun to master the obstacles, the next stage puts you in the sights of Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter. Hang around the centre of his sights for too long, and he’ll let you have it. This is genuinely tricky game-play, but it remains enjoyable. There’s a great sense of achievement as you squeeze through impossibly tight gaps and pull-off maneuvers that are worthy of Star Wars screen time.

KER-FRICKIN'-BOOM!

The final stage, the destruction of the Death Star, is considerably easier than the obstacle courses in the trench run, but is awesome when you pull it off. Suddenly all the obstacles and gun towers give way, and you’re left with thirty seconds or so of empty chasm (that’s more like it!) and Obi-Wan bleating in your ear about The Force (talk about a back-seat driver!) before you simply need to fire a missile at the right moment to send the Death Star to oblivion, and you’re done! Queue the epic explosion!

Arcade mode lets you jump straight to dog-fight or trench run, and once you’ve completed all mission stages you can jump straight to your favourite one to play it again. Yes, it’s a small game – a fraction of a console game if you like, but at a fraction of the price it’s still good value and again it works perfectly as a mobile game where you can have a quick blast while you’re on the go or waiting around somewhere. And do I need to remind you: it’s Star Wars! Back in the 80s if someone had told me I’d be able to play a realistic video game of this particular scene on a device I could fit into my pocket and didn’t have to load up with pocket money every few minutes, I’d have laughed myself silly. Fans of Star Wars should not miss this – it’s definitely an App Store essential.

– Star Wars Trench Run