What are lunchtimes at work for, if not for playing a quick couple of levels of a video game?

In this respect, Renegade Squadron is a perfect handheld game. I started it up, choose “Single Player”, then “Instant Action”, chose Endor as the map and Conquest as the game type and off I went. (Conquest is the only game type without flags. The idea is to control spawn points on the map. If your team can keep all of them under control for a full minute, you win.)

It’s a fun way to rewrite history. I’m not sure what triggered it, but in the first round I suddenly got the option to play as Han Solo. I accepted. A few seconds after I’d taken control, Darth Vader appeared. Proving that hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster, I ran around and shot him to bits. Don’t know why Luke had such trouble with the guy, really.

In the next round I played as an Imperial and – again, seemingly at random – got the option to play as Darth Vader. In the language of the Internet, I pwned all. I was an unstoppable force and turned the tide of the battle single-handedly. (Or so I like to think.) Pity I only realised I had a Force Choke move after all the rebel scum were dead.

There’s no denying that it’s clunky, but it is fun. Whether it’ll still be fun when the novelty wears off, I don’t yet know. Oh, how I wish the PSP was equipped with two good-quality analogue conrollers. Then we’d really be talking.