History YMMV / TIEFighter

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Grand Admiral Thrawn, hands down.

* DarthWiki/MostAnnoyingSound: ''(Warning Alarm)'' "Incoming missile!" ''(Warning Alarm)'' "Incoming missile!" ''(Warning Alarm)'' "Incoming missile!"

** A little jingle plays whenever you shoot down an enemy ship.

* SequelDifficultyDrop: The game is a great deal easier than its NintendoHard predecessor.

* DemonicSpiders: Enemy TIE Advanceds and Defenders. It says something that the game needed to give you special equipment and/or ships (including Advanced warheards, tractor beams, and the Missile Boat itself) to take these things out.

* GameBreaker: Manages to have ''two,'' and one (the Missile Boat, '''''[[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Missile_Boat#Behind_the_scenes King Hell God Emperor Starfighter of Death]]''''' no less) was developed to counter the other (the TIE Defender). The Tie Defender was this because it essentially was better than everything else at everything, it was the fastest craft, it had the best shields, by far (its hull wasn't anything to brag about but it shields meant that was moot), and the best armed. The Missile Boat, at its named implied, was loaded with missiles that could allow it deal with anything, and it boost that drew power away from its laser cannons and shields allowed to double its speed, the thing already being pretty fast, allow it move faster than the Tie Defender. Because they were too powerful, production of these special craft was ceased in case a future traitor would get their hands on them. (Both would be removed from the multiplayer sequel, whose craft library had entries that explicitly stated that it was due to their brokenness. The last game, ''X-Wing: Alliance'', would end up using slightly toned down versions, although not enough so to avert the trope.)

* GoddamnedBats: A-Wings are a tremendous pain in the ass to kill, as they are fast, highly maneuverable, and have a small hitbox. Oh, and they come equipped with anti-starfighter missiles as standard.

* HilariousInHindsight: The seventh campaign culminates with Stele and Vader having to save an abducted Emperor Palpatine. ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' begins with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker (the future Vader) having to save the abducted Chancellor (eventually Emperor) Palpatine, so you can imagine Vader thinking "Not again..." during the last mission.

* GodDamnBats: A-Wings are a tremendous pain in the ass to kill, as they are fast, highly maneuverable, and have a small hitbox. Oh, and they come equipped with anti-starfighter missiles as standard.

* ReplacementScrappy: Some fans were not happy with the fact that both expansions (and, by extension, the entire second half of the campaign) revolved around hunting [[spoiler: Zaarin]] instead of fighting the Rebellion.

* SpiritualSuccessor: ''TIE Fighter'' itself not only directly to ''X-Wing'' but a recycled IN SPACE! successor to the original ''Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe.'' Moreover, however, is that there's a legitimate argument that nearly every space flight combat simulator game ever released since has been in spiritual succession to or in homage of ''TIE Fighter'', namely in regards to its relatively complex plot and storytelling elements (even including then-contemporary games like ''VideoGame/WingCommander'' and ''VideoGame/{{Freespace}}'' as having drawn inspiration from ''TIE Fighter''). Whenever a brand new space combat flight sim pops up (especially from an independent developer) don't be surprised if they immediately cite ''TIE Fighter'' (along with ''Wing Commander'' and ''Freespace'') as direct inspirations or homage material.

* MostAnnoyingSound: WARNING: '''INCOMING MISSILE'''. Press Space to target.
** "MISSION CRITICAL CRAFT! UNDER ATTACK!" If you didn't attend to the craft, that would be followed by- all in a row- "MISSION CRITICAL CRAFT! SHIELD DOWN!" "MISSION CRITICAL CRAFT! HULL CONDITION CRITICAL!" and finally "MISSION CRITICAL CRAFT! DESTROYED!" and finally- to top it all off "Abort Mission; mission a failure."
** "Request for reinforcements denied."
** The sound of your systems being damaged. If you're lucky it will be something irrelevant and might even be repaired, but you can lose your map, or worse, your ''targeting computer'' (to add insult, the in-game screen on said targeting computer can break--meaning even if the ship manages to fix the targeting computer subsystem, you're still denied useful information which can no longer be shown).

** Missile Mines. These things are the same as standard mines, except when you destroy them, they automatically launch a missile at you. The really nasty versions launch an advanced missile instead. Clearing a minefield of these was an exercise in tedium, as you'd need to destroy the mine, then evade/destroy the resulting missile that emerged.

** The sound of your systems being damaged. If you're lucky it will be something irrelevant and might even be repaired, but you can lose your map, or worse, your ''targeting computer''.

* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: The [[VariableMix fanfare heard]] whenever an Imperial capital ship arrives to the battlefield, [[ZigzaggedTrope however the same music also plays whenever a traitorous capital ship arrives]].

* RootingForTheEmpire: Deliberately played up by giving the Empire a SympatheticPOV and showing an Imperial Navy that isn't cartoonishly villainous, but rather a normal military that mostly hunts pirates and terrorists and keeps the peace (though some campaigns do involve cracking down on [[YouRebelScum the Rebel Scum]]). Of course, PuttingOnTheReich and EvilIsCool remain in full effect, with the protagonist receiving cool uniforms and medals, audiences with the Emperor and the like. The game even ''boosted'' the Empire's popularity in the fanbase, to the point that Creator/WestEndGames went on to produce a book for their ''Star Wars'' [[TabletopGame/StarWarsD6 RPG]] for playing Imperial characters.

* RootingForTheEmpire: Deliberately played up by giving the Empire a SympatheticPOV and showing an Imperial Navy that isn't cartoonishly villainous, but rather a normal military that mostly hunts pirates and terrorists and keeps the peace (though some campaigns do involve cracking down on [[YouRebelScum the Rebel Scum]]). Of course, PuttingOnTheReich and EvilIsCool remain in full effect, with the protagonist receiving cool uniforms and medals, audiences with the Emperor and the like. The game even ''boosted'' the Empire's popularity in the fanbase, to the point that Creator/WestEndGames went on to produce a book for their RPG for playing Imperial characters.

* ThatOneAchievement: Plenty of bonus objectives (completing which gives no tangible benefit) fall squarely into this. One mission memorable for this is Mission 1 Battle 5 where [[spoiler: Harkov defects]] and you are set up for an ambush by overwhelming forces while flying a relatively underpowered TIE Interceptor. Luckily, Imperial forces were prepared for this and a friendly corvette warps in and you are ordered to get on board. Yes, the primary objective of this mission is to ''successfully run away''. Bonus objectives on the other hand require you to destroy all enemy forces short of capital ships.

* ThatOneAchievement: Plenty of bonus objectives (completing which gives no tangible benefit) fall squarely into this. One mission memorable for this is Mission 1 Battle 5 where [[spoiler: Harkov defects]] and you are set up for an ambush by overwhelming forces while flying a relatively underpowered TIE Interceptor. Luckily, Imperial forces were prepared for this and a friendly corvette warps in and you are ordered to get on board. Yes, the objective of this mission is to ''successfully run away''. Bonus objectives on the other hand require you to destroy all enemy forces short of capital ships.

* MostWonderfulSound: The [[VariableMix fanfare heard]] whenever an Imperial capital ship arrives to the battlefield, [[ZigzaggedTrope however the same music also plays whenever a traitorous capital ship arrives]].

* NoProblemWithLicensedGames: One of the best Space Simulators ever made and frequently still ranked among the best Star Wars-related games. A great sequel to the groundbreaking ''Videogame/XWing''.

* ThatOneLevel: Mission 13 Battle 6: You must defend weapons' platforms from waves of enemy transports, if ''one'' gets destroyed you fail the mission. However due to a programming error, all transports gang up on a single platform rather than distributing their attacks evenly among the others, this can easily cause the platform to be destroyed before the player has any chance to save it. This is the part where many players either lower the difficulty to "easy" or use a third-party mission editor to fix the [=AI=] of the transports.

** A-Wings were this, if you weren't in a TIE Advanced, TIE Defender, or Missile Boat. Fast, maneuverable, and armed with missiles, they were dangerous for assault gunboats and almost instant death for unshielded [=TIEs=].

* MagnumOpus: Often considered to be one of the finest ''Star Wars'' games ever made and one of the best space simulators of its time, period.