This was definitely the best Star Wars flight simulation ever (TIE Fighter was next). It did take a lot of my hard drive space (by that time's standard). Missions were engaging and with just right difficulty levels (i.e., be careful this is addictive). And I often found myself admiring how good my dogfight skills were by viewing the mission video recordings. I personally didn't find B-Wing missions as engaging as the original ones, though, although I completed every one of them nonetheless. I found a copy of X Wing a couple of years ago, installed it on my laptop and played a couple of missions (admittedly it was pirated and not fully functional). Surprisingly (or perhaps not), I didn't find the graphics and game play obsolete! The same can't be said about, for example, Sid Meier's F117-A. Keyboard was sufficient to complete all of the missions, except, if I'm not mistaken, a few of the hardest levels of the maze training. Oh, and it wasn't that easy to take an accurate aim on a small object such as a space mine with keyboard control. Today, of course, everyone will have access to at least a mouse and hence this should not be a problem. As an aside, I found that the password could be identified easily in the largest file in the game's folder. Using PC Tools, I just replaced those passwords with spaces and removed all the hassle of opening the game manual every so often. So, take this top ace admiral's words, on behalf of the rebel alliance, own and play this game once more!
