Star Wars: X-Wing is a space simulation video game, the first of the X-Wing combat flight simulation games series. The player's character flies starfighters, including the X-wing, for the Rebel Alliance. The narrative precedes and parallels the events of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

Designed by Lawrence Holland and Edward Kilham's Totally Games for LucasArts, X-Wing is one of the first games to use 3D polygon graphics for spaceships and the first non-adventure game to use the iMUSE music system. The game was updated and re-released several times, and was followed by three sequels. X-Wing became a best-seller with critical acclaim.

Players take the role of a Rebel pilot fighting the Galactic Empire before and during the climactic battle of Star Wars: A New Hope, the film series debut. The story consists of three tours of duty of 12 to 14 operations each; although the tours can be played out of order, operations within each tour are played linearly. Briefings, cutscenes, and in-flight messages advance the plot. A limited edition of the game was packaged with a 96-page novella, The Farlander Papers by Rusel DeMaria, that provides story information. The novella, later made part of Prima Publishing's strategy guide, presents a pilot name Keyan Farlander as the player's character for most of the operations.

Progress through the game depends on fulfilling each operation's primary objectives; if the player fails an operation, it can be reattempted. The initial game's storyline concludes with the player flying as Luke Skywalker in his attack against the Death Star. Two expansion packs extend the story beyond the events in A New Hope, up to the establishment of the Rebel base depicted at the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back.

After choosing a pilot file to play with, the player is presented with a "concourse" aboard the Mon Calamari Star Cruiser Independence. From here, the player can choose between flying in a proving ground, historical simulator, or tour of duty. In the proving ground, the player maneuvers a starfighter through a series of gates within a time limit. The historical simulator depicts missions not tied to the main storyline. The game's plot is advanced through tour of duty operations. When the player completes a tour of duty operation, it becomes available for replay in the historical simulator. In addition to the flight options, players can access a technical room that shows images of the game's spacecraft, and a film room for reviewing recorded flight data.

As a space flight simulator game, X-Wing puts the player at the controls of various starfighters in space combat against enemy spacecraft. Drawing some influence from Star Raiders (1979), the game is played in first-person from inside the cockpit. The initial game offered pilotable A-wing, X-wing, and Y-wing craft; the B-Wing expansion adds the B-wing as a playable vehicle.

All flight takes place in space; the player does not encounter gravity or atmospheric effects. The starfighters are equipped with recharging laser weapons and limited warheads. The player controls power allocation between lasers, deflector shields, and engines. Charging the lasers and shields slows the player's craft, giving effective power management an important role in gameplay. The player can toggle the firing mode (separate or linked) of each weapon type, and balance the shields forward, aft, or evenly.

Missions types include dogfights, escorting or disabling other vessels, convoy attacks, and strikes on capital ships. During missions, the player can send orders to friendly craft. In the original floppy disk version, the player can assign other saved pilot profiles to be his or her wingman; the higher the rank of the saved profile, the better the computer-controlled wingman would perform. This was removed from subsequent releases.