Spirit's last hand at poker before her fatal mission is aces full of eights. This is the Wing Commander "death hand", as several characters in various Wing Commander games play this same hand before dying. (A two pair of black aces and eights is known as "Dead Man's Hand" in poker circles.)
The last game in the series to feature animated characters during the cut scenes. All following games feature live actors performing their roles on actual sets.
SPOPILERS:Of all the characters from the original game, only 4 are still alive: Angel, Spirit, Maniac and Paladin plus series hero Christopher Blair. Spirit dies in this game in a kamikaze run at a space station, Angel is stabbed to death by a Kilrathi in the following game, Paladin goes into politics and gives up flying completely and Blair himself dies in Wing Commander: Prophecy. This leaves only 1 character from the original game that is still a pilot after the last game in the series: Major Todd "Maniac" Marshall.
This games takes place 10 years after the events of the first game. Ironically, the super-secret, hi-tech, next generation fighter that the hero test drives for a few missions in the first game is now one of the sequel's most outdated ships and can barely hold it's own in major engagements.
The "Secret Missions 2" add-on for Wing Commander 1 was released only two months before this game. As such it worked as a nice bridge between the two games. The character of Jazz is introduced (and from the conversations in the game, it's easy to see him choosing to walk down the path he did), Prince Trakkath starts to play a bigger role, and it introduced the infamous Kilrathi taunt "You cannot defeat the Drakkhi!".