"The saga of a Rebellion continues onward"

Star Wars Rogue Squadron for the Nintendo 64 was an excellent game, and provided quite a challenge. The sequel to that game is on Nintendo’s next generation gaming system, Gamecube. This game stands up to the original, and easily exceeds it in every category.

Rogue Squadron 2: Rogue Leader was one of the initial launch games for Gamecube in 2001. It was by far the best out of the ten titles. In fact, this game is one of the select few good Star Wars console system games. Just in case you don’t know, the Star Wars franchise in the gaming world on console systems has been very mixed in terms of good games. The PC games have done better as far as being a solid and well made game. Excluding Rogue Leader’s prequel, the last good Star Wars games were featured on the SNES nearly a decade earlier.

Rogue Leader focuses on the original Star Wars trilogy (Episodes IV, V, and VI). It features the main battles from the three films, and adds more missions which are not from the films or books. The game, excluding the first few missions puts you into the shoes of the Rogue Squadron’s leader, Wedge Antilles. The early missions of the game, you are in the shoes of Luke Skywalker.

The basic premise of the game is that you take control of whatever Rebel craft is assigned to you for that particular mission, and complete the given objectives without losing all of your lives or failing to meet an objective. It’s simple and straight forward. The basic Rebel crafts which you will control are the famous X-Wing, then the Y-Wing, B-Wing, A-Wing, and Snowspeeder. There are also hidden ships which can be unlocked when certain requirements are met. Initially, the first time you attempt a mission, you are limited to only one vehicle. Some missions will have you switch vehicles in the heat of battle. After you complete a mission, then other ships will be unlocked for your use in that mission. For example, the first mission which is the Battle of Yavin, you can only use the X-Wing. After you complete it, then you can also use the Y-Wing fighter.

For one of the first generation Gamecube games, the game shows off the potential for future games on this system graphically. To be quite honest, I originally was not all that interested in Game Cube, however when I saw the screenshots from this game in a magazine, I was absolutely amazed. The graphic detail was absolutely astounding. The Rebel craft all showed incredible detail, as well as the Imperial Star Destroyers. Once you start playing the game, it is a bit easy to get lost in the graphical beauty. The detail that is given to objects is quite amazing. As you fly over the Death Star in either third person view or first person, everything is in 3D. From the gun turrets which swivel trying to shoot you down, to the trench run in which you feel clustered because of various obstacles that will get into your way, this game does not cease to amaze. It doesn’t stop on just that mission. The Battle of Endor is awesome to see for the fact that there will be over 50 TIE fighters flying about, as well as Rebel ships without any sort of slowdown. Every level is amazing in some form or another.

Size is something that is done very well in this game. When you first encounter the Imperial Class Star Destroyer it’s hard to not get the feeling of “Oh my god” when you realize how big it is when you fly in closer. The AT-AT walkers in the Battle of Hoth also follow that same perception. Flying past them in your Snowspeeder suddenly makes you realize how inferior your Rebel craft is compared to the Imperial’s. The TIE Fighters in their different forms all look true to form. Whether it is the standard TIE, or the TIE Interceptor, or the TIE Bombers, they all look like they did in the movie. This game is an excellent showcase for just the graphics alone. But truth be told, graphics don’t make a game. You need a bit more than that alone.

What would a Star Wars game be if it did not have an excellent soundtrack to back it up? Rogue Leader features a great classical music soundtrack. The Star Wars main theme is there and sounds as good as it normally does. The music which plays throughout the game, albeit the menus or the actual in game action, it always sounds great.

The music fairs quite well. On the other side of things, the sound effects are great as well. When TIE Fighters fly by your vehicle, you will hear the whooshing sound effect which was in the movies. The laser guns when fired sound true to the movies. A great thing that was done for this game was the chatter of the Rebel pilots during missions. It adds to the overall Star Wars feel. In fact, the folks at Lucas Arts were kind enough to bring in Dennis Lawson to do the voice for Wedge Antilles. Dennis was the actor who portrayed Wedge in the movies. Also, a lot of the key phrases during battles are included. For example when you are in the Death Star trench run, you hear Obi Wan speak to Luke telling him: “Use the Force Luke.” The interesting thing about the voices, whether they are Obi Wan, Darth Vader, or Lando Calrissian, those voices were done by people who are not the actors who did the voices for the original films. However, I didn’t realize this till the credits of the game rolled. They sound so good you really would not know the difference.

Control in this game is quite responsive. The “A” button acts as your primary laser gun fire. The “B” is for the secondary weapon which can be proton torpedoes, bombs, or ion cannons. The right trigger is to speed up and the left is to slow down. You can change views in the game from third person to first person view by simply tapping the “X” button. The “Y” button is used to bring up the targeting computer which is helpful in seeing enemies. The analog stick is used for the steering controls. It is easy to turn the ships up, down, left, or right. The “Z” button when held down and used with the analog stick causes the ship to spin in a barrel roll which is useful when trying to avoid TIE fighters which are on your tail. The D-Pad is used to issue commands to your wing mates.

The gameplay has been done rather well. Above, I already stated the basics to the game earlier in the review. There are 10 missions which make up the game, as well as several bonus missions. The game starts with the Battle of Yavin and ends appropriately with the Battle of Endor. Between those two missions, various locales will be visited. Mostly it will be in space. But among some of those places, will be the ice world of Hoth, and the Tibanna Gas Mining city of Bespin. There is a bit of a challenge to this game. The difficulty generally increases as you go along. The AI can be sometimes aggravating due to the fact that TIE fighters will sometimes fly into you costing a life. However when battling them, they do put up a good challenge because they will fly in formation. When you go to attack a formation and you shoot down one of the ships, the others will break off if they have time unless you gun them down before. The enemy ships will at times lock onto you from behind causing you to have to try and shake them off. It can be tough to shake them off because they stay glued to you. Every mission as stated before has objectives to complete. They range from protecting Rebel transports to destroying Imperial Star Destroyers. Every mission provides a new challenge which is welcome because it keeps the game from becoming repetitive.

The replay the game has is high. Sure you can just play through the game and beat the missions and that is that. The true challenge to the game lies more in the ability to earn the medals. In each mission, if you complete it in the given time, and depending on the enemies killed, accuracy, how much you used your targeting computer, lives lost, friends lost, if you meet the requirements for a medal, you will receive one. There is a bronze, silver, and gold medal. The gold medal is the highest obviously. When you get a certain amount of points and medals, this will unlock secret ships and levels. The challenge to do this will keep you playing for a bit of time. However, it is still fun to play the game just to play. I loved playing the first part of the game’s Battle of Endor before you go into the Death Star. Seeing all of the TIE fighters on the screen is just an awesome sight to see. It is a challenging mission, but it is fun. This is a game to play over and over just because you can.

Overall, this is definitely the best launch game that Gamecube had, and it certainly was one of the best games of 2001. It showed that even with all the bad games that have come out with the Star Wars name on it, when a good one comes out, it usually shines above many games in the genre. This game is not a game for everyone though. As much as I enjoy it, the challenge can be a turn off to some people. It is definitely not a game to buy for younger children as it will probably be too hard for them. If you are unsure of if you will like this game, rent it first. It’s definitely worth buying if you are a Star Wars fan, or were a fan of the first Rogue Squadron game. If you are looking for a challenging game which looks, plays, and sounds great, definitely pick this up. It is a strong addition for any Gamecube collection.

Graphics: 10/10
Sound: 10/10
Control: 10/10
Gameplay: 10/10

Overall: 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/11/02, Updated 06/11/02