"Mario! I am on your console!"

At first, Star Wars was one of those things I confused with Star Trek, thinking it was for nerds and old people. I was wrong after I saw Episode I and Ii then IV, V and VI and I thought differently, thinking they were absolutley brilliant. When i first got my Gamecube though, I easily turned a blind eye to Star Wars: Rogue Leader, thinking two things. The first was that it wouldn't be good and the second, the fact it is five pounds more expensive then Luigi's Mansion and Super Smash Bros. Melee. However, when PC World did an offer, I decided to buy this game.

Taking on the role of Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antilles in the Rogue Squadron, you travel across A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, no sign of the episodes from the Anakin Skywalker saga but the Rogue Squadron is mainly based in the final three episodes. The first level (Or should I say second as the first is actually training), Death Star Attack has three different sides to it. After selecting a ship (usually you have no choice but to have a certain one) by actually controlling Luke, you have to take down a number of towers on the Death Star. This is the first problem, as a newbie to the game, I was annoyed when I only shot down four before it was game over, I didn't know there was a time limit which destroyed my thought of exploring and taking my own time, and not only that, the towers don't look damaged when taking hit, they change state when blown up, that is it. Then you have to shoot down Tie-Fighters which is almost impossible without the computer radar on as the fighters are black and so is space. Finally, there is a scrolling shooter instead of 3D roaming where you are in the trench (Straight out of A New Hope), avoiding Darth Vadar and shooting the torpedoes.

That was the first level and I was experiencing problems which I argued about above. They don't stop there, sometimes you may just avoid an incoming bullet or object, yet you somehow crash in to it. However, the fun soon starts on the third level with the battle of Hoth. Hoth, the popular base of the rebels set in the snow planet looks great to explore but it is a shame you are on a time limit, you get to take down the gigantic walkers (Very difficuklt at first) with a rope, and becomes frustrating when it snaps when you are doing so well. Then there is other levels which are tedios, having you protect a couple of ships from more fighters, quite boring since you do that in just about every mission.

Star Wars: Rogue Leader has a number of options whilst pilotting the spaceship. The options are usually based on your wingmen, Biggs and Wedge (and sometimes Jesse). You can tell them to take care of gun shooters, major targets like TIEs, go in defence and even retreat. These descisions are vital for getting medals. These medals, bronze, silver and gold take a lot of skill to get, for example not locking on, shotting down a number of enemies, good accuracy and time. Once you have enough medals, you can unlock some good extras.

Some say that Rouge Leader is the best looking game on the Gamecube. I strongly disagree. Whilst the backgrounds, mountains and ships are heavily detailed, Lucasarts missed out on some proper things which needed sorting out, the first mission involves blowing up some towers for ahile, the towers don't even look scratched until blown up. Characters such as Luke Skywalker look quite blocky and pale. One good thing about the graphics is that the games title screen has about twenty real clips of the Star Wars films (Episodes IV-VI) and handle them well, with no slowdown or anything. Of course, the clips last around thirty seconds each but are great to watch moments such as Luke and the saraac in Return of the Jedi and Darth Vadar in the cloud city with Leiah and Han. The music is like a yoyo in this game. One minute is is brilliant, for example the music with comes complete with a movie clip, the next minute it is awful. It may have Star Wars music, but is not proven as good as it should, the music on Tatoonie is very annoying and the hanger music is bad. The most ironic thing is that the developers could only get Dennis Lawson, the actor who played Wedge in the films to voice act. Come on, they should at least have got somebody really recognisable like the real actors such as Mark Hammil, Harrison Ford (going too far) or even Darth Vadar, lets face it, you only hear of Ford these days.

Rouge Leader is a good game, but it doesn't stand out to me like Super Monkey Ball, Smash Bros. and Pikmin does. Only true Star Wars fans should bother buying it, but I am a fan too and I expected a lot more, forexample fighting the saraac or longer missions. There is no mutli-player either, it would have been so much fun to have a few four player battles on this game. Oh well, Rouge Squadron III will be here one day...

Summary

Graphics - 8/10
Music - 7/10
Sound - 6/10
Gameplay - 8/10
Story - 10/10
Enjoyment - 8/10
Lifespan - 6/10
Challenge - 7/10
Overall - 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/02/02, Updated 11/02/02