Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike

"Good idea: Co-op. Bad idea: Ground missions"

I've been a huge fan of the Rogue Squadron series ever since it debuted on the N64. I remember wasting endless hours on the original, trying to get gold medals on everything, finding all the cheats, and blasting through the well-designed levels. When I saw an almost movie-quality X-wing flitting through a highly detailed Death Star trench, I knew that I had to get a GameCube.

Sadly, Rogue Squadron III has let me down...at least in terms of the single-player mode.

Gameplay wise, RSIII is a mixed bag. The space combat is fun and fast-paced as always...except for now, the fighting segments are broken up too many times by clunky, horribly paced in-game "cutscenes." I'm gonna just up and say it right now: Factor 5 had a great story idea, but their presentation of it is downright abysmal. The voice acting is okay, and I suppose the cutscenes are deliberately fast-paced to give a sense of urgency, but they all move far to fast. It's just like BAM! PLOT POINT! repeated over and over again. Thankfully, you only need to see the cutscenes once, and then you can skip past them when you replay the level, so my complaint won't be too harsh.

So, the space combat is still fun and frantic. Space combat controls are tight (although, to be honest, I wish that the craft would roll instead of yaw automatically...months of playing through the Ace Combat series have converted me to the more realistic roll concept). The ships all handle differently and have different speeds.

It's the ground combat sections that made me want to smash my Gamecube with a sledgehammer. They make baby Jesus cry. Collision detection is wonky at best. The camera is...well, it's very "special," to put it in nicer terms. The lock on system seems all too often like it targets the least threatening enemy; this is a sin when you're surrounded by Stormtroopers and the one YOU'RE locked onto is halfway across the room not even looking at you. I seriously do get a little bit sick every time I think of the ground levels, or otherwise totally awesome levels that are ruined with ground combat segments in them (*cough*RELICSOFGEONOSIS*cough*). The ground combat severely drags down the single-player game. I have had absolutely no incentive to want to replay through them and attempt to fail at earning a medal. In fact, after nearly popping a hernia from the stress and anger of attempting the 'Trials of a Jedi" level, I just said "screw it" and looked up the code to unlock all the single player levels.

Basically, the space combat levels are thrilling and fun, as always. The ground levels, on the other hand, make me want to punch kittens in the head, and they cripple what would be an otherwise totally awesome gameplay experience.

Multiplayer, however, is totally awesome. It rules, and it helps to make up for the aneurism-inducing ground missions. You get your choice of deathmatch, which is fun but wears off after a while, or the amazingly entertaining, addictive, and challenging co-op mode, where you and a buddy get to play through the entire original Rogue Leader campaign together! Glory, Glory, Halleluja! It's fun, the framerate remains steady while giving you a double-dose of pretty graphics, and it's pretty darn difficult. It's like the game increased exponentially in difficulty, proportional to the number of human players in the game (or, in less nerdy, easier to understand words: when there's two people playing, the game seems like it's four times harder than the original RL single-player mode). You'll waste many hours playing around with co-op, and it could be said that it's the game's saving grace. It's really the reason you want RSIII in your Gamecube library.

Graphically, the game definitely impresses. Lighting and particle effects are quite purty, the ships (as always) are painstakingly detailed and the cockpits are as accurate as possible to the movies. There is a LOT of eye candy in this game. The targeting computer has been improved, because now it shows you your allies and how close they are to dying. The number of fighters onscreen has greatly increased, and battles truly are frantic and epic.

For the ground levels, all the characters are high-poly, but they're not very well-animated. Actually, the animation isn't good at all. Everyone either moves stiffly or like they're a recently recovered quadraplegic. They're not really proportioned right, either. It seems like everyone's head is at least twice the size it normally should be.

The sound is where this game really shines. The standard Star Wars sounds are re-created faithfully. One of my favorite things about the sound is how it changes to fit a first-person perspective when you switch to first person mode. On the speeder bike, you can hear objects wooshing past you in first-person...very cool. The engine noises change depending on what perspective you're using, and in cockpit mode they, again, sound exactly like they do when you see a cockpit shot in the movies. Very impressive.

But, I haven't even mentioned the Sonic Mine yet. It is, without a doubt in my mind, one of the coolest audio effects ever in a video game. You shoot one out, and EVERYTHING goes dead silent for a few seconds. The silence is then shatter by a resonating 'WHUM,' and then all the sound rushes back. It doesn't really ever get old, and it's just like the Jango Fett chase scene from Attack of the Clones. It's ear candy and a half.

So, in all, the single-player mode is a bit of a letdown. But, multiplayer co-op makes up for it, and is the real reason to get this game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/26/06