Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike

"A very very well done futuristic flight sim. Oh and its STAR WARS!"

I await your hearty "whoamg Kotor is better Gamma, leik WTF?!" flames with my head held in solidarity, because I have played...nay, I have witnessed the superior Star Wars experience of Rogue Squadron 3: Rebel Strike for the Nintendo Gamecube. Yes my fellow nerds it has finally come true, there is finally a game of truly epic proportions with the Star Wars brand on it. Picture this if you will: A Star Wars game that encompasses all things Star Wars from foot missions to hoverbike chases on Endor to daring assault missions against seemingly impenetrable enemy enclaves, to riding tauntauns for crying out loud! Oh yes this is Star Wars at its best and most thrilling pace ever and its all in this game!

If you recall from the previous installments in the Rogue Leader series, it takes place during and in between the Original Trilogy and puts you in the shoes of various members of the famed Rogue Squadron including Wedge Antilles and of course our good friend General Luke Skywalker and the rest of the RS gang that you remember from previous games. You'll come across many interesting locations like Geonosis, where you have to fend off a familiar looking droid army and then locate a familiar abandoned Jedi Starfighter in the process. You have all the standard locations also : Hoth, Tatooine, Yavin IV, and all the rest. But don't think its all going to be the same old missions you did in the previous Rogue games, you'll be embarking on plenty of previously unexplored RS missions.

The locales are all fairly breathtaking in their own right, in particular Endor looks better than it did in any other Star Wars game to date, with some nive texturing and color and in space missions, the resolution is much better than in RS2. The character models look like the people that they are trying to portray and do a fairly decent job, but still pretty much look like crap though. Oh well. What I really enjoy are the cutscenes often integrated into missions, sometimes in clips from the trilogy and sometimes CG. They really do bring the game to life.

Lets see, how about we chat about gameplay for awhile. I've always enjoyed the Rogue franchise because the 13 year old boy in me is still obsessed with wanting to wink 30 odd TIE fighters out of existence with an X-Wing. This game fufills that desire to the letter and more. The mission objectives are suprisingly varied and you'll always find yourself differentiating between objectives, whether it be storming a factory with an ATST walker, defending a Rebel Ship thats on a collision course with an Imperial target or plain 'ol brutal dogfighting with an elite squadron of TIE Hunters there's always something interesting and original to accomplish. In this generation of gaming, I have yet to come across a game with superior capabilities as a flight sim/mission based shooter.

Many people dispute the foot mission levels and I agree while the targeting could definately be more intuitive, they add a vital element of style and variety to the entire game. Think of them as mini-games.

Extra features ye ask? Ye cannot get ye extra features...just kidding. This game is chalk full of unlockable goodies. One of the most notable being Rogue Squadron 2 in its entirety and 2P MULTIPLAYER should turn your head. As with the other Rogue Squadrons, extra stuff is unlocked by completing missions and earning medals for your performance. Be warned though, only genetically engineered freaks and man-gods can earn gold medals without squandering their precious reserve of sanity that could possibly come in handy at a later date. Just so you know. There are also unlockable things like the ancient Atari Star Wars games, and of course new starships like the TIE hunter, Millenium Falcon, Naboo Starfighter, and others.

Anyways, yes RS3 is a very good underrated game and you can likely find it cheap somewhere. If you enjoy Star Wars this game is a must have. And even if you're just a casual fan or Gamecube owner, its still worth your time to play while waiting for the new Zelda to come out. Review over.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/25/04