Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike

"New missions. Same game. Not very many new things."

Intro.

The third Rogue Squadron game. We expect some new and interesting stuff, but it's really like the second one: Rogue Leader. Not much is new. Play this game and you will feel like this is just an expansion pack that costs $50.

Story: 5/10

It's Star Wars Episode 1, 2, and 3: The Video Game starring all of those characters that appeared in those movies. Since that all of the Rogue Squadron games are based on the same episodes, nothing is new. There are some stuff you have not seen in the movie, but 90 percent of it is the same. Since that the new on-foot feature is put into Rebel Strike, you will be able to go deeper into the story than Rogue Leader. For some reason, The Battle Of Hoth is in every Rogue Squadron and this time, you play it on-foot.

Sound: 8/10

If you have never seen a Star Wars movie, you have never heard any of this. The Star Wars music is great and so are the lasers (or blasters as they call it). Every sound is familiar if you have seen the movie, so don't expect too much new stuff.

Game-play: 6.5/10

This is a flying game, but the on-foot feature comes in just to make it an action game. I really like on-foot games instead of flying games like these. You will spend more time flying a ship, shooting at enemies in the air. I like using the cockpit camera angle because I can aim better. Each ship has it's own abilities and advantages. A lot of ships are available such as the X-Wing, A-Wing, B-Wing, and Y-Wing. It's cool that you get to run around the hangar to select your ship and there are some secret areas somewhere. Once you select your ship, you fly out into battle. All you do is protect your big transport ships, explore space to get info, or kill off the enemies. That is pretty much it. You can't always use the same ship over and over again. Some ships are used for certain missions because of their abilities.

Everybody knows this, but there are some missions that you have to do on-foot. There is not much to it. You run around pressing A as fast as you can and move on. There are some other weapons you can use, but you don't use them that much and you might not even notice it. I prefer the standard blaster pistol. The deaths of the storm-troopers are as dramatic as the movies are, which is a good thing.

The bad thing is that it is extremely similar to Rogue Leader and not enough different things to make it better. It gets too repetitive and the on-foot levels are not too fun to play.

Graphics: 7/10

By the title of the game and the story of the game, everything in the environment is "Star Wars" style, which is a good thing. Again, if you've seen the movies, you know what everything looks like. The way stuff blow up is fantastic.

Control: 8/10

All you have to do is hold A, aim, and press B whenever you want to unleash something powerful. You will get used to it and it's not very hard. Just plain easy.

Multi-player: 7/10

Multi-player? About time! Multi-player features a co-op version of Rogue Leader (why didn't they just put that in Rogue Leader in the first place?) and some other modes that allow players to kill each other, get points for destruction, or go on a rampage. It would of been nice with 4 players, though.

Overall: 6/10

I really expected for some new stuff to be added, but there is not enough changes to make this game actually new, comparing it with Rogue Leader. If you have enough money to buy both this and Rogue Leader, just get this one.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 01/27/05