Star Wars: Rogue Squadron

"Star Wars at its heart, a classic space shooter at its soul"

OPENING STATEMENT
I have always loved space shooting games. Way back in the days of my Nintendo, Captain Skyhawk was almost always shoved into the console. On the Super Nintendo, I player lots of Super R-Type and Gradius Three. On my Nintendo 64, there really were not any decent space shooters to fill my fix. Then came along Star Wars: Rogue Squadron. Unlike most people, I do not like Star Wars all that much, so when I am rating a Star Wars game this good, you know it is.

GAMEPLAY--9
This is space shooting at its finest. You have a large arsenal of weapons, a varying fleet of ships, and plenty of enemies to blow to kingdom come. The game’s in-depth gameplay fully depends on which ship you are piloting. Each has their own attributes which, although they are not stated in the game, can hamper or assist your performance immensely.

You can fly through twenty missions (Of which sixteen are normal, and four are hidden.) each completing their individual mission objectives. These objectives can range from protecting a train to killing all of the enemy aircraft. The objectives make Star Wars: Rogue Squadron more fulfilling than a normal space shooter.

GRAPHICS--8
These graphics are very nice. The explosions make Blast Corps spectacular blasts look horrible. The scorch marks are etched into the ground, making it even more realistic. The aircraft are not blocky at all, and they all are very detailed. Even the light reflects off all the vehicles realistically. The water looks amazing. Everything fits in perfectly with the mystical Star Wars aura.

Well, after reading that paragraph I suppose you are wondering why Star Wars: Rogue Squadron scored no higher than an eight in this category, right? Well, the answer to that question is the texturing. The textures are awful. The hills look like green mounds of clay with little light green specks in them. The rocks do not look all that rocky. They look a bit more sandy. That texture problem caused the entire game’s look and feel to just not seem quite as polished as it possibly should.

MUSIC--9
SOUND--7
I was very impressed with the music, especially for an original shooter on the Nintendo 64. The music does a wonderful job displaying the urgency of your mission. It is all done orchestrally, and it almost sound like George Lucas himself selected the tunes. The music has bits and pieces from other things in the Star Wars music, so you feel like you are in once constant location.

The sound effects I was not quite as impressed with. The screaming when Luke Skywalker crashed got very, very annoying. The weapon noises are done quite well, and they do a good job conveying the outer-spacey theme. I especially was fond of the noise the lasers made as they whizzed from the turrets of my X-Wing Starfighter.

CONTROL--7
At times, especially in the levels that involve small, fairly enclosed, spaces, controlling seems a little bit loose. But for the most part, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron responds to your commands right on cue. I’m not exactly perfectly happy with the set-up provided for the shooting buttons, which is B and Left C, but I eventually got used to it. And, I have been unable to find a Controller Configuration Menu so I am just stuck with A being the speed boost. As I said before, you will eventually get used to it, but it is not as good as it could have been.

FUN--7
This game could have had a truly great Multiplayer Mode. But, unfortunately, none was included. All I know is that was one of the most unfortunate things that has happened in a video game in a long while. The missions are still fun, the ones that involve more shooting and less thinking more than others. I like how two or three missions are a little bit similar to one another, but nothing to similar, as that can make it easier to plan out your strategy in the later levels.

CHALLENGE--MEDIUM TO HIGH
As with many space shooters, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron is chronically difficult. The AI is very tough and the enemies, especially those on the ground, are sometimes able to hit you with a laser no matter what you attempt to try to stop it with. Aiming can get a tad out of whack at times to, so that adds to the difficulty, because at times, you are firing your ammo into the sky when you think you are locked on to that TIE Bomber.

REPLAY VALUE--MEDIUM
I played through all of the missions a few times, some much more than others though. A Multiplayer Mode would have helped this rating immensely as well. Still, you will play through the missions, especially those with mindless shooting, again and again. For only having single player capabilities, the developers did a very good job making you want to play it again and again.

PROS
*Excellent music, especially for a space shooter and a Nintendo 64 game.
*Makes better use of the Star Wars license than Shadows of the Empire did.
*Enough missions to keep you playing.

CONS
*No multiplayer capabilities.
*The AT-ATs and AT-STs are really cheap.
*The textures are terrifying.

CLOSING STATEMENT
For good old-fashioned space shooting Star Wars: Rogue Squadron is your best bet on the Nintendo 64, if not any console. It is definitely worth a play even if you do not like Star Wars that much.

OVERALL--8

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/06/01, Updated 07/18/01