Rogue Squadron A Retrospective

Martyn Young
Sep 2, 2017
3 min read

If there is one series that has remained my favourite for over twenty years. Both in literature and video games, it is the rogue squadron. The rogue squadron are games that I can play over and over again. I remember when I was younger, my best friend had a copy and I was qite envious. For years I coveted a copy but never brought one.

It was not until the game cube was released that owned my first game in the series. Rogue leader, to this day it has remained my favourite game. So when Rebel strike was announced it was a day one purchase for me. I remember leaving work that Friday going to game and staying up for a fornight to finish it with all gold medals. Two weeks straight my life consisted of work and rebel strike.

The reason the rogue squadron games represent the best part of the star wars series.Not the Jedi vs Sith nonsense. But the interstellar battles. The overwhelmed rebel alliance fighting the tyrannical imperial government. Taking flight in an x-wing and being part of fight. saving the galaxy. No surprising twists just st raight forward good vs evil.

Rogue squadron came out for the Nintendo 64 in December 1998 with pretty much favourable reviews. Being the game to use the expansion pak, to improve Rogue Squadrons graphics. Based on the books by Aaron Alston and Micheal stackpole. the main character was swapped from Wede Antilles to Luke Skywalker as Lucas arts wanted a more familiar face a fron t to the game. Rogue squadron also used sounds directly from the films though lucas arts didn't want to as they thought it would use up too much memory on the already restrictive cartridge format, but factor five found a way to compress the sound and produce the quality we got today. Their method of compressing sound also used in many Nintendo 64 games since. Of course you cannot mention rogue squadron without the naboo starfighter being available prior to the phantom menace as usable craft.

Rogue leader was the second game in the series and stars Dennis Lawson returning to his role as Wedge Antilles. Released in November of 2001 a gamecube release title. Rogue leader improves on Rogue squadron in every way. Graphically it is still breath taking today and has aged spectacularly well. Rogue leader is the best game in the series as the mission has you destroying the first death star and the final mission destroying the second one. Cementing Rogue leader in the original trilogy's timeline. Not only did the graphics improve but so did the controls. This time they are far more intuitive, making full use of the gamecube controller, such as allowing the the x-wing and b-wing to accelerate without closing their s-foils. The gamecube's power allowed far more enemies on screen at once. This is prevalent during the attack on the second death star, when the level is full of tie fighters of all kinds. The AI is more advance forcing you to add strategy to your attacks. You cannot blindly fire at ties, you have to take them out in a specific order or they scatter. Forcing you to hunt them down and they are near impossible to see in space.

The third and unfortunately final game rebel strike is also the worst. I do not hate rebel strike far from it, but it definitely isn't the best. This time you take the role of both Wedge Antilles and Luke Skywalker in two separate story driven mission branches. The Wedge side is the better of two as the emphasis is on flying with very little third person shooting , whereas the Luke side is alot more third person mode and that is where the problem is. Rebel Strike is more style than substance. Rebel strike actually does use movie footage for cutscenes for the luke side. As cool as this is it doesn't distract how mediocre the platform and third person shooting. But t he vehicular combat is still amazing and plays to this strength. The best part is the bonus mission. The attack on the executor. Singularly the best mission in all the games. Lifted straight from return of the jedi you are the A-wing that crashes in to the super star destroyers bridge. Rebel strike also allows you to play Rogue leader in two player co op, the original arcade versions on star wars and empire strikes back and finally you can unlock the commodore 64 return of the jedi. So Rebel strike is not the best but is a great compilation disc if you are willing to put the hard work in .