bit-tech Shopping: LucasArts Star Wars Rogue Squadron III (GC)

Rating: 10

Time with product: 5

Strengths: Star Wars universe, great graphics, great controls, two-player co-op

Weaknesses: On foot missions

Summary: Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike once again tackles vehicle based combat in the original trilogy. This game allows you to recreate some of the most famous battles from the original movies by controlling all of the great vehicles. You get to control, X-wings, speeder bikes, tauntauns and many more. The graphics are absolutely beautiful and the controls are great as well. The only bad part about the game is the on foot missions. The characters just don't control well enough to make them enjoyable and you have to suffer through these missions in order to get back to the fun vehicle missions. An amazing thing about this game is that it actually contains a two player co-op version of Rogue Squadron II as well. This could be the definitive Star Wars vehicle combat game.

Rating: 8

Time with product: 18 Months

Strengths: Continues the amazing Star Wars spaceflight missions from Rogue Leader, adds ground vehicle missions

Weaknesses: The on-foot, ground-based missions are NOT good

Summary: Let me preface this review by stating that I think the previous game in this series, Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader is one of the absolute best video games EVER made. In many ways Rebel Strike adds to that amazing gameplay and builds upon it in some places, while also falling flat and disappointing greatly in others. The space-based missions are stellar as they were in the previous game. There's nothing quite like flying a Star Wars vehicle in near movie-like quality. The controls are responsive and the vehicle handling amazing. As with the first game, the missions are extremely challenging if you want to go for silver or gold medals. The first major change is the addition of ground vehicle missions, which include being able to pilot AT-ATs and AT-STs. These missions are fun and add unique elements to the original. The major failing of the game is in the on-foot missions. There are several of these and some are worse than others. In particular, the Dagobah swamp mission is one of the most grueling things to endure, utterly lacking in any fun whatsoever. It is a poorly designed platformer that requires precise timing to get through. You will want to play through this to get the points and unlock the next mission, but that is about it. I nearly broke down when my son accidentally erased my saved game with all the Silver Medals acquired - it meant I'd have to live through this mission again. And that brings me to the one MAJOR problem with both of the Rogue Squadron games on the Gamecube. It is WAY too easy to erase game saves, thus losing all your mission progress. My 4 year-old son loved playing the games and when selecting a mission the slightest downward tilt of the stick will move it to "erase". Then the default answer is YES, when it should be NO on the dialog that pops up. He erased the saves for both games this way. Given that there were several open slots with no saves in them they shouldn't even allow you to delete one until the others are all full - and the programmer responsible for the default "YES" answer to deleting should be severely punished. Back to the plus side - the game does also contain a complete two-player cooperative version of Rogue Squadron II. This alone might be reason enough to pick up this game.

Rating: 10

Time with product: 1 Years

Strengths: Gameplay, graphics, Star Wars feel.

Weaknesses: On foot portions

Summary: The vehicle portions of this game are fantastic. The gameplay from Rogue Leader has been brought into this game, and that's a really good thing. The ATAT levels almost make me buy them as a viable military vehicle, and the speeder chase is simply amazing, capturing the feel and frenzy of the film. I hesitate to say the best part, but certainly on par with anything else about the game, is a full multiplayer version of Rogue Leader. This is a beautiful game, theres no getting around it. And the art direction really does scream star wars. While many things more high tech than the original trilogy, nothing is so different in design as to break the star wars feel of the world. The Plant life in the game looks fantastic, very verdant, which is very important for the speeder chase scene. So what's the dark side of this game? The less said about the on foot portions, the better. However, as bad as they may be, it doesn't drop this game below the level of a must have.

Rating: 6

Time with product: 2 Years

Strengths: Great Story and Graphics

Weaknesses: Same old Star Wars Story

Summary: Rebel Strike is similar to Rogue Squadren II that was released simaltaneously with the Gamecube 4 years ago. The gameplay is good with the usual excellent Star Wars Story behind it, but honestly, how many variations can be made on the same old story. If your a fan of Star Wars, then by all means, pick this up as it is at a bargain price since it was released a few years ago. With great graphics, a good story, and good gameplay, you cant go wrong.

Rating: 8

Time with product: 2 Years

Strengths: Graphics, Sound, Presentation, Extras, Space gameplay, Multiplayer

Weaknesses: On foot battles.

Summary: Rebel Strike is the third game in the Rogue Squadron series, following successful outings on the Nintendo 64 and Gamecube. The pedigree calls for impeccable graphics, sterling sound and tight spacecraft gameplay. This new outing has all three of those things, plus several new types of gameplay, but are the additions good enough? Once again Factor 5 outdoes everyone with graphics in a Rogue game. Rogue Squadron III is one of the best looking games out there, even outdoing the masterful graphics of its predecessor. Star Wars has never looked as good in a game as it does in RSIII, an incredible level of detail and flair. The Endor speeder bike levels are a excellent achievement in speed and fidelity. One complaint would be that in some areas the game is too dark and does not offer a brightness correction mode, or any other way of brightening the scenery short of adjusting the tv. Everything said about the graphics can also be said about the sound and music. Fidelity and quality are tops . Every sound that you in hear in the movies is here, even the wicked sound of Sonic Charges. Voice is also excellent, Dennis Lawson, Wedge in the original trilogy, does voice work, and the rest of the voice work is also great. Music also lives up to the series and movie standards. Gameplay in Rebel Strike follows the example set by its series, tight spaced based combat with a few planetary missions. This is the same tight and intense dogfighting of the earlier games only better. The battle of Yavin from Episode VI is recreated in it's entirety, complete with tons of tie fighters, bombers, frigates, Corellian corvettes, and of course, multiple Star Destroyers. In addition to the space combat RSIII adds speeder bike and on foot missions. The speeder bike missions are quite fast and intense, flying through forests leave little room for error. The on foot missions are where the game stumbles. The missions, which are promising in concept fall through with the execution. The control for these missions or more correctly the camera in combination with slightly loose control leave much to be desired. The on foot missions aren't horrible, but they are so far gone in terms of control compared to the rest of the game that they hurt it. Some extra development time into these missions would have had really helped. As they are now, they aren't up to par. Factor 5 has chocked the game full of extras and goodies for the determined player. Unlockable ships, cheats and featurettes are all in the games as are several older Star Wars classic games. The game also features an excellent multiplayer mode allowing dogfights and more importantly the entirety of Rogue Squadron II available for 2 players. Rebel Strike is an excellent game. It has great graphics, sound and value. An excellent multiplayer game, and good single player. The addition of new gameplay types is admirable. If only the on-foot levels had been more polished, the game might have been a true classic. As it is the game is an excellent game and excellent package value. Enough to recommend to anyone, and especially fans.