Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike is the sequel to Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader. Rogue Leader, originally released as a GameCube launch title, was the best Star Wars based flight game since Tie Fighter (PC). For Rebel Strike, that is quite a name to surpass, or even match. Rebel Strike, developed by Factor 5, features a variety of new missions, vehicles, and game modes. Some of these modes expand the gameplay, while others seem to bring it down. Continue reading to find out GCA’s verdict of this action packed sequel.

·Play as Luke Skywalker or Wedge Antilles in the campaign against the empire
·Pilot X-Wings, A-Wings, Y-Wings, Jedi Starfighters, and many more
·Step out of the ship and onto the ground, with the new on-foot missions
·Operate ground vehicles such as AT-ST’s and imperial speeder bikes
·Have dogfights with your friends in the new versus mode
·Play through the entire Rogue Leader game in the co-operative mode
·Earn medals to unlock special features and new missions

Rebel Strike follows the events of the original trilogy, and it throws in other missions not heard of in the trilogy. For the most part, Rebel Strike is focused on the flight missions. This is a good thing, since the other mission types fail in comparison to the flight missions. These flight missions are just as they were in Rogue Leader: fast, intense, and fun. The flight controls are tight and easy to pick up. The flight missions are the best part of Rebel Strike and they do a great job of creating a movie-style setting. You’ll spend your time taking out tie fighters, defending transport ships, destroying missiles, and tripping up walkers. The flight missions start out easy, but as you progress through the game, they become quite difficult. There are also DivX cut scenes from the original trilogy strategically placed into the game. Although there is a slight loading time between gameplay and the full-motion-video, they seem to fit perfectly. When compared to Rogue Leader, Rebel Strike’s flight missions are very similar, but have a few different traits. Although many of the mission objectives are similar, there are a lot more enemies this time around. Also in Rebel Strike, there is a lot more going on. For example: in one mission you fight in space until you take down a large enemy ship. When you do, you crash land on a planet and follow your droid until he takes you to a Jedi Starfighter. At this point, you must head back into space and do it again. Although the flight missions are the best part of Rebel Strike, it does have its drawbacks. Some of the missions are too difficult, especially when attempting to earn a gold medal.

There are also on-foot missions included in Rebel Strike. In all honesty, Rebel Strike would have been a better game without these on-foot missions. Although it is something new, it isn’t executed very well at all. Essentially, the only way to target a certain enemy is to physically change the direction you are facing. It feels more like an auto-targeting feature, and at times it can become quite nerve-racking. While you are targeting the enemy, all you have to do is jam the A button as fast as you can. You can dodge with the Z button, but you wont need it since all you do is smash on the A button. The ground missions on the other hand are done a lot better than the on-foot missions. You will get to pilot the two legged walkers (AT-STs) and even speeder bikes. These missions, although not as fun as the flight missions, do a good job of making Rebel Strike more diverse than Rogue Leader.

Graphically, Rebel Strike is not a great leap from Rogue Leader. That’s still saying a lot though, since Rogue Leader is graphically one of GameCube’s best. The lighting is beautiful, and looks better than it did in Rogue Leader. The environments are equally beautiful, and don’t sway from the Star Wars universe. The ship models look great, especially when you look at them in more detail in the hanger.

In the flight missions, you will see a large amount if ships on screen at a time. The framerate drops occasionally but not enough to affect the gameplay. The textures look a lot better than they did in Rogue Leader, this could be partly because of the better lighting. In the Hoth mission in Rebel Strike, it is obvious that the new textures and lighting paid off, since they look considerably better than in Rogue Leader.

The on-foot missions’ graphics are a mixed bag. The character models are average. They have a high amount of polygons and have good reflections but don’t have much diversity. The Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antilles models look identical except for a small hair color difference. The camera is another big problem with the on-foot missions. You have absolutely no way of controlling the camera, since it is fixed. If you’ve played Resident Evil then you will know how the camera is position. It only changes views when you move your character to a certain area. This can be very tedious when trying to reach a certain group of enemies. The characters do not move smoothly, and for some reason Luke and Wedge can jump eight feet into the air. The framerate also drags, especially when the camera changes angles.