Rogue Squadron 3: Rebel Strike
System: Gamecube
Players: 1 or 2
ESRB Rating: Everyone
Publisher: Lucas Arts
Developer: Factor 5
Price: $26.95
Rating: 5.5 of 10
Review by Brutilus
The Empire has suffered a most embarrassing defeat at the hands of the Rebellion. The destruction of the Death Star only strengthens the resolve of the Empire to eradicate the Rebels.
 Step one: Destroy the Rebel's base at Yavin 4.
Overview
I am a huge Star Wars fan and I have been since I was a kid. So this is not easy for me to say, but Rogue Squadron 3 is a bad Star Wars game and an overall mediocre game.
Assuming that you read my review of Rogue Squadron 2, you would know that the missions were varied and challenging, yet fun. Getting gold and silver medals was actually an accomplishment.
Rebel Strike certainly provides variety in the missions. The addition of the walkers & speeder bikes made for new and interesting levels. My personal favorite mission is "The Guns of Dubrillion." You start this mission piloting an AT-ST and finish it in an AT-AT. (You feel a little God-like in the AT-AT.)
The weak links of Rebel Strike are the unoriginality of some of the fighter missions; the third-person, ground troop missions; and the speeder bike missions.
 The controls for the walk-around portions of missions is pretty bad. Aiming your blaster fire is difficult. Only the targeting system made these parts of the game playable. Even so, the targeting / auto-aim feature is a little sketchy. I had quite a bit of trouble selecting specific targets. Most of the time, this isn't a problem as there are usually a dozen or more enemies on screen, each one being about the same priority on your hit list. But sometimes, you need to take out a stormtrooper behind a heavy blaster and picking him out of the crowd is almost impossible.
With all these problems with the primary weapon targeting, you can imagine how hard it is to aim your secondary weapons.
In general, the visual models used for the Stormtroopers and Battledroids were pretty good. There is something just a little off about the heads of the non-helmeted humans.
 The motion models for all human-type models is absolutely horrid. Every turn is jerky. Jumps are ridiculously high. Being an arcade-type game, you don't expect an extremely high level of realism, but not everyone in the Star Wars universe is a Jedi.
The single well done walk-around mission was "Battlefield Hoth." Fortunately, the walk-around portions account for only about a third of the single-player missions. The speeder bike missions have their own failings, such as being totally unforgiving
of mistakes. (Much like Darth Vader.)
 The tracks that you have to race along are very narrow and there is no recovering from any screw up. Even the training on the swoop bike leaves no margin for error when attempting the jumps. On top of that, I came across the same glitch
several times in "Speeder Bike Pusuit". After respawning, I got hooked on an enemy speeder bike and could not disconnect. We were completely overlapped and stuck. The only way to get unstuck was to hit the booster repeatedly, thus forcing both of us into a tree. Miraculously, the enemy biker scout survived each time.
While the speeder bike missions probably sounded neat on paper, they wound up being a bit of a pain in the butt.
 Problems aside, this title still has some redeeming features. To be more precise, the multiplayer features are great! If it weren't for them, I probably would have traded this in.
I thought that Rogue Squadron 2 could have been even cooler if played with
a friend. Apparently, someone at Lucas Arts agreed with me. Rogue Squadron 2, in its entirety, is available in cooperative mode. All of the levels are perfectly reproduced, but have more enemy craft in them to maintain the relatively high difficulty level.
There are several additional multiplayer modes available: Rampage, Capture & Defend, Dogfight, and Walker Rampage.
 The 2 "Rampages" are timed missions in which your goal is to obtain the highest score by blowing up the most opposing craft. Your friend that you are playing against is included in your opposition. The only differences between Rampage and Walker Rampage
are the available craft (fighters or walkers) and the mission locations.
Capture & Defend is a kind of "capture the flag" mode. Each player attempts to destroy, capture, and defend a series of bases that are scattered around the level. Dogfight is pretty self-explanatory.
Among the special features included, my favorite was the inclusion of the 2 original, vector graphics-based arcade games. Star Wars & Empire Strikes Back are two of the dozens of unlockable features. The "Making of..." documentary was entertaining, but not worth all of the effort. There are passcodes that can be used to unlock all of the special features if you are really interested in seeing them.
Overall, unless you are looking for a fun, multiplayer Star Wars game, don't buy Rogue Squadron 3 until the price drops. This is, quite simply, one of those games that you pick up once it gets to the $20 "Greatest Hits" collection.
Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike is available for your Gamecube at Amazon.com.
All images are property of Lucas Arts and Factor 5. Article copyright
2004 MillionairePlayboy.com
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