Reviews

    Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike is the follow-up to the very successful Rogue Leader, which was one of the best titles available for Gamecube at launch.  In addition to the highly acclaimed space missions that were included in Rogue Leader, Lucasarts added missions that take place in land vehicles, such as AT-ST's and also on-foot missions.  Rather than simply re-playing the movies once again, Rebel Strike splits you off into two campaigns.  Luke Skywalker's campaign tends to follow the movies,

including missions such as the Battle of Hoth and the speeder bike chase on Endor that takes place near the end of Return of the Jedi, while Wedge Antilles' missions take place during the same time as Luke's, but rather than following the scenes of the movies, they add to the storyline and give the player new missions to undertake in the fight to overthrow the empire.  Some of Wedge's missions include an assault on a Super Star Destroyer while it is still docked in the shipyards, destroying an imperial superlaser, and capturing imperial transports as they leave a starbase.  In addition to this, the original Rogue Leader game has been included as a two player cooperative game and three Star Wars arcade games from the 1980s have been included as a bonus.  There are also a variety of multiplayer games that can be played in split-screen mode that make for an excellent multiplayer experience.

    The graphics of the game are an improvement over Rogue Leader's graphics.  Some parts of the game are close to photo-realistic and some new lighting and explosion effects have been added that improve the game's look quite a bit.  Now rather than just exploding, enemy vehicles have debris fly from their explosions with trails of flame and smoke coming from the debris, all of which casts a reflection on the nearby environment.  The game is also capable of displaying many enemies on the screen at one time, each moving at a fast rate of speed while maintaining a framerate of 60 frames per second. 

    Rebel Strike features some of the best sound done on Gamecube so far.  Featuring Dolby Pro Logic II support if you have a surround sound stereo system the game can be experienced in full surround sound.  If an enemy is shooting at you from behind you will hear the lasers coming from behind you.  Also included are many classic tunes from the movies, all of which sound just as good as they did at the movies.

    The play control in Rebel Strike is a touchy issue.  In the vehicle missions the play control is flawless.  If you played the original Rogue Leader, expect the exact same control scheme and camera system, which leads to an excellent experience while dogfighting TIE's or heading to the Imperial shield generator on the surface of Endor.  In those missions the controls are as good as you could hope for in a videogame.  The controls for the on-foot missions is nowhere near as nicely done as the controls in the vehicular missions.  In the on-foot missions the camera tends to stay stationary, making it difficult to aim correctly at enemies, and even worse in some areas it causes some enemies to be hidden from the screen until you wander around and find them.  Although the radar can help it would have been nice to have the option to rotate the camera or to have the camera trail behind the character the same way it would if the player was piloting an AT-ST or another vehicle.  Even with the lock-on system it can be very difficult to fire an accurate shot on an enemy, and although the on-foot missions aren't very difficult despite the control inadequacies they still could have been done a lot better.

    The level design in the game is excellent.  The game provides a good challenge without getting overly difficult to the point where it is frustrating.  Mission objectives are clearly stated so players should have little or no difficulty figuring out what should be done next.  A few missions actually take the player on unexpected twists.  In one mission the player is following an Imperial cruiser which ejects an escape pod, so the player has to land on the surface of Geonosis to try and find the pod, then finally takes off in a Jedi Starfighter and ends up in a dogfight in an asteroid field with numerous TIE fighters and two more Imperial cruisers.  Aside from the previously mentioned control problems, the on-foot levels themselves aren't badly done.  If the controls were better, the on-foot missions would be just as good as the vehicle-based missions, as each of them allows the player to battle through an interesting part of the Star Wars universe without forcing the player to wander in circles trying to figure out where to go next.  In addition to all of this, the player can try to get Gold medals in all the single player missions for a true challenge and also to unlock hidden bonuses in the game.

    Despite the control problems with the on-foot missions, Rebel Strike is one of the best game released on Gamecube so far.  Featuring outstanding single player missions, the entire Rogue Leader game as a two player campaign and several other bonuses it will keep you entertained for a long time.