Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader

Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II was a sequel to the first Rogue Squadron on the Nintendo 64 and featured an expanded roster of playable ships, varied environments, and cutting edge graphics.

GameCube

Summary

Released as an exclusive launch title for the Nintendo GameCube in 2001, Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II is one of the top selling Star Wars games to date. Like the first game for the Nintendo 64, players take control of various members of the Rogue Squadron, a team of rebel pilots created after the destruction of the Death Star I. The game expands on the formula of the first by improving the graphics and also adds a new interface that allows you to give orders to your fellow AI. Rogue Leader also includes cut scenes from the original Star Wars trilogy in cut-scenes and at the main menu.

Developer Factor 5 worked closely with Lucas Industrial Light and Magic to achieve as much of the sound and feel of the movie series as they possibly could. Rogue Leader like Rogue Squadron before was known for its technological advances and moviefidelity, including using original cast member Dennis Lawson for voice acting, actual movie sound effects and models, and vastly improved graphics and draw distance. Rogue Squadron was considered a graphical marvel for its time and the Rogue Squadron series itself is considered among the very best Star Wars game adaptations.

Plot

Opening Crawl

Like most Star Wars games Rogue Leader begins with the series standard opening crawl to set the story. The Crawl is as follows:

It is a period of civil war. The Rebel Alliance is preparing a major attack against the evil Empire. Launching from a hidden base on the fourth moon of Yavin, the Alliance forces hope to destroy the Death Star, an armored space station with enough power to decimate an entire planet. LUKE SKYWALKER and WEDGE ANTILLES, two young Rebel recruits, have joined the Alliance in a brave attempt to restore freedom in the galaxy....

The plot of the game spans all three original Star Wars films with the player assuming the role of Luke Skywalker or Wedge Antilles where appropriate.

Players initially take control of Luke Skywalker at the start of the game. As Red 5, you take part in the Battle of Yavin, which leads to the destruction of the first Death Star. Red Squadron then escorts the convoy from Yavin to Hoth which takes place between Episodes IV and V.

After Luke leaves the rebellion to train with Yoda, command switches to Wedge Antilles. After the Battle of Hoth, players take part in an investigation to find a Imperial asteroid base where rebel prisoners are being held. The Bothan spies transmit the plans and location of the Death Star II to the starship Razor which is then captured by an Imperial Star Destroyer. Rogue Squadron is tasked with disabling the Star Destroyer which then crashes onto the planet below. As the Rebellion plans for its operation against the newly built Death Star, Wedge goes to Cloud City in the Bespin system to capture Tibana gas for the fleet. The game then leads players to the Battle of Endor in Episode VI where Wedge must protect the fleet before entering the core of the Death Star in order to destroy it.

Gameplay

Like its predecessor, Rogue Squadron, Rogue Leader is an arcade-style fast-paced space shooter that takes place in space and on planets. The space levels primarily consist of dog fighting while the planet levels throw in bombing runs and other anti-ground defense mechanics.

Players control various well known Star Wars spacecraft as they try to complete mission objectives through fifteen levels (including a tutorial level, Beggar's Canyon) using story specific craft. Missions are replayable and players can go back with any previously unlocked craft to try to unlock greater performance bonuses and weapon upgrades.

Most craft have two attacks a primary blaster and a craft specific second attack that is often critical in completing mission objectives (such as the T-47 Snowspeeder's infamous tow line used to trip Imperial Walkers). Depending on the craft players also engage different levels of speed and do flight maneuvers such as barrel rolls.

Mission structure consists of multiple objectives of standard fare (hostage rescue, escort, search and destroy etc) some of which are revealed mid-mission.

New to Rogue Leader, players now also have command of Rogue Squadron itself and can use the d-pad to issue simplistic commands to friendly AI units.

The Rogue Squadron series is known for its series homage unlockables and Rogue Leader is no exception, besides the ten story missions and six story space craft there are 5 bonus levels and several unlockable vehicles (such as Bounty Hunter Boba Fett's ship Slave I). The game's levels were also known to take advantage of the GameCube's real-time clock, having some of the planet levels reflecting what time of day it is when the player is playing.

Once the player has achieved gold rank on all levels and bonus levels ACE mode is unlocked for all levels, adding greater challenges.