At first I had
planned on holding back from buying a Nintendo Gamecube. All that
changed at my first glance of Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader.
I quickly got rid of an extra kidney, hocked my stereo, and sold off
millions of my potential children just to have one. Rogue Leader was a
beautiful game, looking far better than any game of its kind. Of course,
the real bonus was getting to play the actual missions from the first
movie trilogy. You got to fly the trench of the first Death Star, assist
the evacuation of Hoth, and lead to assault on the last Death Star. It
was excellent. Now imagine getting to play it all co-op (like Han and
Luke!). Thats right. Those great missions from Rogue Leader are going
to be available as a co-op game. Oh, and did I mention that was just
icing on the cake? It is all just a bonus feature of an all-new Star
Wars: Rogue squadron game: Rebel Strike.
I really dont
know what to be more excited about, the new levels or the co-op levels.
On one hand, I had always wished that Rogue Leader had a co-op mode but
on the other had Rebel Strike looks so freaking awesome. I thought Rogue
Leader was gorgeous. I was wrong. It could not have been, because then I
wouldnt have an adequate word to describe Rebel Strike. Is gorgeouser a
word? If not, it should be. Rebel Strike is way gorgeouser than Rogue
leader. (Ok, that doesnt work. Lets just say it is a damn sexy game.)
The dog fights above the temples on Yavin Four are some of the coolest
graphics I have ever seen.
Then there
are the things that Rebel Strike adds to the Rogue Squadron game series.
Take the evacuation of Hoth. This level has been done and redone. But it
has never been done like this before. Striving to be even more true to
the movies, now Luke crashes his snowspeeder and you must get out on
foot and assault an AT-AT with your grappling hook and lightsaber. How
many of us have been dying to ride a tauntaun? (Remember when Han sliced
one open and stuffed a dying Luke inside to keep him warm? Ewww!) I know
I have and now you can. Im just not sure how much help your blaster
pistol will be when facing the AT-ATs though.
n Endor, you
will get the chance to hop on a speeder bike and manuever through the
lush jungle moon. I am hoping to get the chance to blast an Ewok, but I
wont hold my breath. In fact you will get the chance to pilot nearly
every one of the vehicles from the movies, even the AT-STs (chicken
walkers). The levels will be slightly different depending on which
character you choose, playing up to each characters strengths (Luke for
more land action, Wedge for more star fighting, and Han for the very
best jive talking).
The two-player aspect of the game goes beyond just the co-op play.
There is also a versus mode, which looks to include a capture the flag
type game. This makes me so happy.
To top Rogue
Leader, they needed to go big. It is nice to see that they realized this
and then went nuts. I would almost guarantee this wont just be the best
Rogue Squadron game, but the best Star Wars game thus far. Look for Star
Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike to come out sometime in November
of 2003.