Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike (GameCube) Review

To put it simply, if we were to rate this game of looks alone, it would class as one of the best ever. This game is seriously graphically sexy. Even in a world where all developers are looking to impress you with their technical prowess the looks of this title are quite outstanding. Those who thought previous did justice to the universe of the bearded one, known as George Lucas, better think again, what we have before us reflects to perfection a massive world in spectacular detail. Even the menus will blow you away with smooth animation and elaborate design this game sparkles from start to finish. Textures are beautifully detailed with numerous levels that add into the depth making it feel all the more real. Bump mapping and all these modern innovations are all included and more often than not your eye will be directed towards various locales. We won't go into all the technical fiddles and twiddles, all you need to know is that this game is the beez-neez.

All of your favourite levels and planets from the world of Star Wars are included. Hoth and Bespin are perhaps the most impressive in our eyes. All of the effects have been improved on from the game that deputised on the GameCube in this franchise. Just about anything you care to mention has been vastly improved and it makes the whole thing much slicker, much faster and just plain gorgeous! To say that this is the most complete visual package to ever appear on a games console is something of a compliment, but this is not a case of excessive hyperbole.

All we have spoken of up until now are the space sections, however not all of Rebel Strike is strawberries and cream. The much touted third-person on foot missions are not even close to matching their airborne brothers. Its not so much the number of pixels and the depth of textures, but animation that leaves much to be desired. Jerky at times it really can get annoying when Luke slams about in the heat of battle. Much like the PC titles from LucasArts there is again one key flaw in character control. You can turn on a pinhead, stop on half a pinhead and hit full speed infinitely quickly. Again we continue to complain, we'll stop soon, promise. Catch a wall and you will be in for a tough time trying to get out and as is the trend in today's more advanced third-person perspective titles, the camera is just a tad dodgy. If there is a useless angle it will do its level best to find it, but credit where credit is due at times it is very solid.

People say homosexuals are perfectionists and 'neat freaks', to go on that horrific stereotype that would suggest that the guys at LucasArts are straight as a U-bend. Everything is totally tweaked and niggled into perfection. When we were sitting there watching the FMV sequences we almost thought they were DVD extracts, but no, they are all animated and needless to say they are utterly stunning.

Now we said that half of the GameCube original had been achieved here, and with graphics counting for a lot of the full percentage things are looking pretty grim as far as playing the game goes. The whole of Rebel Strike is a far more epic and to be honest, excessive affair than Rogue Leader. Playing as Luke or Wedge through a suitably stupid Star Wars storyline everything is very well intertwined and included into a neat little package, its just boring, which ruins the dramatic effect somewhat. The errors in Rogue Leader appeared after a while of play, and thanks to LucasArts putting in some more for good measure, after just a while of play, things start to peel off the seemingly untarnished paintwork. Meeting up with Yoda you can be trained in the swamps of Dagobah and race through the stunning forests on your very own flying bike, wonderful. If there was ever a game that tried to bring in various different genres and ideas this would be it, the fact that it fails miserably is neither here nor there; LucasArts have tried and they should be recognised for it. When not floating about in the sky with the mighty Wedge the rest of the game can be found down on the ground, and it is by this that most the game is structured.

There are various different crafts that you get to fly throughout the game. B-wing, Tie Fighter and even the Millennium Falcon. Of course the developers had the perfect formula with Rogue Leader, so not too much has changed gameplay wise. Yes the flying sections are still superb and blatting about over the Star Wars universe is just as spectacular as you will no doubt fondly remember it. All that has changed is all before you is stupidly big. More foes more crafts more of everything.

So the sky sections are fun, but what about what has been added in? Third-person perspective ideas just do not fit into this package. Interesting is not the word, fun isn't what we are searching our lexical range for either; pants will do nicely for now. There is plenty to do, which should mean there is plenty to enjoy, but wrong you would be to think this. The whole process here is flawed. At first they are fun, the new feelings and experiences will keep you going for a while, but after time it all gets too linear and tedious. Everything just seems to have an overpowering feeling that whilst it looks vast, it sits on very restrictive rails. The speeder bike sections are perhaps the strongest and in multiplayer it is a real blast.

After playing the game some more something started to flash inside our game, lazy developing. So many of the flying missions are broken up by on-foot sections just for the sake of variety. Of course this would be lovely, but as we have already said, these sections are 'pants'. The whole thing is inconsistent, bits are on rails, some are more expansive, some are just plain confusing which brings in a feeling of chaos and confusion which isn't much fun when you are trying to enjoy the game. The controls of the various crafts will have you spitting teeth and blood. Chopping and changing things are distinctly loose with a lack of focus, once again you get the idea that the developers just couldn't be assed to make it work perfectly. As for moving the characters around the environments, that is plain hilarious. 'If it aint broke, don't fix it' are the words that come to mind, sadly there was never a finished article so you get the feeling that perhaps the idea of a third-person section was flawed before it even took off, excuse the pun.

As we said before, and will continue to say until we are blue in the face we respect greatly the developer's ambition to expand this franchise once again. Yes it doesn't work and admittedly it is totally unrefined and frustrating but there is potential, perhaps some fine-tuning in development for a few more months would have done wonders. Those of you that played the older PC Star Wars titles will no doubt be familiar with the clunky and angular character movements, and here Luke is almost robotic, which at times is wonderfully hilarious. Jerking violently amongst the lush undergrowth you look like a fish out of water, or a Jedi in a bad game

An aspect that man and woman alike loved about Rogue Squadron was the pace, it all zipped along from mission to mission, and until it got stupidly difficult you could sit there and enjoy it for hour upon hour of frustration free fun. Having the clumsy on-foot sections jerking into view every other minute make what is a great space-shooter an average mixed-adventure. In trying to push the game forward all that has been achieved is negative movement. Be it flawed gameplay, nasty controls and plain poor execution there are below average elements lining up to take the shine off the stunning sections of this title.

Multiplayer wise and you have various two-player modes. Versus sections allow you to enjoy dogfights with your mates, which is all good 'clean' fun you also get space races and a chance to compete on the wonderful speeder bikes. It all works very well and brings in some welcome frustration free gameplay. The cooperative sections are far different. Rebel Strike allows you to play the whole of Rogue Leader with supped up difficulty, and if you get a mate who is willing to share your every smell and sentence for a few weeks then there is some wicked fun to be had. All from the original game is here, its just made for two and not one. Wonderful fun, but we await someone who can find a dedicated enough pall to trawl through this mass of game with them.

Much as the game looks great, it is also rather good on the aural invasion side of things. It's all fully orchestrated (ooooh) and if you have a good sound system ear drum bursting is guaranteed (aaaah). The voice and sound effects and wonderfully placed. Yes some bits might be a bit cheesy, and those with a slightly perverse mind will no doubt find amusement but everything has been done wonderfully well. Its clear, its atmospheric and it is all suitably Star Wars. Oh, and its Dolby Pro Logic II.