Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike

Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike
North American cover art
Developer(s)	Factor 5
Publisher(s)	LucasArts Electronic Arts (Japan)
Platform(s)	GameCube
Release date(s)	NA October 15, 2003[1] PAL November 7, 2003[1] JP November 21, 2003
Genre(s)	Action,
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	CERO: B ESRB: T OFLC: G8+ PEGI: 12+
Media/distribution	1 × GameCube Optical Disc

Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike is a Star Wars video game developed by Factor 5 and published by LucasArts exclusively for the Nintendo GameCube. The game follows Rogue Squadron, which, under the command of Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antilles, uses starfighters to engage and defeat the Galactic Empire. The game is set during the original Star Wars trilogy and recreates battles that take place during those films.

Rebel Strike was developed as a sequel to Star Wars: Rogue Squadron and Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader. It added the ability for the player to leave their starfighter to participate in land battle as well as to enter pilot vehicles during certain missions. The game also has a multiplayer mode that allows two players to play all but two of the missions from Rogue Leader co-operatively. Being a "second generation game" (as producer Julian Eggebrecht states in the aforementioned documentary), the production team felt the need to expand upon the game's predecessor Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader by adding enhanced atmospheric effects, more impressive explosions and the capability of having many more enemy AI players on-screen at once-among other improvements.

Plot

The story is set shortly after the destruction the of the Death Star above Yavin 4. The Empire drives the Alliance off the moon, leaving the Alliance searching for a planet for their next base. Tycho Celchu, an Imperial officer, defects to the Alliance on Dantooine and leads them to a group of scientists on Ralltiir who wish to defect. During the battle to rescue them, Rogue wingmate Sarkli defects to the Empire. Despite this, Rogue Squadron and the scientists escape safely in a transport. The Rebels settle on Hoth, but the Battle of Hoth occurs and the Imperials obliterate their base.

The Wedge Antilles campaign takes place after the Battle of Hoth, leading a raid on Bakura to extract rebel hostages from the orbiting prison. Sarkli leads Rogue Squadron into Geonosis's orbit, where they both crash following an ambush by TIE fighters and Imperial Escort Carriers. Fighting stormtroopers and battle droid remnants and making use of various depowered Galactic Republic machinery left over from the Battle of Geonosis, they escape, and Wedge flees the system. This would lead up to a ploy designed to wipe out part of the Alliance fleet over Dubrillion, and in response raid the shipyards of Fondor to disable an experimental Star Destroyer. Emperor Palpatine reveals that the last few battles were manipulated, making the Rebels overconfident of themselves and allowing a weakness in the upcoming Battle of Endor. Nevertheless, Han Solo, following his rescue from Jabba the Hutt disables the shield protecting the Death Star II over Endor, while killing Sarkli, allowing the Rebels victory.

Gameplay

Single-player

The game contains on-foot missions and space battle missions as the previous Rogue Squadron games. The game also includes some unlockable classic missions inspired by the movies.

Multiplayer

Co-Op: Co-Op has all of the missions of Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader with split-screen (excluding the levels "TRIUMPH OF THE EMPIRE" and "REVENGE ON YAVIN"). Players share the same pool of lives. Both players have one friend to command. In this mode it is possible to get higher than a gold medal (example: use seismic charges from the ship Slave 1 to destroy the star destroyer on the level "RAZOR RENDEZVOUS" in around 17 seconds).

Versus: Has a variety of modes, like: Dogfight, Survival, etc. Can play as an X-Wing, Y-Wing, A-Wing, Tie Fighter, Tie Interceptor, Vader Tie, or Pod Car.

Reception

The game has received generally positive reviews, most of them praising the intense gameplay and the ability to have more enemies on screen. It currently has a 7.8 on GameSpot, and an 8.3 on IGN. While most of the reviews were positive, it was criticized for the on-foot missions, with people stating that they felt clunky and unrefined.^[2]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Release Information for GameCube". http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/gamecube/data/914734.html. 
2. ^ "IGN Review". http://cube.ign.com/articles/455/455717p1.html. 

External links

• IGN review for Rebel Strike