Star Wars: Rogue Squadron

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron is a video game based on the popular movie series Star Wars by George Lucas. The game was developed by LucasArts and Factor 5 and was released for the Nintendo 64 video game console and the PC on December 7, 1998. The game took advantage of the console's Expansion Pak, which allowed players to view the game at (640x480) high resolution mode. Later, two sequels were made for the Nintendo GameCube: Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader and Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike.

In 1999, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron won the Origins Award for Best Action Computer Game of 1998.

Plot

The player takes on the role of Luke Skywalker. Fifteen of the 16 missions occur between Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, and they include planetary liberation, supply raids, rescue missions, and helping people defect from the Empire. The final mission takes place during the Battle of Mon Calamari first depicted in the Dark Empire comics, and the player assumes control of Wedge Antilles.

Most of the missions take place in the atmosphere of worlds such as Tatooine, Corellia, Kessel, Mon Calamari, Sullust and Thyferra; in missions in which the player's craft is exposed to space, the craft is vertically confined as in the other missions.

For each mission, the player flies either a(n) X-wing, A-wing, Y-wing, Snowspeeder, or V-wing. Not all vehicles are initially options for each mission; beating the game once allows all craft to be selected upon replay.

Established Star Wars characters who appear in the game include Wedge Antilles, Crix Madine, Han Solo and Luke Skywalker.

Enemy craft and characters with which the player must contend include TIE fighters, TIE interceptors, TIE bombers, droid-controlled TIE-Ds, probe droids, blaster and missile turrets, AT-ATs, AT-STs, AT-PTs, stormtroopers, speeder bikes, shuttles, transports, and hover trains. Moff Kohl Seerdon is an antagonist, and the player must destroy his shuttle in the penultimate mission on Thyferra.

Development

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Factor 5 was working on developing a game for the Playstation when Shadows of the Empire (SOTE) was released. The SOTE team explained the development process for that game, which includes a popular Battle of Hoth level, and Factor 5 decided to pitch a Star Wars game for the N64.

The game Factor 5 pitched was a "greatest hits" of the best moments of the original Star Wars trilogy. At the time, Lucasfilm did not allow videogames to depict events portrayed in the movies; the development team had to concentrate on side stories.

The team spent so long developing the game engine that the end game was relatively rushed, which caused spikes in the learning curve. This was a regret for Julian Eggebrecht of Factor 5, and he recounts that he can barely finish the Sullust level because of its difficulty.

Rogue Squadron was also ported to the PC as Rogue Squadron 3D. Gameplay was essentially the same but the game was given a visual makeover with SVGA resolution, sharper textures and stereoscopic (shutter) glasses support.

Unlockable content

The game also includes several bonus and unlockable levels. These include a race through Beggar's Canyon, an altered version of the Death Star trench run in A New Hope, the Battle of Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back, and a level in which the player controls an AT-ST.

Additionally, there are several unlockable vehicles that can be used to play the regular missions: the T-16 Skyhopper, Millennium Falcon, TIE interceptor, Naboo N-1 Starfighter, and AT-ST. The Falcon and TIE interceptor can be accessed by winning all 19 gold medals. The rest of the vehicles are made accessible by entering a code before gameplay.

LucasArts unveiled the Naboo starfighter code when Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace was released. While there is an R2-D2 beep upon successfully entering any other game code, the Naboo starfighter requires two consecutive codes and R2-D2's beep did not play after entering the first code.

See also

• Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader
• Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike
• Nintendo 64
• Expansion Pak for the Nintendo 64

References

1. ^ Use the Four, Luke. IGN.
2. ^ 1998 List of Winners.

External links

• IGN review for Rogue Squadron
• Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 3D at MobyGames

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