Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike - GameCube

I actually helped design this game. This game is a quantum leap over the previous game in the series. The Star Wars movie franchise is a stable in the American movie industry. A classic - and these games are probably the best Star Wars games released. Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 2: Rogue Leader and this one.This one was released in 2003 - the last one, in 2001 upon Gamecube's release. Factor 5 is a group of 30 people - took them 9 months to make Rogue Squadron 2, as you can tell from their "Postmotem" article on Gamasutra.com. This one probably took longer. There's many more levels in this one - already - I've seen as much levels in this game as are present in the entire first one. I'm guessing I'm only about 35% of the way done too. Also a far greater variety in these levels. However the land-based running/walking missions are not as good as the others - but I've only seen one of those.They've increased the amount of pixel shader-like effects that they're using. They've got a specular reflection water effect, which isn't even in the first. That's in the first level - "Revenge of the Empire". Many more tie fighters then the first - and much higher vertex counts as well. Some levels here push 70 million polygons/second, which is impressive for Gamecube. "Relics of Geonosis" for instance, with the massive asteroid field, is pushing many polygons - 70-80 million, a lot, considering Gamecube is supposed to do only 12 million max! My goal was to put as many vertices in the level as possible, while maintaining 60 fps, and I think we succeeded!A far greater amount of variety, in a pretty good movie franchise. Certainly worth the handful of dollars I spent on it - $10.21 altogether including shipping. It has the entire original game, in dual-screen mode though, as well.Some interesting levels:"Relics of Geonosis"That's a large asteroid field! Many vertices. 80 million vertices/polygons/second, which is astronomical for Gamecube, and 6.66 times more then Gamecube's targeted 12 million vertex/second maximum."Revenge of the Empire"A decent specular water effect, by the people at Factor 5, who are experimenting with Gamecube's pixel-shader-like effects."Raid at Bakura"Has a very large ship there, with many lights. Larger then any ship found in Rogue Leader."Deception at Destrillion"This one goes a little slow - but has a TON of vertices. 80 million vertices/second. Slows down a little though - because of the specular water effect. Massive scale. You've got to destroy the satellites which are powering the super laser."Guns of Dubrillion"Many vertices/second. 80 million, divided into two sections of 40 million/second though. You actually get to ride a walker - a massive 4-legged machine. Entertaining. Focused on better animation this time - for the walkers. Then foot missions had bad animation."Fondor Shipyard Assault"Impressive. We put a massive array of vertices into the mission. 12 defense stations - massive in scale. Then the assault on the ship itself - a massive polygonal monster, with trillinear or anistropic filtering enabled.I'm was only just getting warmed up at this point. The missions from here on out are even better.

As far as Star Wars games go, this series attempted at first just to simulate, in an "arcade" (rather than flight sim style, a la "X-Wing" or "TIE Fighter") what it would be like to fly a Rebel fighter on missions from the movies. The third Rogue Squadron game appears as the slam dunk of the series, including as a bonus disc the entire RS 2 campaign in co-op multiplayer fashion. Emulations of the three "Star Wars Arcade" games are included as well (the vector graphics Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back games and the Zaxxon-clone style Return of the Jedi Arcade game, sadly not the polygonal Star Wars Arcade nor the Star Wars Trilogy Arcade, unfortunately those have not appeared on any next gen consoles though the former was on the short-lived Sega 32X).The graphics in this game are quite good and the action is fast. It's one of the most accessible vehicle games that features the events of the Star Wars movies. One difference from this and past games is that there are "ground sequences" where your character goes on foot, which are not as in-depth as say "Jedi Knight" but a nice diversion from the usual vehicle flying action. The difficulty really ramps up later on, especially if you're not handy with the Gamecube controller. This is a worthwhile gem to have if you can get your hands on it, and it is compatible with the original Wii (you need a GC controller to play it of course). Hence I was not able to beat this game when I borrowed it from a friend. It's likely to keep you busy for awhile, especially if you're a Star Wars fan.

Great Star Wats game from 2003. The gameplay variety is really good. Love this game.

My original copy got scratched beyond help...but it was well worth buying again to play coop with my son. They don't make em like they used to!

Every 20-40 seconds I get an error message stating that the disc cannot be read. The disc visibly has no scratches. This renders the game completely unplayable.

Game locked up after the single player campaign mission selection.

It plays just like its prequel: Rogue Leader. Just a different HUD, more craft to play with, and different campaign for both Luke and Wedge. Although I wasn't able to play Wedge's campaign because I got a defective copy.Excellent service from the seller for giving me another copy but it was a lot worse than the first one. I actually managed to play most of the content on the first copy but the second copy just could not be read.

Product arrived as described and works on my GC. Box and instructions were better than I expected based on warnings, the disk was about as I expected. All in all very happy with my purchase and asking price.