How well was Star Wars: Rogue Squadron rated?
4419938#22
Many reviews compared "Star Wars: Rogue Squadron" to one of its inspirations, the Battle of Hoth flight combat level in "Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire", considered one of that game's best elements. "GamePro" remarked that "Rogue Squadron" "enhanced the flight model with true pitch, roll, and bank mechanics". IGN praised its inclusion of "upgrades, more enemies, better sound, and stunning second-generation graphics". The Nintendo 64 version received mostly positive reviews, and received an aggregate score of 85 percent from both GameRankings and Metacritic. "GamePro" named it one of the best games released in 1998. In a 2008 retrospective, IGN's Levi Buchanan stated that the game revived the "Star Wars" license on consoles through well-paced gameplay, a story tied into the "Star Wars" canon and visuals that made it "one of the generation's top stunners".
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
4419938#2
"Rogue Squadron" received generally positive reviews. Critics praised the game's technical achievements and flight controls, but its use of distance fog and the lack of a multiplayer mode drew criticism. The game's sales exceeded expectations; by August 1999, more than one million copies had sold worldwide. It spawned two sequels developed and released for the GameCube—"" and ""—as well as "", a spiritual successor released for Windows and Nintendo 64.
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
4419938#27
When "Rogue Squadron" was released in early December 1998, the title's Nintendo 64 incarnation was the second-highest-selling video game for the first half of the month (behind Nintendo's "") and the holiday season. PC Data, which tracked sales in the United States, reported that "Rogue Squadron" sold 584,337 units and earned $29.3 million in revenue by the end of 1998. This made it the country's ninth-best-selling Nintendo 64 release of the year. Delayed until after Christmas in the United Kingdom, the game was released mid-January and debuted as the second-best-selling game of the month, ahead of "Ocarina of Time". In August 1999, Nintendo added the title to its best-selling Player's Choice collection, while the PC version was re-released as a part of the "LucasArts Archive" Series in May 2001. "Rogue Squadron"'s retail success was not anticipated by the game's producer Julian Eggebrecht, who said that the game sold "about 100 times better than anybody expected". The Nintendo 64 version sold over 1 million copies in the United States, and over 44,000 in Japan.
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
4419938#26
Although nearly identical, the game's PC version garnered lower review scores than its Nintendo 64 counterpart, with an aggregated GameRankings score of 80 percent. This version enjoyed many of the same praises for its gameplay, but handling and graphics were cited as problematic. Directly comparing the two versions, AllGame's Brad Cook wrote that PC version's handling is more difficult than the N64 version. He believed the PC's "choppy" feel made it difficult to target enemies. In contrast to its opinion of the N64 version, IGN's PC review was not enthusiastic about the game's visuals. IGN staff remarked that "Rogue Squadron"s "graphics and special effects aren't spectacular" and that they had "seen better graphics" on the PC.
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
1522499#16
"Rogue Leader" was among the highest rated GameCube launch titles, and praised for its gameplay and graphics. "Official Nintendo Magazine" ranked it the 100th best game available on Nintendo platforms. The staff called it an essential launch title for the GameCube.
Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader
4419938#19
LucasFilm was hesitant to grant access to the "Star Wars" library of sound effects for the game's sound designer, Rudolph Stember. As a compromise, the company provided Stember with sounds sampled at the relatively low rate of 22 kHz, half the standard rate. Stember objected, claiming that the clips sounded worse than effects he had lifted from VHS tapes for a previous "Star Wars" project. The game includes voice work from several notable persons, including screen actors Olivia Hussey and Raphael Sbarge as well as voice actors Bob Bergen, Neil Ross and Terence McGovern. Instead of using Nintendo's default sound drivers, Factor 5 developed its own tool called MOsys FX Surround. The Factor 5 drivers use Nintendo 64 processors, but tax them less; advanced compression techniques were also employed. As a result, the game includes over 80 minutes of high-quality stereo sound.
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
4419938#8
During "Rogue Squadron" development, ""—the first new "Star Wars" film in more than 15 years—was less than one year from its scheduled release date. To take advantage of this marketing opportunity, Factor 5 included content from the upcoming film in "Rogue Squadron". LucasFilm provided the developers with design art for the Naboo Starfighter, a ship prominently featured in the new film. These designs were used to create an in-game model. Because the game was scheduled to be released six months before the film, Factor 5 was required to keep the ship's inclusion a secret. As a result, most of the game's development team at Factor 5 and LucasArts were not informed of its inclusion. A complex scrambling system was also developed to help hide the ship's code from gamers using cheat cartridges such as GameShark or Action Replay. More than six months after the release of "Rogue Squadron", LucasArts unveiled the code to unlock the Naboo Starfighter as a playable craft. The code has been named the Nintendo 64's most well-hidden code because of the length of time before its discovery.
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
4419938#6
"Rogue Squadron" includes a number of unlockable secrets. The player can unlock three bonus levels: "Beggar's Canyon", "The Death Star Trench Run" and "The Battle of Hoth". These levels are made available when the player obtains all bronze, silver or gold medals, respectively, on each level. Alternatively, they can be unlocked via passcode. Unlike the game's primary levels, the bonus levels are adaptions of events from the "Star Wars" films. "Beggar's Canyon" allows the player to reenact the race mentioned in "", while "The Death Star Trench Run" allows the player to execute an alternate version of the movie's climactic battle. In the "Battle of Hoth" bonus level, the player can join the Rebel Alliance's combat against Imperial troops, as depicted in "The Empire Strikes Back".
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
1522496#8
"Rebel Strike" was met with positive reception, as GameRankings gave it a score of 76.61%, while Metacritic gave it 75 out of 100. Critics praised the intense gameplay and the ability to have more enemies on screen than on "Rogue Leader". However, "Rebel Strike" was criticized for its on-foot missions, due to its clunky gameplay and lack of refinement.
Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike
1522499#18
"Rogue Leader" was the 7th-best-selling video game in November 2001, the title's debut month. These sale figures made the game the best-selling third-party and second-best-selling overall GameCube game during the console's launch. LucasArts stated that the title had sold faster than any of its previously published games at the time. When both the game and console were launched in the United Kingdom over six months later, the title entered the charts at number one, making it the first ever third-party game to hit the top spot during a console's launch. In May 2003, Nintendo added "Rogue Leader" to its best-selling Player's Choice collection. "Rogue Leader" sold over 1.03 million copies in the United States, and over 750,000 in the UK.
Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader