May
15, 2012
Pap the Disney Gamer's
Highlights:Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
Developed by: Factor 5
System: Nintendo 64, PC
While at first it might seem odd
of me to talk about Star Wars, a non-Disney
franchise, on Gamer Tuesday, the truth of the
matter is that Star Wars has been synonymous
with Disney for years now. Premiering in 1987,
Star Tours has been delighting guests for years
now at Disneyland. Recently the attraction
received an update, featuring 3D visuals and new
paths every time you ride (as well as the
amazing chance to become the Rebel Spy!). Not to
mention that every year from May through June,
Disney hosts Star Wars Weekends at Disney�s
Hollywood Studios where fans interact with Star
Wars themed Disney characters. So I figured that
it would be great to feature a Star Wars game to
celebrate both Star Tours and Star Wars
Weekends. There are many, many, MANY Star Wars
video games, some dating back to the premiere of
the original film trilogy! Not only that, many
of these games have been dubbed as some of the
best ever made, so it was quite a task to pick
one to feature on today's Gamer Tuesday. In the
end, I went with Star Wars: Rogue Squadron for
the Nintendo 64.

If you were to ask Star Wars
fans what they like most about the franchise you
might spend a while talking to them, but, a
certainty is that they will eventually talk
about the epic space battles that occur
throughout the film series. Even the maligned
Star Wars prequels feature stellar battles with
lots of ships and enough explosions to make
three Michael Bay movies possible! Rogue
Squadron is a game based on those iconic battles
that changed the course of history forever in
the Star Wars universe. With the game being
released on 1998, the battles take place during
the original trilogy. Players will be placed in
the boots of Luke Skywalker as he leads his
group of rebels against the empire and try to
achieve freedom throughout the galaxy. Other
rebels joining him include Wedge Antilles, Wes
Janson, Zev Senesca, and many more.

Story wise, Rogue Squadron is
more interested in giving us epic space battles
than to let us experience any form of dramatic
narrative. But that's doesn't mean that there
isn't a story going on. The battles are taken
straight from the feature films, meaning that
you will be trying to destroy the Death Star,
participating in the ambush at Mos Eisley, and
taking down Imperial AT-AT Walkers. During all
of this you will constantly be hearing from your
co-pilots, adding a lot of intensity to the
gameplay. I've mentioned before how important it
is for licensed games to be loyal to the source
material as players really do want to partake in
the most iconic moments of the franchise. Factor
5 has taken this to heart, delivering on every
facet the game has to offer, from graphics to
overall gameplay.

Speaking of which, Rogue
Squadron can be described as Star Fox 64 but
with far stronger emphasis on the completion of
mission objectives. The battles also take place
in an all-range setting, meaning that you are
not flying on a scrolling set path. This can be
both a delight and an element of frustration as
it can be hard to find your primary target. It
is, however, super satisfying to just fly around
and see all the wonderful locales ripped
straight from the Star Wars franchise.

The vehicles have also become an
important element of the Star Wars mythos,
almost as much as the Jedi and light sabers. In
Rogue Squadron, players can pilot the famous
X-Wing ship as the default ship of choice, as
well as the Y-Wing, A-Wing, and the V-Wing. You
can even pilot Han Solo's Millenium Falcon! The
ship is available as a secret that can be
unlocked either by completing missions or using
cheat codes. Other unlockable ships include the
Naboo Fighter (included long before Star Wars
Episode 1: The Phantom Menace premiered in
the summer of 1999, meaning that lucky gamers
got their first taste of the new movie before
its actual premiered) and even a car! Yes, you
can fly around the Star Wars galaxy in a classic
black car.

Now that I mentioned content,
Rogue Squadron has also been praised for its
immense amount of content. Not only are there
many missions to take on as well as medals to
earn based on performance, you can hear audio
commentaries by the developer playing throughout
the level, and there are even additional secret
missions such as the battle of Hoth. The
challenge of obtaining gold medals on every
stage is enough to extend the replay value, but
the content feature throughout is amazing to say
the least.

The graphics in Rogue Squadron
are some of the best seen on the Nintendo 64.
Since it's early beginnings, Factor 5 is a
company that strides itself in great
presentation. Despite the limitations of the N64
hardware, Factor 5 made sure that the game
looked like the movies that inspired it. Each
ship looks exactly like the ones featured in the
movie. There are no out of place designs, and
each texture lovingly pays tribute to the
special effects Lucasfilm accomplished in the
original trilogy. By itself, Rogue Squadron
looked great. There was, however, more to it. In
the fall of 1998, Nintendo released the
Expansion Pak, a small cartridge that would add
4 MB of memory, allowing game developers to
create games with high resolution textures (up
to 600X480), better lighting design, and more
expansive levels without any loss of hardware
performance. Factor 5 used this opportunity to
further pay tribute to the Star Wars legacy.
When the Expansion Pak is inserted onto the
system, the game automatically switches to the
highest resolution. The graphics became sharper
and the levels and ships even more detailed.
Without it the game played fine, but gamers
hoping to get more out of the game always opted
to have an Expansion Pak for this game.

The Star Wars films are also
known for their stellar sound design. Many of
the famous sound effects, from Chewbacca's roar
to the hum of a lightsaber, have been ingrained
into our minds for all eternity, and that's a
good thing. Once again Factor 5 excelled in
preserving that little nugget of Star Wars
mythos. As I mentioned before, your co-pilots
are always talking, commenting on the action
on-screen. At the time this was considered to be
an extraordinary feat in game design. The N64,
despite being more powerful than the PlayStation
and the Sega Saturn, suffered in sound design,
meaning that many of its titles lacked the clear
audio of its rivals. Factor 5 completely ignored
this obstacle and made it a pretty sounding
game.

Rogue Squadron's success lead to
several follow ups. In 2000, Battle for Naboo
took to the skies seen in The Phantom Menace.
In 2001, the Nintendo GameCube was released, and
Factor 5 developed one of its launch titles:
Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader. The
power of the GameCube made for a game that
blurred the line between real time 3D graphics
and motion picture effects. It was just a very
beautiful game with amazing gameplay to boot.
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron is
highly regarded as both one of the best games on
the Nintendo 64 as well as one of the best Star
Wars games ever produced. So if you are a Disney
fan that can't get enough of Star Tours or Star
Wars Weekends Rogue Squadron is highly
recommended for its game design that plays
tribute to one of the most enduring pop-culture
franchises ever made.
Screenshots courtesy of Moby
Games