Star Wars: Rogue Leader — A RetRose-Tinted Review

Recall — Insurmountable Demos

I have truly vivid memories of the KB-Toys in Schererville, IN. I could crudely reconstruct where I purchased any number of games during the many visits, and where I played the games out of my price range. Furthest from the store entrance, around the great, circular center area, the Nintendo demo kiosk always beckoned my brothers and I. When the Gamecube was still relatively new, there was a hot new Star Wars demo we could play, Rogue Leader. In play, we had to try and destroy the Death Star from A New Hope. Destroy turrets on the surface, dogfight with TIE fighters, and then complete the needle-threading trench run. Make no mistake, we tried destroying the Death Star any time we were at KB-Toys, but I don’t think we ever did. Might be our gamer brains were being cut off by having to crane up at a screen like those kiosks made us, but we were still transfixed. And that was only the first mission.

Outside of that demo, I recall very little about Rogue Leader as a game. I know its missions, because I was able to play them all cooperatively with my brother on its sequel. I remember coordinating, dividing and conquering throughout space and planetside. I remember using cheat codes to unlock the bonus missions, because damn some of those medals were tough to get. I didn’t realize wingmates were a thing that could be controlled until much later. Especially against Rogue Squadron’s siloed focus on the player and their actions, it felt novel and more connected to be able to sic other fighters on the Imperials.

I remember eventually conquering Rebel Strike (the third Rogue Squadron game). That was my in to try Rogue Leader as it was originally released: as a single-player experience. I must’ve enjoyed it, because I still have my copy on my shelf. It was the best of both worlds: standalone experiences made just for the game, and missions pulled directly from familiar battles across the original trilogy. It sounded great, the chatter was improved, and it played well, even with the new controls.

Also, there’s DEFINITELY a tutorial stage in here! There’s gotta be! It was on Tatooine, and it got you all trained up for the different controls and I really hope I didn’t hallucinate an entire tutorial.

Even though it was released at the dawn of the Gamecube’s era in 2001, Rogue Squadron looked beautiful, and (if rose-tinted recollection is to be believed) still looks beautiful. It played smoothly, the battle backdrops were gorgeous, and it made every dogfight and skirmish into a piece of Lucasian art.

Revisit — Familiar Stomping Grounds

THERE IS A TUTORIAL. Bless my failing memory. Of course, I didn’t need it as much as I would have in Rogue Squadron; Gamecube was my system of choice way back when, and that funky controller drilled a lot of muscle memory into me.

I’m the first to admit when I go into something too confident, and I did so with Rogue Leader. I burnt through the surface skirmishes on the Death Star before the trench humbled me twice, very quickly. Even though I surpassed my old demo-playing self and successfully destroyed the station, it was still a reminder to not think too highly of any innate skills I thought I had. This would be, and was, a challenge.

Rogue Leader improved on the original’s foundation, providing even more mission styles and objectives to accomplish, while introducing brief, new elements. It was just reading what time your Gamecube’s internal clock was, which altered one stealth mission approach, and also what time it would be in the Training level. Groundbreaking, no. Novel for the time? Sure!

The tantalizing bonus stages have been reworked, as well. In the past, players had to be somewhat good at all the stages, earning a new bonus stage for every full sweep of medals achieved (all bronze, all silver, and all gold medals). Rogue Leader retains the medals, but now they award points, which can be used to unlock various bonus stages. Players can now choose to specialize in fewer stages to unlock the stages they really want, giving some degree of choice in the process. Granted, they’ll have to get good at everything to unlock everything, but that’s an issue for future gamer. Besides, who doesn’t appreciate choosing the alternate-history bonus levels where the Empire wipes out the assault on the first Death Star?

It should also be noted (and honored) that Danny Delk returns to announce all of the mission briefings, and it does my ears good, even after all this time.

At day’s end, Rogue Leader is Rogue Squadron, but more. It never quite matches the demo kiosk hype of those fateful Death Star runs, but it is still an amazing game for having been a Gamecube launch title. All the same, there’s more detail, more graphical fidelity, more options, more maneuverability, more blasting, more speed, more fun. And by gum, it really does look good doing it, even all these years later.

All images courtesy of MobyGames