Rogue Squadron 15th Anniversary

[Diddly]

I stumbled on a discussion on another forum discussing how Christmas 1998 was the peak of the Nintendo 64, with some of its best games being released during that time period. Most were mentioning Zelda: Ocarina of Time or WCW/nWo Revenge but nobody brought up my personal favorite, Rogue Squadron. Quick check of Wikipedia confirms it came out the first week of December, so I figured I would make a nostalgia thread about the game. Hard to believe it's already been 15 years!

I played RS before I played any of the X-Wing/TIE PC games so it was my first experience with a Star Wars flight sim game. I got the game for Christmas in 1998 and played it for months on end. It had all the levels from the movies, well, Hoth and the first Death Star, and lots of EU goodness. I still remember sometime in 1999 when they announced they had hidden a code in there that would unlock a Naboo Starfighter. Looking back it's pretty incredible they were able to keep that a secret for roughly 8 months.

We got two sequels for the game too, both on Gamecube. RS2 was pretty good, but RS3 was sort of a bust. They tried some new things but everything ultimately came up flat. I'm still hoping EA or whoever makes SW games decides to revisit the concept sometime in the future. Imagine RS with an online dogfight mode? I'd play it!

[Qui-Gon Jim]

RS was the best set of SW games aside from the "Super" series for SNES.  I liked X-Wing, but I prefer a more "arcade-y" game.  I LOVED the first GC game.

[Jesse James]

Rogue Squad was great...  It gave the "atmospheric combat" X-Wing and TIE Fighter sorely lacked...  It's something that I guess was on the counter for a future X-Wing game, but never came to fruition.

I loved Rogue Squad though, and loved the vehicles they added to gaming...  There's some awesome little Rebel tanks I want to mix into my customs some day.  Simplistic designs but what I always envisioned.

Some of the "standardized" looking buildings were awesome too...  And the story being a solid fit was nice too.

Rogue Squad 2 and 3 were...  eh...  Well, the graphics were outstanding at the time, and I felt the story was pretty good on the earlier of the two.  The game play was a tad wonky at times though.  But they were certainly solid games at the time, and pretty much all Star Wars was doing was on the Gamecube aside from KOTOR back then.

I will never say that these were better, or even on par, with X-Wing, TIE, or XW: Alliance though...  Those games, their sheer expansive feel, the ability to break from the constraints of a "playing field", the complexity of the stories interwoven into all 3 (They're really great EU on top of great games), the game play dynamics of all 3 (building upon each other), the complexity of the game play (needing your ENTIRE keyboard and appreciating a complex joystick with many buttons anyone?)...  These things just made those games epically more complex, and for me immersive and realistic...  The RS games were fun, but the arcade style took me out of the element and reminded me I was playing a game...  X-Wing was a game that, if you could afford it, would've been insane inside a multi-screen "cockpit" thing, kind of like the old Star Wars Trilogy arcade game was like...

For me, Rogue Squadron felt more like a filler type game that gave you some atmospheric missions that were quick and fun, but didn't have all facets that made a game great, like the flight sim series had.  It was almost like they were made to go together slightly, but not totally...  Their stories do kinda intertwine slightly too though.

The Game Cube games introduced new characters and ships too...  I still want to make that Imperial APC.  I loved that!  totally could see that thing alongside some walkers.