Rebel Scum

It's time for my hot take on Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 3D, coming a mere 20 years after release!

First, let me start with the technical details. I'm playing the Steam version of Rogue Squadron 3D using an Xbox One controller. The default controller configuration works great (it's reminiscent of the controls for Rogue Squadron II and Rogue Squadron III on the GameCube), but there's no way to pause with the controller: it's permanently bound to Escape. Furthermore, the game didn't recognize the controller when I tried launching it through my Nvidia Shield. It seems that the controller needs to be directly connected to your computer for the game to pick it up. Once you start the game, watch out for a nasty bug: if you accelerate while in the default camera angle, your ship will outrun the camera and you'll eventually crash into something because you can't see where you're going. Fortunately, you can fix this by pressing F1 at the start of each mission, which will zoom the camera in slightly: this angle doesn't suffer from the bug. Bottom line, you'll want to play this game with both a controller and a keyboard at the ready.

Some historical background: I first played Rogue Squadron on the Nintendo 64 no later than 2001. At the time, I thought the game was very difficult: I never properly finished it, advancing only by way of the infinite lives cheat code (which was, appropriately enough, "IGIVEUP"). Without it, I would have never made it past "Defection at Corellia," the first mission where you have to defeat AT-ATs with the T-47 airspeeder's harpoon and tow cable.

So imagine my surprise when I blazed through the entire game in five days! Even the gold medal requirements were rarely a challenge. I can think of two possible explanations: either I am much better at video games now than I was at age eleven, or I was being held back by the N64 controller and its less than perfect analog stick. 19 gold medals later, I have revised my judgement: Rogue Squadron 3D is a very easy game.

I like to think I'm pretty good at this game.

The game's story is presented in four parts, which roughly coincide with the explicit chapter divisions. We (as Luke Skywalker) begin on Tatooine, repelling an Imperial attack consisting of probe droids harassing the homesteads and a squadron of TIE bombers sent to gentrify Mos Eisley out of existence. Luke leads Rogue Squadron through a few essentially random missions supporting Rebel efforts through the Galaxy Far, Far Away until the "Liberation of Gerrard V." At the conclusion of this mission, the Rebels capture Kasan Moor, an Alderaanian TIE interceptor pilot who defects to become a Rogue herself.

The next few missions have the Rogues conducting strikes against Imperial facilities based on Kasan's intel. Along the way, you start hearing rumors about Moff Kohl Seerdon, the Imperial governor upon whose fiefdom you are encroaching. After rescuing Wedge Antilles from Imperial clutches, Luke and the Rogues switch their focus to Seerdon himself.

You're now hitting Seerdon's bases specifically, and this section of the game features the only truly difficult mission, "Escape from Fest." You're tasked with escorting three Rebel-controlled AT-PT walkers as they hightail it to an escape vessel. Unfortunately for you, they're threatened by three AT-ATs, eight TIE bombers, and wave after wave of small Imperial tanks. The AT-PTs might as well have tissue paper for armor, and the tanks will spawn almost on top of them and start firing immediately. If you want the gold medal, all three AT-PTs must survive: I finally memorized all of the spawn points so I could kill the tanks within seconds of their arrival.

THIS MISSION IS UNREASONABLY HARD

Finally, you'll face off against Moff Seerdon in his unnaturally maneuverable Sentinel-class landing craft in the skies above Thyferra. He's a pushover as long as you've picked up the seeker proton torpedoes, and it seems like Factor5 weren't happy with this boss fight concept: none of the other Rogue Squadron games feature an aerial duel like this one. Given the series tradition of making weapon upgrades optional bonuses that can be picked up during missions, I can see how fights like this would be hard to balance: either you assume that the player doesn't have homing missiles and the fight is trivial if they do, or you assume they have got them and the boss is nearly impossible if they don't. Future boss battles will pit the player against large ships that can be easily hit without any homing capabilities. I'm disappointed: fighting an Imperial ace sounds like a great climax for a game like this, and a writer should be able to invent a situation in which Luke runs out of missiles without too much trouble.

The death of the main villain would be the logical point at which to end the game, but Rogue Squadron 3D is far from over! The final story mission puts you in control of Wedge's V-wing to take down the World Devastators in "The Battle of Calamari." This mission comes completely out of left field. It's ~10 years later, you're controlling a different character, and it's totally divorced from the rest of the story. It feels like it should be a bonus mission, which is bizarre because the game has three bonus missions, which are unlocked after earning bronze, silver, and gold medals in all of the story missions.

Just when you think you're done, suddenly WORLD DEVASTATORS

This fourth "post-game" act is just poorly structured, and it didn't have to be that way. Factor5 should have rolled the credits after "Moff Seerdon's Revenge," reworked "Beggar's Canyon" (a simple race with no combat whatsoever) into a tutorial level, and re-positioned "The Battle of Calamari" as the third bonus mission unlocked after the gold medal challenge is complete. This mission would feel much better as a cool reward for completionists than as a baffling and incongruous story conclusion.

Despite its status as a relic of the Nintendo 64 era of gaming, Rogue Squadron 3D more than holds up today. Drawing a spaceship is pretty straightforward for a computer, and the game is still easy on the eyes. I credit Factor5 for writing an original story set between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, even if they shoved in a head-scratcher of a final mission. It's certainly more ambitious than rehashing the movie plots yet again! This game is well worth the time and money of any serious Star Wars fan.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be locking my S-foils in attack position.