Star Wars has a long history in the video game space with a number of classic titles like Knights of the Old Republic and the Jedi Knight franchises. Fans of flight sims also got their fair share of cool titles like X-Wing and Rogue Squadron. The latter title would go on to spawn one of the best sequels and still unbeaten arcade flight sims set in the Star Wars universe to date. I have recently been working on a new walkthrough for the classic GameCube title Star Wars: Rogue Leader - Rogue Squadron 2 and I can’t help but stand in awe of how well the game has stood the test of time over its 18-year life. No new Star Wars flight titles to date have captured what makes Rogue Squadron 2 so great: an approachable arcade flight sim that not only nails the feeling of Star Wars but has fun missions, amazing graphics, and tight controls.
The year is 2001 and the Nintendo GameCube has just launched with a slew of amazing titles. One of these key titles was Star Wars: Rogue Leader - Rogue Squadron 2. When I picked up my GameCube on launch day, Rogue Squadron 2 was the only game I wanted. I was so desperate to make sure I got my GameCube and a copy of the game that I even refused to go to school until I had secured my purchase, much to the frustrations of my parents. 10 AM finally came and our local Walmart opened its doors and I was off to claim my prize. A few minutes later I was walking out of the store with a new GameCube, copy of Rogue Squadron 2, and an inflatable GameCube chair that Walmart was giving out to the first system buyers. That chair was an oddity but that sounds like an article for another day!
As I arrived at school I remember being so enthralled with what awaited me that I am pretty sure I distracted a fair amount of my classmates by talking about it. To further build my own hype I had even opened my Rogue Squadron 2 game and taken the manual with me to school to read over when I wasn’t paying attention to the teachers. I was and still am a really bad student… Eventually, the school day came to a close and I could get home and finally, FINALLY, setup my GameCube and pop in Rogue Squadron 2.
Immediately I am taking down Tie Fighters outside the Death Star and flying down its trench to blow the station to kingdom come. The pure approachability and upgrades over the previous 2 games released by the now-defunct/resurrected Factor 5, Rogue Squadron and Battle for Naboo, were so apparent I couldn’t go back and play them for years. The cinematic presentation also helped make you feel you were really part of these epic battles and contributing to the victory over the Empire! Rogue Squadron 2 was so well done it became the second best selling game of the GameCube’s launch behind Luigi’s Mansion. Rogue Squadron 2 would even go on to stay one of the GameCube’s best selling games of all time at almost 2 million copies sold worldwide.
What makes Rogue Squadron 2 an even more impressive success story was that the entire game was practically built in under a year! In the summer of 2000, Factor 5 was hard at work on their amazing N64 title Star Wars: Battle for Naboo. Nintendo approached the studio to show off its upcoming GameCube system and Factor 5 became one of the first studios to receive prototype GameCube hardware. In a matter of 19 days, Factor 5 was able to create an opening cutscene showcasing X-Wings approaching The Death Star and a demo level of fighting Tie Fighters and Turbo Lasers on the Death Star's surface. This demo level would later be repurposed into the final games last unlockable bonus mission: Endurance. The Demo was showcased at Nintendo’s Space World trade show on August 24-26, 2000 and was a huge highlight for the power of the upcoming system.
After Space World, the team would continue work on Battle for Naboo and Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, both of which would release in the year 2000 on the N64. Now this is where the claim of "the game was built in only 8 months" kinda gets a little murky; a small number of Factor 5’s art team did continue to work on building models and art assets that would be used for the final game’s release. Utilizing a number of sources, including Lucas Film art archives and even toys, high-quality models of the Star Wars ships were made using Maya. In December 2000 the core team at Factor 5 began planning the game's engine with full production of the game starting in January 2001. With a release deadline set for that September in order to be ready to launch alongside the GameCube, the Team at Factor 5 and a few Lucas Arts employees would regularly work 6-7 days a week.
Late into Rogue Squadron 2’s development, Factor 5 went above and beyond and implemented Dolby Digital Surround utilizing Pro Logic II. Because the Nintendo GameCube was licensing Factor 5’s MusyX tools as part of its dev kit, the team was able to convince the powers that be at Dolby that the GameCube would be able to deliver a true 5.1 audio experience. Rogue Squadron 2 would be the first of many games to release using the Pro Logic II standard. But as we all know, the game was completed in time to launch with the GameCube on November 18, 2001, and 15 year-old me was able to pick it up and be blown away by what it had to offer.
Despite the rushed development, Rogue Squadron 2 feels like a very polished and complete game. In total, there are 15 missions, with 10 main story missions and 5 unlockable bonus missions. Unlike the original Rogue Squadron, missions for the sequel would stick more closely to those of the movies with a few missions set between the major battles. Missions were blended well between ground and space battles, and seeing new things, like a mission's appearance and mechanics change depending on the time of day, were quite revolutionary for the time. Let us also not forget how cool it was that killing turrets on a Star Destroyer in Razor Rendezvous would mean that there were fewer turrets shooting at you in Vengeance on Kothlis either; amazing! Then there is the best Battle of Hoth ever translated to video game form, though the floating rebel soldier does always make me laugh. There were originally plans for some form of multiplayer to be included with Rogue Squadron 2 but time constraints left it on the cutting room floor.
Factor 5 was also able to nail their formula for level scoring in my mind. Rogue Squadron 2 was a tough game to get gold medals on back in the day. Even this most recent playthrough where I got them all had me replaying certain missions for hours to get that coveted gold. And no I am not even talking about Endurance which is basically a 4 hour grind for gold. Rather, Death Star Escape where the ridiculous accuracy requirement had me replay it nearly 60 times… The reward for finally getting them all though is to have access to all of the game’s craft and an unlocked “Ace” mode difficulty where enemies will realize they can lay down the trigger and cream you quick! The craft choices were also top-notch with many fan favorites being playable, including Slave 1 and the Millenium Falcon. Or my personal favorite at the time the Naboo Starfighter! The flying Buick also made its glorious return by using a cheat code.
I would play Rogue Squadron 2 often during the days of the 6th generation of consoles and the quality of the game was virtually unmatched within the generation. Shoot there were even plenty of PS3/360 games I think looked worse than Rogue Squadron 2 thanks to its high-quality models and textures. Honestly, Rogue Squadron 2’s underlying artwork is so well made that the only thing holding it back from looking like a modern Star Wars title is it being stuck at 480P and a 4:3 aspect ratio. Thanks to the GameCube emulator Dolphin we can bypass these limitations and really gain a further appreciation for just how much attention and work was put into these assets. With HD texture packs you can increase the base game's fidelity even further!
Star Wars games that have released since 2001 that feature flying have by and large been huge letdowns to me. The Starfighter series looked cartoony and controlled horribly in comparison to Rogue Squadron 2. Battlefront 1 & 2 couldn’t match the scale, fidelity or awesome controls of Rogue Squadron 2. EA’s Battlefront games have finally seemed to bring the sense of scale back but controls and the sad fact you get no dedicated campaign just for flight is unfortunate. I am glad to have those few moments in the Battlefront 2 campaign though, and man is the game just gorgeous! Even Rogue Squadron 2’s direct sequel, Rogue Squadron 3, implemented a slew of on-foot missions that felt dated and restrictive even back in 2003.
Sadly, this gem of a game is locked to only the GameCube for the foreseeable future. A port of all 3 Rogue Squadron titles was completed for the Wii a number of years ago but remains unreleased to this day due to the original closure of Factor 5 back in 2009. Again, emulation is an option allowing you to get the game on PC as long as you rip your own copy and have a computer strong enough to emulate it. Thanks to all the hardware hacks and tricks Factor 5 used to make Rogue Squadron 2, it remains to this day one of the toughest games to emulate. There always could be hope though, as in 2017 Factor 5 was brought back from the dead, and then-President Julian Eggebrecht went on record with IGN saying he would love to get that compilation released on Switch. Since 2017 I have no idea what has happened to the new Factor 5, but Julian has since joined Epic Games as Director of Online Technology in their recently established Cologne, Germany Studio.
If you couldn’t tell I have a huge love for Rogue Squadron 2 and it might single-handedly be the reason that I am sitting here typing out this article for you all to read today. The game lead me to begin content creation, which in turn had me join the ranks of GameTyrant. I would love to see it make a return in some form someday. Whether that be the release of the previously mentioned compilation or a new game in the series wouldn’t matter to me at this point, I just want it!
I would love to hear some of your memories of the Rogue Squadron series, whether you played them back at release or have only just discovered them. Leave a comment below!
