{"id":2332,"date":"2013-02-13T18:30:26","date_gmt":"2013-02-13T18:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=2332"},"modified":"2013-02-13T18:30:26","modified_gmt":"2013-02-13T18:30:26","slug":"my-top-100-19-star-wars-rogue-squadron-ii-rogue-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=2332","title":{"rendered":"My Top 100: #19 – Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II – Rogue Leader"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"2001<\/a>

2001 – LucasArts (GameCube)<\/p><\/div>\n

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The first Rogue Squadron<\/em> game definitely came around at the right time for me.\u00a0 I was in the midst of reading the series of novels based on Rogue Squadron pilots beyond Episode VI, and the game actually helped me get a visual on the description of the dogfights in the books.\u00a0 Granted, all the missions in the game were completely new to me (except the Death Star and Hoth bonus missions), so I was left wanting more of the battles I had seen in the movies.\u00a0 Yavin, Hoth, Endor…\u00a0 that sort of thing.<\/p>\n

Not long before the GameCube came\u00a0out, I\u00a0read an article in Nintendo Power<\/em> stating that Nintendo had inked some sort of deal with LucasArts.\u00a0 This meant that the next three Star Wars<\/em> games released would be exclusively for Nintendo consoles.\u00a0 From the look of the little screen shot in the article (a B-Wing flying behind the massive engines of a Star Destroyer), the first one of these games would be a follow-up to Rogue Squadron<\/em>.\u00a0 Awesome!<\/p>\n

When it finally came out, there weren’t many\u00a0retailers around Fredericton\u00a0that had\u00a0GameCube demos.\u00a0 Toys R Us did, however, and I got to give\u00a0Rogue Squadron II<\/em>\u00a0a try one evening in November of ’01.<\/p>\n

I remember it well…\u00a0 my sister picked me up after class, and we went to the mall.\u00a0 On the way home,\u00a0Pink’s new song “Get the Party Started” played\u00a0on the radio.\u00a0 My sister cranked it, while I sat in the passenger seat, wincing from the\u00a0disgust that came from listening to the song.<\/p>\n

Anyway, long story short,\u00a0Rogue\u00a0Leader\u00a0<\/em>was on a very short list of “must have ASAP” games when I finally got my GameCube in 2003.\u00a0 Not only did the graphics look just as good as the visuals in the original trilogy’s Special Editions, but the missions in the game were nearly perfect representations of what we saw in the movies.<\/p>\n

For example, the Battle of Yavin starts with an assault on turret towers on the surface, before heading into the trench.\u00a0 The lighting is amazing,\u00a0what with every red and green energy beam flying through space lighting up the space around it.\u00a0 It really gives you the feeling that you’re experiencing the events in the movie, in real-time.\u00a0\u00a0The trench run\u00a0in the first game was cool and all, but limitations\u00a0from back in\u00a0the day really changed the feel of the level.\u00a0 It clearly didn’t look and feel…\u00a0 you know, like the real <\/em>Death Star trench, like Rogue Leader<\/em>‘s did.<\/p>\n

The Hoth and Endor battles are also spectacular, as are the missions in between.\u00a0 Whether you’re flying a speeder through a maze of canyons en route to stealing the space shuttle Tyderium (the Lambda-class shuttle from Return of the Jedi<\/em>) or protecting Tibanna Gas platforms on Bespin, it’s those familiar settings that\u00a0add to the awesomeness that is\u00a0Rogue Leader<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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