{"id":1922,"date":"2012-12-27T17:50:31","date_gmt":"2012-12-27T17:50:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=1922"},"modified":"2012-12-27T17:50:32","modified_gmt":"2012-12-27T17:50:32","slug":"my-top-100-41-star-wars-rogue-squadron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=1922","title":{"rendered":"My Top 100: #41 &#8211; Star Wars: Rogue Squadron"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_1940\" style=\"width: 583px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?attachment_id=1940\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1940\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1940\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1940\" alt=\"1998 - LucasArts (PC, Nintendo 64)\" src=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/rogue.jpg\" width=\"573\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/rogue.jpg 573w, https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/rogue-300x209.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 573px) 100vw, 573px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1940\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">1998 &#8211; LucasArts (PC, Nintendo 64)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The end of &#8217;98 was a pretty exciting time for games&#8230;\u00a0 well, for me it was, anyway.\u00a0 It was the year of <em>Ocarina of Time<\/em>, <em>GoldenEye 007<\/em> and what I\u00a0considered to be\u00a0the long awaited &#8220;sequel&#8221; to <em>Shadows of the Empire<\/em>&#8216;s Hoth level; <em>Star Wars: Rogue Squadron<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Throw in the fact that a new trailer for <em>The Phantom Menace<\/em> had just been released, and I was beside myself with excitement about <em>Star Wars<\/em>.\u00a0 I had no clue what the heck was going on in the trailer, or who anybody was supposed to be (&#8220;Just WHO is that clumsy lizard-like fella?\u00a0 He looks AWESOME!&#8221;), but it was definitely quite visually stunning.<\/p>\n<p>I can only hope to feel that same giddy anticipation in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway.\u00a0 1998.\u00a0 I experienced the\u00a0full range of angsty\u00a0teenage\u00a0emotions &#8211; my favourite driver had\u00a0absolutely\u00a0dominated the NASCAR circuit that season, high school was (so far) going much better and was way more interesting than junior high ever was, and my marks were better because of it&#8230;\u00a0 yet at the same time, one of my best friends was moving to Ontario, and two family members had died\u00a0in the last two years.\u00a0 At that point, I really wasn&#8217;t sure how much\u00a0time I had left to spend\u00a0with the elder members of my family.<\/p>\n<p>I tried not to be too bummed out about the negatives, so I focused on my hobbies, and finally re-arranged my bedroom\u00a0to make\u00a0it a gaming haven.\u00a0 Every one of my consoles, hooked up and ready to go at the touch of a few buttons!\u00a0 Not only that, but they were all hooked up to my VCR.\u00a0 This was something I had wanted since I was a kid, and setting it all\u00a0up helped keep my mind off stuff.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DkDonwmSLco\" height=\"360\" width=\"640\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The one thing I remember most about that Christmas holiday was how windy it was that year.\u00a0 We had pine decorations\u00a0and bows under every window, and\u00a0a big bow with a bell on our new front door&#8230;\u00a0 needless to say, it wasn&#8217;t long into that first night of howling wind that we took that particular decoration down.\u00a0 It was pretty wild for a few nights, but it finally settled down long enough for us to finish up the last of the Christmas decorations.<\/p>\n<p>I helped my dad put some lights up, and when my part was pretty much done, I headed inside.\u00a0 I went into the living room to watch the tube, and I saw him put the ladder back up to make a few adjustments.\u00a0 He came back down the ladder, presumably to get something in the shed&#8230;\u00a0 and then the winds came.\u00a0 Quickly, and more suddenly and violently than I&#8217;ve ever seen it.<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully, he wasn&#8217;t on it when it happened, but I watched in slow motion as the wind pushed the ladder over, slowly bending to the will of the wind &#8211; and then gravity took over.\u00a0 In the\u00a0small seconds it took for it to fall, my thoughts flashed to\u00a0our car, parked right there, at the end of our walkway.<\/p>\n<p>It was like one of those hilarious slo-mo &#8220;fail&#8221; moments you see on YouTube, where people&#8217;s voices are slowed down with the footage.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;NOOOOOOOOO&#8230;. CRAPPP!!!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I rushed to the kitchen door,\u00a0sure to see some busted windows in that little Honda Civic of ours&#8230;\u00a0 but I didn&#8217;t.\u00a0 The ladder was lying on the pavement, right next to the car.\u00a0 Another 6 inches, and it wouldn&#8217;t have been pretty!\u00a0 Upon closer inspection, there was a chunk of white paint about half the size of my pinky fingernail that had been gouged out, replaced with a tiny blue scrape mark.\u00a0 The top part of the ladder had\u00a0blue plastic grips, which\u00a0was the part that slightly grazed the car as it fell.<\/p>\n<p>Close call, indeed!<\/p>\n<p>A couple days later, Christmas morning came and went.\u00a0 I\u00a0got a few games, with <em>NASCAR 99<\/em>, <em>GoldenEye 007<\/em>, <em>The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time<\/em> (the gold Collector&#8217;s Edition) and <em>Star Wars: Rogue Squadron<\/em> topping the list.<\/p>\n<p>At first, the only game that truly captivated\u00a0me was <em>Rogue Squadron<\/em>.\u00a0 <em>Ocarina <\/em>was going to take a while to get going, <em>GoldenEye<\/em> I had played plenty of already, but <em>Rogue Squadron <\/em>had that &#8220;pick up and kick ass&#8221; feel to it right away.\u00a0 Like <em>Star Wars Trilogy Arcade<\/em> before it, I immediately felt like I was behind the controls of an X-Wing, Y-Wing, or Snowspeeder.\u00a0 There was tons of spoken dialogue, which was absent from the Nintendo 64 version of <em>Shadows of the Empire<\/em>, and it actually felt like I was taking part in missions that had a place in the franchise&#8217;s Expanded Universe.<\/p>\n<p>That wasn&#8217;t *quite* the case &#8211; most of the campaign felt like it was straight out of the <em>Rogue Squadron<\/em> series of novels I was reading at the time, but the\u00a0mission\u00a0showed\u00a0us sides of the story we had never seen before.\u00a0 Still, the game&#8217;s final level is the Battle\u00a0of Mon Calamari, which took place in the <em>Dark Empire<\/em> line of <em>Star Wars<\/em> comic books&#8230;\u00a0 that was quite the nice treat for the \u00fcber fans like me.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1947\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?attachment_id=1947\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1947\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1947\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1947\" alt=\"Ignoring mission guidelines and stunt flying through Mos Eisley (or destroying as many buildings as you could before the &quot;fail&quot; screen appeared) was part of what made Rogue Squadron so much fun.\" src=\"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/moseisley.jpg\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/moseisley.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/moseisley-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1947\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ignoring mission guidelines and stunt flying through Mos Eisley (or destroying as many buildings as you could before the &#8220;fail&#8221; screen appeared) was just a small part of what made Rogue Squadron so much fun.<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"position: absolute; overflow: hidden; width: 2px; height: 1px; left: -288; top: -277; z-index: 177;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/cosmeticdermatology.topopsongs.com\">chicago cosmetic surgery and dermatology<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; The end of &#8217;98 was a pretty exciting time for games&#8230;\u00a0 well, for me it was, anyway.\u00a0 It was the year of Ocarina of Time, GoldenEye 007 and what I\u00a0considered to be\u00a0the long awaited &#8220;sequel&#8221; to Shadows&#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=1922\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,28,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-64","category-star-wars","category-top-100"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1922"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1950,"href":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1922\/revisions\/1950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}