When I grew up with the PlayStation consoles, I thought I had it all. If I wanted to play an aerial combat game set in the Star Wars universe, I'd just fire up something like Jedi Starfighter and get blasting. I completed it a couple of times, I think; it was that good.
It didn't make the 1001 list, though. Instead, along with the two games we've already seen in the form of TIE Fighter and X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter on the PC, we've got two more for Nintendo systems. I've been injured, insulted, and am about to be kicked while I'm down.
Think you've played good Star Wars games? Bah! Fire up Star Wars: Rogue Squadron.
Frustrations
I own Rogue Squadron for the Nintendo 64, and after a struggle to plug the console back into the TV, I eagerly sat down to play absolutely nothing. Wouldn't work. Troubleshooting lead nowhere. Blowing into the cartridge did nothing. I was disappointed.
"No worries," I said to myself, "I'll have to emulate it anyway to get screenshots. Huh. This emulation is garbage. What's going on here? What's HLE?"
And so began my quest for knowledge of High-level Emulation, namely what it is and why I need it to play Rogue Squadron. Googling and bouncing around various years-old forum posts eventually lead me towards a graphics plugin updated within the last week (the passion of the retro gaming community continues to amaze), and then an audio plugin to solve some stuttery sound.
Fun Times
In a much shorter length of time than I had imagined, I was up and running and damn was I impressed by what I was seeing.
Rogue Squadron follows the off-screen, not-quite canon adventures of the titular band of pilots lead by some kid called Luke Skywalker. Immediately, his mug is plastered across the main menus, which are all stills or on-set photos from Star Wars. Someone clearly believed this game wasn't just worth a Star Wars license, but a thrust to the moons of Iego.
The attention to detail is something to behold. The recent Battlefront reboot was said to be the height of detail when it came to Star Wars, and Rogue Squadron clearly had that claim twenty years earlier. It even begins with too much text crawling into a starfield, which obviously pans down into the scene unfurling below.
Gah, it's awesome. Whatever the gameplay turns out to be, I'm going to remember Rogue Squadron.
Oh good - it's playable, and I'm competent at it.
Rogue Squadron sees you piloting one of five or so craft from the Star Wars universe, in missions set in expansive open levels which task you with blowing this or that out of the sky or off of the ground. Your analogue stick moves your craft as you'd expect, with buttons to roll and level out, speed up and slow down.
Moving around the place isn't why you play an aerial combat game, so two more buttons give you primary and secondary weaponry, from the pew-pew-pew lasers to the proton torpedoes, and you'll be peppering everything from probe droids to artillery, AT-ST walkers and, of course, TIE Fighters.
Yes, I know they're TIE Bombers. You'll see all kinds of TIE on your travels, and they could all do with being blown up one way or another.
Further Frustrations
If you can find them, that is. Rogue Squadron, for all its fancy graphics (with the best graphics being available if you use the N64 Expansion Pak), still has a fairly big issue with fog. In the heat of a dogfight, you're probably focused on something that isn't too far away from you anyway, but if a mission requires you to get somewhere in the distance, then you're going to navigate with your radar rather than your eyeballs.
You can change the view to find one more suited to your eyeballs, but you'll still be faced with the same issues. They're not big issues, to be fair. For what it's displaying, the fog in Rogue Squadron is quite acceptable, especially when it transitions into a lovely cutscene.
Further Fun Times
They might be short, but they really do show off how much the developers cared about being faithful to the Star Wars universe. If they wanted something to happen or to sound the way it did, they fought for it, hard, and with reason. If this is the end result of people fighting for their creative vision, maybe more people should fight harder (clearly I know nothing of video game development).
Each mission ends with a medal ceremony, encouraging replayability and repeated attempts. There's a story, but sure, take it at whatever pace you want. It's a casual arcade game, not a simulator - which is why I'm capable of playing it at all. TIE Fighter and its ilk are great if you get good at them, but I'm not getting good at them any time soon. Rogue Squadron is great if you just pick up the controller and start using it.
Some levels are better than others. This convoy escort mission was alright, but the level was a bit bland, and the mission below was all kinds of colours, none of them interesting to look at, especially collectively. But I got to pilot an A-Wing instead of an X-Wing.
The various craft manoeuvre differently, with their own strengths and weaknesses, and should you unlock their use, you can play missions with different craft to try for better scores. There are even hidden options for those who hunt them down, including the Falcon.
Final Word
I wasn't using the Falcon, though, but I doubt I would have fared much better. My first run came to an end after one too many TIE Bombers had dropped one too many bombs on target.
Rogue Squadron is an incredible game for a Star Wars fan. I was a Star Wars fan - I've lapsed in recent years for one reason or another - but after playing this, I think it's awesome all over again. I want to play more, I want to find out more, I want to see where this goes.
It's a game that is authentic to the films it's inspired by and is accessible to everyone who could figure out how to hold an N64 controller. The plot is obviously reduced and hindered to fit the gameplay and mission structure or whatnot, and the levels are somewhat featureless and foggy, but none of that get's in the way or just having a good time flying a ship that you've seen the good guys pilot on the big screen.
Rogue Squadron brings out a bit of the kid in me. A game making me smile. Who'd have thought it, eh? Play it for yourself some time.
Fun Facts
A well-hidden code would ensure that the Naboo Starfighter from the yet-to-be-released Episode I: The Phantom Menace went by completely unknown to gamers until the passcode was released by LucasArts. It looks rubbish when flying, but whatever, it was there on the cartridge, unnoticed, for months.
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, developed by Factor 5, LucasArts, first released in 1998.
Version played: Nintendo 64, 1998, via emulation.