Star Wars: Rogue Leader -- Rogue Squadron II GameCube

Lead an elite team of Rebel Alliance pilots through a series of desperate missions against the dark Empire in Star Wars: Rogue Leader Rogue Squadron II. The original Rogue Squadron presented N64 gamers with a new benchmark for combat flight sims, featuring comfortable, fluid control, and diverse environments full of crafty enemies and impressive explosions. Developed by the same Factor 5 studio that gave us the original, this sequel is designed to deliver the same magnitude of advancement as Nintendo gamers and Star Wars fans move into the 128bit generation of consoles.

Players take the role of either Luke Skywalker or Wedge Antilles. The game's story follows those told in the Star Wars film series, with progressive missions taking place across diverse locations such as a moving asteroid belt, the misty skies of Bespin, the frigid lands of Hoth, and a fully operational Death Star. The Rogue Leader has more control over his mates in this sequel, as he can issue commands to attack specific targets or to flee when outnumbered. Extra credit is awarded for bringing the Squadron back home safely when the mission is completed.

The title is also designed to show off the graphical capabilities of the Nintendo GameCube, featuring layered atmospheres, a realistically gentle dusting of particle effects, dozens of ships battling independently onscreen at once, realtime lighting and shadows, and other stateoftheart eye candy, all pumped out at a steady 60 frames per second. Like many other GameCube titles, Rogue Leader supports a 480p output, which allows higher resolution display on compatible HDTV systems. ~ T.J. Deci, All Game Guide