Whether you are a Stars Wars fan or not has little impact on much enjoyment you will get out of Rogue Leader. I have never seen the Trilogy, and I think RL is one of the best single player experiences available for GameCube right now. What is more important is if you enjoy action/shooting games. If so, direct your attention to possibly the best Star Wars game ever made, Rogue Leader.
GAMEPLAY- 9/10
Shooting down ties and taking down AT-ST's with the Land Speeder is just plain fun, not to mention challenging. There are many ships to choose from, including the A, B, X, and Y wings, and the Land Speeder, of course. One advances from level to level--earning the next stage after completing one--until ten levels, which range from 2 to 12 minutes in length. After those ten levels, there are 3-5 secret levels in which you can only earn through buying with points. Getting points is not an easy task, and to do so, you must earn medals for completing levels in a professional manner. There are some secret ships to speak of as well.
While earning these medals, you will occasionally be forced to lay off of your targeting comuter--and enemies can become very difficult to spot. Gameplay is fairly straight forward, and it would have been nice to have some extra manuevers to escape the relentless enemy arsenal once in a while.
Graphics- 10/10
You won't find a better looking game on GameCube, until Resident Evil or Star Fox hit. The ships all look great, and surprisingly, environments do as well. There are some great textures to be seen at the mostly constant 60 FPS. Minor dissapointments here and there, such as AT-ST's unimpressive and unrealistic splashes in the water after being taken down, are not enough to bring this score down to a 9.
Sound- 10/10
I've heard my share of Star Wars music, and this is the real deal here. Since I have not seen the movies, I cannot complement on any specifics, or who does what voice acting, but it all sounds fantastic. Sound effects are equally great. Factor 5 knows how to produce good sound, and it shines in the form of Rogue Leader.
Value- 8/10
Medals, secrets levels and ships, and high difficulty level all make RL a fairly long lasting game, despite it being relatively short and having no multiplayer. If you like action games, you most likely will play long enough to warrent the purchase.
Tilt- 9/10
Props to Factor 5 for doing a bang up job on getting Rogue Leader ready for launch. You can tell a lot of effort really worked its way into this game. It didn't leave me with the same magical feeling such as Skies of Arcadia or Zelda: OoT did, but this is a nice experience.
What more can I say? If you are an avid fan of shooters and crave a single player game on your shiny new GCN, do not be hesitant to buy this lovely re-creation of the Star Wars trilogy.
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