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Editorials   New Cube Owners, Vol. 13
- By Lander Clinton

Since Nintendo recently sold in one weekend roughly the same number of GameCubes it sold at launch, I thought I'd do a little something for all the new Cube owners out there.

Everyday until I run out of ideas, forget, or am too busy playing a game, I'll update a GameCube game you must own and why you must own it.

Here goes:

While you're out there seeing this Lord of the Rings whatsit, take some time to reflect on the movie trilogy that proved that sequels, commercial tie-ins, and special effects could ingratiate a film into permanent pop-culture. No, I'm not talking about the Look Who's Talking trilogy. Star Wars- does any other topic draw the nerds out of their spider holes to debate each other as much as this? Well, talk all you want about how Attack of the Clones kicked all ass and Empire Strikes Back isn't all that, but no one can deny the greatness of the Rogue Squadron series.

Star Wars: Rogue Leader and Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 3: Rebel Strike, are the two Star Wars titles fans of the original trilogy must own. The first, now a Player's Choice title, was a GameCube launch title, and was the main reason to own the system then. The graphics are still impressive. In fact, Lucasarts gave developer Factor 5 the cgi ship models from the Special Edition films, and Factor 5 increased the details to make them look more realistic. Now consider that the Rebel Strike graphics were bumped up a few notches and you can get an idea of the graphical talent working at Factor 5.

Rogue Leader plays like an arcade shooter. The flight controls are simplistic so anyone can play, but the game is also really hard. With an arcade the idea is for you to lose so you keep putting money in. With Rogue Leader the idea is to make you lose so you play something else. That something else though can be Rebel Strike. The current offering is noticibly easier if you just want to beat a level, but still offers insane difficulty if you want to get the best metal on each stage. As a beginner, you might want to start with Rebel Strike, since a pro at Rogue Leader might find its sequel a bit too easy.

That's not to say that Rebel Strike's controls are always easy. To break up the boring monotany of FLYING IN OUTER SPACE AND SHOOTING LASER BEAMS AND OTHER COOL STUFF, you can now go on foot in several other missions, as well as pilot an array of ground vehicles. The vehicles are fun, but anything on foot is so poorly executed it brings the whole game down. There are no camera controls, you play from a third person view, and even though there are Zelda-like lock-on targets, you can just run into a room and keep shooting until everyone's dead. It doesn't help that the running animation also looks awkward, which subtracts from the overall graphical splendor. Maybe Luke's funny run is a result of Mark Hamill's car crash between the Star Wars films... Factor 5 had experience with 3rd person action games from Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, so the only explanation I can think of for the sloppy ground missions is that they rushed to get the game out on time.

If you're thinking that Rogue Leader is perfect and Rebel Strike isn't, consider that Factor 5 remade the entire Rogue Leader game and included it as a 2-player co-op mode in Rebel Strike. Everything that Rogue Leader has, Rebel Strike has, plus its own levels. The graphics for the Rogue Leader levels have actually been upgraded as well. Rebel Strike also includes many other multi-player modes, like races, capture the targets, and straight-out dog fights.

Owning Rebel Strike gives you the complete picture of the original Star Wars trilogy. You can take down the shield generator in the Endor forrest with Rebel Strike, and then blow up the second Death Star with a friend in Rogue Leader co-op.

Both games include tons of extras, like commentary on levels, making-of features, and Rebel Strike includes old Atari Star Wars games. Even if you just like the Star Wars movies, you can't go wrong with either of these games. Go get them!