If memory serves me correctly, this was the first of this series I actually bought when new, after renting the rest of the games quite a bit. Rebel Strike is also the final Rogue Squadron title, sadly. It's a mixed bag, reportedly the developers were getting pretty tired of making Star Wars flight sims and almost nothing else for years and it's hard not to notice with the hot new gameplay mechanic: getting out of your ship and running around on foot. But harping on that too much is a little ungenerous I think, since Rebel Strike features enough new mechanics it almost feels like a successor to the shotgun gameplay approach of Shadows of the Empire back on the N64. There are so many the twenty minute time limit for the tutorial has been doubled to fit them all in. In one level you're flying in a classic starship, in another you're on foot with a blaster running and gunning, in the next you're hijacking an AT-ST walker and charging ahead, in another you're on a speeder bike in a high speed chase, then in another you're on foot again but with a lightsaber doing clunky platforming, and you're even briefly riding a tauntaun across the snow. Now, I can't mince words: the on-foot segments are pretty bad. And while they'd be easier to ignore if they were wholly isolated into their own levels, you'll unfortunately find yourself starting a level in a vehicle only to disembark more often than you'd like. But the vehicular levels are still very enjoyable and rampaging around as an AT-ST is a lot of fun. There are also several new enemy types including the Imperial Escort Carrier, a cool miniboss that bears a noticeable resemblance to the Trade Federation Gunships from Battle for Naboo, a resemblance that earns a bit of a cheeky comment from your wingmen in your first encounter. In addition to every old ship including the Naboo Starfighter and the Buick, there are a few new ships as well. In a nod to the recent release of Episode II, a mission set on Geonosis lets you duke it out against some old Battle Droids and even pilot a Jedi Starfighter. But there's a bit of an unfortunate irony in the game with the most vehicles giving you the least amount of time to play with any of them.
With Rogue Leader I was kinda bummed the greater focus on big movie moments came at the expense of a cohesive internal narrative. Rebel Strike, with its forked campaign, both doesn't and does address this. While there are still too many big movie moments, those are mostly consigned to the on-foot stages. The vehicular stages introduce a skilled but disgruntled Rebel pilot named Sarkli, voiced by Robin Atkin Downes no less, who gets fed up with Luke's tendency to favor his old friend Wedge and defects to the Empire when the lack of recognition for his ability gets to be too much for him. This betrayal unfolds over the course of many missions, and while it ultimately culminates in one of the wettest farts of a final boss I've ever seen, I still really appreciate Sarkli's existence, he adds a nice texture to the game and is a fun inversion of the Imperial defectors you recruit in the first Rogue Squadron. But then you also have several levels that straight up include movie clips as cutscenes, and many levels are punctuated by goofy scenes of Darth Vader and the Emperor talking about how it's their destiny to defeat you.
I do like this game, but there's definitely some wasted potential here. If I could cherry pick my favorite missions from this and Rogue Leader I could pretty easily craft the ultimate Rogue Squadron, but as it is I think my favorite overall might be Battle for Naboo? That's probably a pretty spicy take but I dunno, it just feels like the most balanced of the four games, with everything I do like about them and little I don't. Though part of this might still be sour grapes from how hard the final mission in Rogue Leader is, haha.
Game Number: 150!
Year Played: 2024 (replay)
Platform: Gamecube