Remember the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron Trilogy? 

Side note and a warning about Rebel Strike: All of the main missions from Rogue Leader are in Rebel Strike in the form of a Co-Op mode. It is really fun and makes some missions a little easier, albeit harder to get higher rankings on them. THERE IS ONE THING YOU SHOULD KNOW THOUGH: *DO NOT UNLOCK THE JEDI STARFIGHTER BEFORE CLEARING THE BESPIN CO-OP LEVEL!* (the one with the stupid balloons that the computer doesn’t show what you should actually hit) (or at least don’t unlock the Jedi Starfighter via a cheat/password before clearing this mission) If you do, then the Co-Op mode missions from Bespin to the Death Star II are “soft-locked” due to an oversight where the Jedi Starfighter replaces one of the A-Wings, but the mission requires you to start the mission with only A-Wings if you haven’t beaten it, and both players have to choose their “own” vehicle. (if the selection only has one X-Wing, then only one player may start the mission in an X-Wing, you cannot both start in an X-Wing if there is only one) The only known way to fix this is to delete the game’s save file from the GameCube Memory Card (because the in-game save menu remembers what cheats/passwords (most of them anyway) that you have used and applies them to all future save files.) and start over from scratch.

Man, that AT-ST mission in Endor's moon it's amazing! Graphically one of the best looking moments on the entire GameCube library

Factor5 could do some freaking magic, man. The Defense of Hoth Level in Shadows of the Empire blew my mind as a kid, and then a whole game based around it? Wow. I used to go to the McDonald's Play Area when I was a young teen, to play Rogue Leader, because I couldn't afford a Gamecube. It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times.

Man I love these long format scripted videos. Yours are always so well done too. I look forward to watching through this while I unpack groceries.

Both Rogue Squadron 1 and 2 have a lock on mechanic, it is one of the bonus power ups located within the different levels.

"you take out a freaking death star." *sad Sonic noises while an explanatory message appears on screen*

Rogue Leader in some ways felt like a better follow-up to Star Fox 64 than many of the actual games in the latter series were. Its just a pity that Rebel Strike pivoted into gimmicks and on foot missions so badly executed that even Star Fox Assault's efforts in that area seem light years better by comparison.

Fun little fact: the original Rogue Squadron on N64 actually had a mission where you pilot an AT-ST. But it was just a test level that you could only access through a menu cheat. It seems obvious they were planning on having ground missions even back then, but then never had the time or budget to fully implement it until Rebel Strike. Actually come to think of it, the quasi-sequel Battle for Naboo had ground vehicles as well, so a lot of that stuff was still there even in the N64 era.

Rebel Strike is by far my favorite. You just have to know how to play it. First, completely ignore all the Rebel Strike content. If you have a buddy, play through the Rogue Leader missions co-op. If you don't, play the arcade games (well, not Return of the of Jedi). So many hours of great fun.

On the Bespin level in Rogue Squadron 2, you approach the turret blimps from below, and you can see what looks like the gas containers *inside* them. You shoot those and the whole thing explodes.

Relics of Geonosis was some nice fanservice overall since it connected to both the Prequels and Original Trilogy. Speaking of the Prequels, Battle for Naboo was another game Factor 5 made which can probably be seen as "Rogue Squadron 0" as it's set during the Prequel era, namely during Phantom Menace. I remember really liking that game back then, and I also recall it being one of the earliest cases of official Star Wars "stuff" taking a jab at Jar Jar since I remember the opening logos having Jar Jar squashed by the N64 logo (which took me by surprise since I never hated Jar Jar).

I can appreciate the effort and time being put into this review, but I do think you were a little hard on the first game. I do, however, also see why you were since you said you weren't really an N64 guy and that's understandable. That being said, the only way to have a true-blue experience with Rogue Squadron 1 is to play it on the N64 with the expansion pack either on a CRT or lag-free scaler on an HDTV. The PC versions just won't cut it here, as you've said before they have too many issues. I respect the N64 controller, but I'm still among others like yourself who feel the original controller hasn't aged well so if that's one of the issues you're running into I'd recommend getting a Retro Fighters Brawler 64. Its far better for stick based games on the N64. The rest of the review was spot on (yes, even the bad stuff from Rebel Strike). One thing I'd say about the 2nd and 3rd games is that they're much tougher than the 1st. Earning Medals is harder and more tedious than the 1st game, Ties are hard to run from when they lock onto you, Star Destroyers are insane to try and attack, all enemy units have pinpoint accuracy and your own craft's health is equivalent to that of a piece of paper. Still, they are extremely fun to play and must haves for any Gamecube fan.

I really like the narrative you're going for. As opposed to Rebel Strike, you've always got this cohesive structure. Plus, you're one of only a few people on YT who actively use the chapters/segment feature which makes it so much easier to follow your research. Thanks so much!

Battle for naboo had ship swapping. It's a N64 game set entirely during episode 1 and is overlooked in comparison.

StarWars and FrameRater , the perfect combination

I've never played these (and still watched the entire video, so kudos to you) and not sure how old these are but the forests in those AT-ST missions look amazing even today.

Was born in 92 this was 1st game I played 4 game cube brought back so many memories

After watching the EA Play event. Looks like Squadrons will be a bit closer to the likes of the Lawrence Holland designed PC Space Sims like X-Wing, Tie Fighter, XvT, and X-Wing Alliance. In the developer interviews, those were the references made.

Backstory behind 'Deception at Destrillion' and 'Guns of Dubrillion' is essentially this: Rebel Alliance Intelligence has discovered the possibility of a top-secret Imperial research facility in the Dubrillion system (specifically located in orbit above Destrillion). Rogue Squadron (Wedge Antilles) is sent to recon the suspected location while the rest of the dedicated fleet waits elsewhere in the system. The actual facility they were looking for was on Dubrillion (the major planet of the system they were scouting) where the Empire was conducting tests on superlasers. After Wedge completes his recon mission the planetary defense weapons begin firing on the strike fleet the Alliance had sent out, more or less pinning them down until they could be taken out (this is because of how hyperspace/hyperlanes work in Star Wars, blind jumps are more likely to get you killed than get you to safety so jumps are calculated to follow "safe" hyperlanes, or routes that function relatively similar to how our highways work. Because they couldn't safely plot a course while being shot at they had to take out the guns, and they couldn't just move away since they were where they needed to be to exit the system).

I played the first Rogue Squadron game on a 233Mhz system under Windows 98 and I don't remember any stuttering. I beat all the missions, although I couldn't get gold medals in them all. Usually the time limit was the biggest problem. I HATE time limits in games. I was pissed that the sequels only came out for the Gamecube. Not only did I not have a Gamecube, but being forced to play a flying game using a piddly little thumbstick is just wrong. Games like these deserve an actual joystick. Unfortunately, my system is too old to emulate the sequels properly. 24:34 - That's a Tauntaun, not a Blurrg. Manuals - Of course, why would anyone read the instructions included with a game that explain how to play it? That would be stupid! Reading is torture! People's eyes are probably bleeding from trying to read this ridiculously long comment. I better stop typing before heads start exploding...

I wish the new Squadrons game was like this, it just feels very shallow with hardly any modes or substance. Rogue Squadron was awesome, still got my Rogue Squadron, Rogue Leader and Rebel Strike games, i'll never get rid of them.

Your last video was amazing and it's helped me get past a lot but on rouge squadron. Yeah I never played it. Probably because I grew up with star wars battlefront on the ps2 but this is something I feel as if I missed out on.

N64 RS was my jam back in the day and pretty much grew up exclusively on flight sim-esk games. not knowing that more came out as i only really had one system ever 10 -15 years looking at the freshness of the other games is is quite a sight for these eyes. i had pretty much 100% the game and even got the car. so glad these games are still out there i hope i can get a chance to play them all.

Great video as usual. I hope your hand is feeling better.

i still have my rogue squadron 64 and rogue leader games, i even have a 64 game called battle for naboo, a tie in game for the phantom menace when that came out.

I will chime in as an old timer Rogue Squadron player: The Camera Glitch in the first game did not happen in old hardware. I suppose the new age of hardwares brought unforseen consequences. I mean, how would you patch a bug if it doesn't exist yet?

That Jedi Starfighter in Rogue Squadron 3 is really cool fanservice

Dear god, what did you do to your hand?!? Looks like a bad burn, hope that heals up well.

The lock on missiles are a weapon upgrade you can find in each of the three games

For anyone who has seen this video, liked these games, and hasn’t tried Squadrons yet, *try Squadrons.* It’s incredibly fun. The campaign is substantially long for most modern multiplayer-focused games and acts as a great, but not entirely intrusive tutorial. It’s not like most games where the tutorial is just five to ten minutes of “press this button to do this.” No, in Squadrons’ campaign you learn about new mechanics nearly until the end. I didn’t think I’d like the cockpit-perspective gameplay much but it’s a total blast and incredibly immersive, and so is the vast array of customization options. It’s got an incredibly high skill ceiling but it’s accessible enough for most players to have a good time. If you *do* play Squadrons (on Xbox specifically) and have played with/against askmeaboutsugma, that was me :)

Please try out ace combat 7 if you get to grips with the expert controls it is a tad difficult at the start but once you have a grip on them you can pull off some badass maneuvers (some people do some crazy stunts but just basic gameplay feels amazing) and the story is completely insane and weird. But the absolute mastery of how well the OST matches gameplay beats I'd love to see what you think of it

Even if it came first by a few days Rogue Squadron 3D was visibly ported to PC from the N64 (or at least greatly hampered by being multi-platform), that draw distance for the time was a bit ridiculous for a flightsim even at the time especially considered it required a 3D accellerator. The game works best with nGlide (Direct3D support unfortunately is outdatedthat's why is a tad problematic), you can even force a higher resolution that also works on mission and shipt select (that originally stayed 640x480 regardless of any in-game resolution chosen). Steam unfortunately has a habit of plopping a game into its storefront without some basic "does it work?" check, I have my copy (because the CD I have from my childhood is in German, the trouble of only being able to buy PC games while travelling) on GOG. I also played with a joystick then and with a HOTAS now, a nice trick I learned when playing with a HOTAS is that you can switch to first person when using the tow cables which I think makes flying around the AT-AT legs much easier. When my brother got a gamecube to play Pokemon Stadium I got a cheap copy of Rogue Leader and playing with a gamepad was traumatic, while I did in time beat both Rogue Leader and Rebel Strike on gamecube I was never able to get all gold medals like with the original Rogur Squadron 3D. I never understand people that play games over 25 that don't read manuals for games, but greem=friendly and red=enemy is pretty much self evident, blue usually it's neutral, the coding was taken from the X-wing and Tie Fighter games (well, there technically green was rebels and red empire rather than friendly and enemy, so red was friendly when you played as the empire) and being primarily a PC user since the DOS era I'm used to read them even for console games (it's actually kind of painful when I see famous streamers play games like Golden Axe for Mega Drive only using the basic attack because they didn't bother to read about the special moves the manual). Speaking of X-wing, that's the reason why I think the Factor 5 games while good aren't exceptionally good: they are too arcade. Not in the "not enough buttons" sense (some of that too, I sometimes miss the detailed targeting controls of the PC games even just to know what the hell is going on in the chaos) but regarding the limitations that come with the approach they chose for gameplay like the limited areas (in the PC games there really was no reasonably reachable limit to the game area), the friggin autolevel and autoroll you seemingly can't disable in the sequels even when you play in deep space, the camera switching with the AT-AT sequences, the way the lock on missiles work (and that you have to unlock it for every type of missile in the first place), etc. Oh, and Squadrons seems more a simplified X-wing vs Tie Fighter (the installment of the series that introduced multiplayer) rather than a Rogue Squadron game, they even reference energy rerouting which was one of the main mechanics of the spacesim series (introduced to the genre by X-wing no less) rather than a Rogue Squadron thing. If you want to tackle the series better start with Tie Fighter because it has actual tutorials to go with the manuals (one manual one novella, but the latter also gives a lot of gameplay suggestions that aren't in the manual or the tutorials) but they are separate from the main campaign (they are accessed through the "combat chamber"), get the GOG version and search for the manual and novella in the extras of the floppy version (GOG and Steam both sell all three versions together in the same package but GOG has all the extras, don't play the floppy version, CD DOS has the dynamic music but CD windows can be modded for higher resolution and has some limited remapping options for the joystick so pick your poison), better get a cheap joystick and play joystick and keyboard even though I know of people that used a gamepad there are just a bit too many buttons and may require additional softwares to work (though the latest version of the hi res mod does also allow for some gamepad hacks).

Watched a minute and a half of this and immediately downloaded the PC version again. So frigging nostalgic. The camera glitch is due to the original being made for old school graphics cards.

Hey man, this video just came up in my suggested videos so I haven't seen any of your other stuff yet. As someone who knows these games (especially 2) front to back, it's super interesting to take off the rose tinted glasses and see what someone freshly experiencing them runs into. Also, i think in rouge 2 theres an option to turn off auto-leveling to help with the "gravity" problem. If not, my bad 😆

11:37 - Hard brake and turn in a tight circle until they break off pursuit.

6:15 there's an option in the settings to make the ships stop tending towards flat

since you did mention manuals for video games, you did remind me when i got some of the splinter cell games in back with manuals in them and in box as well.

Fun fact: you can have a sharper turning radius by using the game's ROLL function, just as you would turn a jet in Ace Combat (if you're not using simplified controls) Fun fact 2: Piloting an AT-ST has been a thing in the games since the first Rogue Squadron! Granted in the first one you needed a cheat code to access as special level that looks like a text box for said AT-ST. I swear every time I hear "the game doesn't tell you" I can list a moment where the game DOES TELL YOU: +If you did play the training you would know that you use the Ion Cannons by holding the B button. +The Targeting Computer is ALSO explained in the training. +You can unlock a Lock-On feature for your missiles in the game by finding hidden Tech Upgrades throughout the game, same as the first one (or by using cheat codes) You swap from a X-Wing to an A-Wing in Ison Corridon Ambush, before Hoth. I THINK that if you tell your Squadmates to Form Up they'll keep the Ties off your ass And yes, Rogue Leader *IS* awesome

What happened to your hands? How do you not know what the Death Star is but know what Maclunkey is? I love you so much this channel is a blessing

What was the button combination for the quick-restart in Rogue Leader? I've never heard of that before.

I would gladly take these three games HD-fied up for release on the Switch, the gyro controls (if you're into gyro controls) would work perfect for playing them!

I actually picked up a "Limited Edition Preview Disc" copy of Rebel Strike a few years ago. It (according to the back of the box) the Atari Star Wars games, the single player demo and some "bonus conent" including concept art and trailers. I never played it, just added it to my Star Wars game collection. One thing unmentioned is that the GameCube clock doesn't just effect the training level of Rogue Leader. One mission (Imperial Academy Heist) has different variants if you play at day or night, with different starting vehicle. At day you go straight in and at night you need to be a bit more sneaky.

Solid and thorough review.

Frame were you ever a fan of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series?

25:00 It kinda remembers me to Tachyon: The Fringe for some reason.

how dare you call the t-180 hopper most unrecognisable

A shame you didn't even mention Battle for Naboo. It's RS1's direct successor.

the piloting the at)at mission was awesome

It's funny that most of the upgrades you can find in Rebel Strike were useless because the ship levels were so few.

You said that you didn't perform well enough on the first run through in order to unlock the bonus missions. I might be giving you old news, but you can replay the missions in a single save file and improve your medals. You can unlock all of the bonus missions if you gold everything. Or you can just use a cheat, I think

Apparently rogue leader is suppose to be fully playable in rebel strike locked away to a two player mode

Finally, I thought I was the only one making the comparison.

7:49 it's a T-16 Skyhopper, Luke flew it as a kid and even has a miniature of it in A New Hope.

Lock-on in the RS series is unlocked via one of the in-stage upgrades found throughout the games.

Hey FrameRater, where’d that video explaining your 3D characters go??

My biggest problem with the second game is how “unfair” the bullet hell can get, since I’m a sucker for getting the gold medals. The prerequisites for medals are rather standard, like how often you hit enemies, how many you kill, how many lives lost, so on. I can’t tell you how many times I died in the Star Destroyer level or the Battle of Endor, simply because way too many enemies hyper focused on me in particular. There were other small things too, like in the next level having to swap from your selected ship to a speeder to rope some AT-ATs whose legs are half submerged in water that made it much harder to rope them.

I looked into Rogue Squadron's PC port and looks like you can get Widescreen support but pretty much every other issue with the game hasn't been fixed. Kinda wild for a "big" Star Wars game to have these big issues especially since RL & Rebel Strike are notorious hard to emulate

How do you pause the game with the 360 controller?

there was some research someone did with benchmarks and whatnot (i wish i could find the original website for it, but it's somewhere on the internet) which basically showed that the gamecube was actually the most powerful console of that generation, and not the xbox; that in reality nintendo simply downplayed the cube's specs and horsepower in their marketing, while microsoft massively hyperbolized and overstated what the xbox could do in there's. neither console was a slouch but, i have to say, looking at games like rogue squadron 2 and 3, the metroid prime series, f-zero gx, resident evil 4, etc, etc. in retrospect against anything the xbox could do, even at its best, and it would seem there's certainly a valid argument to be made there.

I think you might want to check out Crimson Skies for the original Xbox, I am sure you will really like that one, it's the best flying game I've played

What buttons do you hold to restart a level quickly??

Fun fact: rogue leader was released BEFORE the gamecube launched! The developers were on such a crunch to make it a launch title that they got there a bit early. 😂 Unfortunately rebel strike was even more rushed and it suffered from it. Also a shame you didnt play through battle for naboo; it's the better version of the original rogue squadron with added ground vehicle missions. These aren't perfect but they are imo better fleshed out than the ground missions in rebel strike, making battle for naboo my 2nd favorite in the series.

The first Rogue Squadron was developed primarily for the N64, with the PC version based off that version. A side tidbit, Factor 5's work with Rogue Squadron on the N64 brought them close with Nintendo and they helped design the audio/music systems for the GameCube.

11:54 maybe a way to stop them from following you would be to press the Form option on the D Pad ?

lol Honestly, the best part of Rebel Strike was it let you play the Rogue Leader Missions Co-Op. There was this one bonus mission where you and your friend pick a ship and dog fight wave after wave of ties.

When I first saw the Rebel Strike intro as a kid I kept expecting to wake up

Rogue Squadron 3D PC had no issues. It was the evolution of hardware that brought trouble, more specifficaly, newer processors (architecture, frequencies? I don't know what caused it). If you can find an old windows 98 era computer in working condition, the game is gonna be perfectly smooth.

If you turn off auto-level and auto-roll in Rogue Squadron II it fixes a lot of the 3D movement problems.

I wish these games would get a remaster, even though I own them all.

F Called a Tauntaun a Blurg

The "3D model Palpatine" segment was hilarious Just a thing though, the upcoming Squadrons game is more inspired by the original X-Wing/Tie Fighter space sims than the Rogue Squadron games.

The Rogue Squadron games were made by Factor5 and not Lucas Arts. It's even seen in the opening cinematic. Lucas Arts were managing the Star Wars IP for games, while they made some games in the past, they had nothing to do with developing Rogue Squadron games.

Squadrons is a successor to X-Wing, Tie Fighter and X-Wing Alliance, even the creator said so.

I only ever played the first Rogue Squadron (the original disc based version, not the Steam version, shame it was such a stuttering mess for you) because i'm a PC guy and never had any of these consoles and i was always mad that they never ported these games to PC. I should look into emulating them.

if you lock the fps to 60 in the first RS (steam version) there will be no stutter

The Rogue Squadron series was a masterpiece.

No idea if it helps, but PCGamingWiki is a one stop shop that sometimes has fixes for different games. I note there isn't anything really for this game though. But sometimes another mod called Special K works for frame rate issues. I'd say, if you're interested in either, do a search rather than follow any link a person might put on RU-vid.

Hope they'll eventually make a Switch port of these games...

the lack of a lockon is because most star wars single/duel piliot fighter craft have fixed guns and thus can only fire straight ahead thats why in the first game there is one time where the aiming is a little looser, whenever you piliot the millinium falcon which has like tracking shots, because chewey is in the moving gun

I played the N64 Rogue Squadron to death. I never had a GameCube and almost always wanted one just to play the Rogue Squadron games. I wish we could get a modern (Switch) release of all the Rogue Squadron games.

The first game was kind of obscure in nature is general in terms of narrative as I remember it takes a lot of inspiration from expanded universe in form of books and comics. I remember the mission specifically with the world devastators being from the Dark Empire comics

There are lock on missiles in the game. You have to find them.

Oh my god, the ATST kiss caught me off-guard. You win the internet for today.

Prob my fave channel at the moment.

Rogue Leader and Rebel Strike were my childhood

Turning didn't bother me too much really. With the faster aircraft I would hold R and pull down on the joystick after having rotated the ship. When you get used to coordinating your position with the radar and get acquainted with the AI flight patterns you can consistently begin your turns sooner and weave through enemies effectively. It makes you more difficult to hit and brings you around wide enough to see more of the battlefield as well.

Is everyone forgetting about the mission in rebel strike where you literally get to pilot at AT-AT?? Need I say anymore 😅

Yep. I can say after watching this while unpacking groceries and making a grilled cheese, I'm quite satisfied. With the grilled cheese and the video.

The best of rogue squadron 3 is the bonus disc with the old good star wars arcade...

Wish the GameCube Rogue Squadrons emulated better on Openemu. Living abroad in a place where GameCube never even got released it is not the easiest to come by these things.

I'm terrible at flight sims so would probably have to use cheats for these games. A shame you didn't cover the cancelled Rogue Squadron Trilogy release for Wii, that seems very interesting.

i love pilioting the naboo starfighter in the 64 port of rogue squadron

1) Star Wars: Rogue Squadron - BATTLE FOR NABOO (N64) 2) Star Wars: STARFIGHTER (Xbox & PS2) 3) Star Wars: JEDI STARFIGHTER (Xbox & PS2) 3 more games for a PART 2 to this video. Also, Battle for Naboo was made by Factor 5 (like the rest of Rogue Squadron series), but the Starfighter games were made by LucasArts and involve using Jedi powers while flying your ship.

people never tall about battle for naboo 🤔, it is a rogue squadron game but for episode 1

Why you don't talk about battle for naboo? That's tecnically a rogue squadron game despite taking place in the Episode I.

There was a controller setting about whether or not it tried to reorient against "gravity"...

I think I’m the only person ever who preferred the cockpit view

Did you read the instruction manual that came with your lightsaber? Your hand looks like it has seen better days.

I miss Factor 5. The Rogue Squadron Trilogy is my favorite set of Star Wars games outside of the Super SNES Trilogy.