Nintendo 64 fans should recognize the original title known as Rogue Squadron, regarded as one of the best Star Wars games ever made. But the new Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron 2 you fly as Luke Skywalker or Wedge Antilles in all of the most famous battles from the original three movies.      The gameplay  follows the adventures of Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antilles and the most famous battles from the original three films. You don't just fly in famous ones, you also fly in the ones in between, which often set up the scene for the major battles. There are 11 campaign mission in all, which actually can be beaten in a very short amound of time, other features in the game extend it gratly. Factor 5's point for the game was to recreate the Star Wars universe in the greatest detail possible, and they did it very well. You can hardly tell the difference between the game and the movie. In the game you complete the mission objectives your given and are awarded medals depending on the requirements you for filled. In the game you shoot your primary weapon by pressing A, tapping it in different variations produces different results of shooting. The B button shoots it's secondary weapon, or for some ships charges up the proton torpedoes. When your not shooting anything your secondary weapon will automatically charge up. That is how you shoot from all four laser guns on the X-Wing. The L button works as the breaking system, and the R button works as an accelerator, just don't get them mixed up! The harder you press the the shoulder buttons the more action you'll get from them. Using X you can go down into the cockpit, you can look around with the C Stick. By pressing the Y button you can access the targeting monitor allowing you to lock onto your enemy for a better, more confirmed hit. This is also very useful for stages in the dark of space, or in the clouds. But, I found it very annoying and difficult to use at certain points. For instance in mission #1, the Death Star Trench Run, in the trench you can activate it to locate turrets ahead. Unfortunately there is no way of telling if there is anything in between you and the turret, such as walls, which there are many of them. Another new feature is you use the D Pad to tell your gun man  to aim at a certain thing you might have missed from the front, or just tell him to protect the rear, or tell your squadron to attack certain things, or retreat.     Graphically, Rogue Leader 2 is one of the most impressive launch titles. It has real time environment effects such as the rising of a sun, moving cloud layers, and tons of other things highly noticeable and less noticeable.  And perhaps the most amazing fact, is that out of all of these amazing graphics and extreme detail, Rogue Leader 2 managed to maintain a solid and fluid 60 frames per second.       The Sound of SWRL:RS2 is excellent, it shows off the sound capabilities of the GameCube. In the game it uses voice clips from the movies, as well as new voices from actors and the original Wedge Antilles. The game transfers sound from a calm to a tense mood well. This game is a really good example of the GameCube's sound capabilities. Rogue Leader 2 utilizes the Dolby Surround Sound Pro Logic system, for awesome and intense sound.        So in the end Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II is one of the best, if not the best games at launch. A definite Buy. MY RATING:  9.5 Buy Rogue Leader  2 Now! Screen Shots: Y-wing in space X-Wing in Trench Cockpit view Retreat at Hoth AT-AT walker By: Alex Zman <<<Back

One Big Ship, one big planet.   The fun of tripping a Walker, can it be matched?   The walls of the Death Stars trench are highly detailed.   The snow of Hoth looks very good.   That's a lot of enemy fire coming your way.