If you’ve ever played the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron games, you already know exactly why we should want an HD remaster and re-release of that trilogy. If you haven’t played them… well, most people probably haven’t played them, owing to the where and when of their original—and only—releases. So let’s catch you up, then.
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron was a Nintendo 64 game released in 1998, which is to say that it was on the very (very) distant second-place finisher of that era of consoles. Rogue Squadron received a simultaneous PC release, but it wasn’t as well-regarded, so it didn’t set the world on fire, either. PC gaming was also a bit different in 1998 than it is now: you didn’t have these digital marketplaces like Steam that made for easy access to games, and society wasn’t quite yet at the stage where every home had a computer in it, either.
Rogue Squadron was followed by a numbered sequel, Rogue Leader, which was superior in every way to the original despite being a launch title for the GameCube—the second in a three-game deal with Nintendo for timed exclusivity, signed between LucasArts and the Big N. The GameCube fared worse than the N64: while we know with hindsight that a launch lineup that included Rogue Leader, Luigi’s Mansion, Super Monkey Ball, Crazy Taxi, and then Pikmin later during the holiday season is pretty damn appealing, in 2001, what was mostly noticed was a lack of a new Mario. And so the GameCube got off to a tough start, and ended up finishing third overall behind Sony’s Playstation 2 and Microsoft’s debut effort, the Xbox. Which again meant that people missed out on a Rogue Squadron game.
The third game in the trilogy, Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike, features some of the highest highs of the entire run of games, thanks to developer Factor 5 taking full advantage of all the technical know-how gained by working on Rogue Leader for the GameCube’s launch—the Battle of Hoth had been done and done again, but a level that was the actual escape from Hoth by the rebels afterward, ascending back into space at an angle while the empire’s forces were still very much trying to explode anything they saw take off from the planet’s surface? That was a chance for an exhilarating technical showpiece for both Factor 5 and the GameCube, and they both delivered. Rebel Strike also has its lowest lows, though, since it introduced clunky on-foot missions to a series that took off with fans due to its stellar aerial combat and the piloting of classic Star Wars fighter ships. Which is to say that this one didn’t have people rushing out to buy that GameCube they skipped out on when Rogue Leader was right there at the start.
And then… nothing. Factor 5 was working on releasing the entire trilogy for the Xbox, tailored to its even higher horsepower than the GameCube’s—while also letting the original N64 game take a massive leap forward—but LucasArts canceled the project despite it being “nearly 50 percent” complete, Factor 5’s head, Julian Eggebrecht, told IGN, given their “unstable environment” at the time. An Xbox 360 launch title that would have been focused on cooperative multiplayer—Rogue Squadron with emphasis on the squadron—was their next project, but LucasArts canceled that one, too. So, after a dalliance with Sony and the Playstation 3 that resulted in the ambitious-but-flawed Lair, Factor 5 went back to Nintendo, to the Wii, to revive the Rogue Squadron trilogy they had wanted to release on the Xbox years before. Per Eggebrecht’s interview with IGN, it would have been something to behold, much more than just a shiny new coat of paint:
“…we wanted to support every single control that you could imagine. So, for the flight sequences, you could, for example, choose to have the Mario Kart wheel to actually control your X-Wing, together with the balance board, which would control the pedals.”
Space combat wasn’t the only focus, however. According to Eggebrecht, there were also speeder bike racing levels, third-person action sequences, and even lightsaber battles making the most of the Wii Motion Plus’ 1:1 controls.
An all-new graphics engine had the game running at 60 frames per second (fps), with a visual fidelity Eggebrecht is still proud of.
“Believe me, if you ever saw it running on the Wii at 60 [fps], it is by far – and I think I’m not overstating that – the technically most impressive thing you would ever see on [Wii].”
Factor 5 did finish this version of the remastered trilogy, but multiple issues arose, most due to 2008’s financial crisis. The remaster had been self-funded by Factor 5 to sweeten the deal for them with a publisher, but then they couldn’t find a publisher for it given there were financial issues with LucasArts and others who had shown some interest. Shopping around a licensed property like a Star Wars game also isn’t the most cut and dry process, so in the end, this version of the remaster—which very well could have had the definitive versions of two classics and a flawed but still-impressive third title—was shelved.
Factor 5 would close soon after, in 2009, after Brash Entertainment—the publisher of another Factor 5 game that was being worked on at the time—shuttered, creating too much of a vacuum for the studio to escape intact. LucasArts picked up the rights to the Rogue Squadron games when Factor 5 closed its doors, and though Factor 5 reformed in 2017, they didn’t reacquire those rights, either. Disney, the current owners of all things Star Wars, aren’t about to just hand those rights off: Factor 5 could get a series they originated back, as they did with Turrican, but they were always “just” partners with the rights holders in their Rogue Squadron days.
It’s 2024 now. Factor 5’s doors are still open. Disney still has the rights to all three Rogue Squadron games, but hasn’t done a thing with them, and it’s major publishers like EA and Ubisoft currently responsible for Star Wars video games. Factor 5 could, in theory, attempt a remaster for the third time, with this one pushing a new generation of hardware like the Rogue Squadron games used to over two decades ago, and with that unreleased Wii remaster. And that’s what we should hope for: anyone with skill releasing them at all would be lovely, of course, but these were Factor 5’s babies, and knowing exactly what needs updating and how to update it is something you can likely trust them with, considering their reputation and previous work.
Why these games, though, and not just new flight combat simulators featuring X-Wings and Y-Wings and A-Wings and B-Wings and more? Again, if you’ve played these before, you already know the answer. Like the very best-looking GameCube games, it’s sometimes absurd just how good Rogue Leader and Rebel Strike look today, even if you play them on an HD set via the GameCube or Wii’s Progressive Scan component cables. On the actual televisions they were designed for, they’re astounding to behold. Imagining them updated for modern technology isn’t just some nostalgia at work. The lighting plays a massive role in this, and is part of why it’s fair to ask if these are the best-looking 20-year-old games out there from a technical point of view.
It’s not just about how they look, of course. Rogue Leader, in particular, plays like a dream. Flight is smooth, it’s tense, and while it asks a lot of you, you have the tools to answer those asks at your disposal, if only you’ll learn how to use them. Factor 5 did everything they could to immerse you in the Star Wars universe, and while recreations of the Battle of Hoth or the Battle of Endor and the like got a lot of the attention in an “I know this place!” way, it’s the focus on the lesser-known planets, systems, and characters that make it feel like a complete work. Defecting imperials, arrogant Moffs, planets and ships and people pulled from the expanded universe books… Rogue Squadron had it all, as a playable adaptation of those works.
The original Rogue Squadron takes place in the time in between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, where the formation of the titular Rogue Squadron occurred under its new leader, Luke Skywalker. Rogue Leader begins with A New Hope’s Battle of Yavin, then segues into Empire by having you escort the rebel fleet from Yavin to a new bose on Hoth, and then proceeds through the end of Return of the Jedi. It focuses primarily on Wedge Antilles as the new leader of the squadron, since that Skywalker guy had some other things going on besides flying around during those two movies. Rebel Strike mixed the two a bit, with split chronologies to follow that let you play as both Skywalker or Wedge, and as an attempt to tread new ground while coming at the already well-trod with new angles, like the aforementioned escape from Hoth.
One wonders what the hold up is, considering Disney isn’t shy about Skywalker this and Skywalker that during their run with Star Wars, even in places where they should work on being a bit shyer. Is it that what is now considered “legends” canon makes up the bulk of the narrative and setting of the Rogue Squadron games? Is the fact that Luke is dismantling a blockade on Chandrila in Rogue Squadron in the time before Empire interfering with some graphic novel Disney has already published or wants to publish that says he was otherwise occupied? That seems like a stretch, given there have been other remastered and re-released Star Wars video games under their watch, and something like Jedi Academy is a first-person shooter featuring a student of Skywalker’s own Jedi school.
It might just be that Disney hasn’t gotten around to it yet, not for any canon-busting reason, but because it has simply—as Rogue Squadron has been doing the entire time of its existence—slipped through the cracks. Which means that, until everyone with the power to do something about it realizes that the right thing to do is to let Factor 5 re-release their definitive editions of these games together like they’ve been trying to for two decades now, we’ll just have to make do with what we’ve got. All you’ll need is a Wii with component cables, an Ebay account, and under $20; then you can at least experience the best the trilogy has to offer. For now, he says with not-yet-dashed hope.
Marc Normandin covers retro videogames at Retro XP, which you can read for free but support through his Patreon, and can be found on Twitter at @Marc_Normandin.