How many times can Lucasarts hit this well before I stop buying? Sadly, it may be never in my case. I am just a sucker for the Rogue Squadron series and Factor 5 at least does a decent job at making us think we have not played this game before.

Rogue Squadron II was easily a system seller when the Gamecube launched. Arguably, it was the single most important game for pushing Cubes into homes since it was painfully obvious that the Cube was the first Nintendo system released without a true Mario game. People were drawn to Rogue Squadron II's immensely improved graphics over the N64 predecessor, while improving the solid gameplay. With a solid game engine and all of the bells and whistles of new, high powered hardware, Rogue Squadron II was a resounding success.

It is sequel time again, folks, and Factor 5 is hoping to please. Rogue Squadron III tries to add a new twist to the series with the inclusion of out of vehicle missions and a branching story following both Luke and Wedge. When I first heard that they were going to include on foot missions, all I could think of was the train wreck which was included in the otherwise decent Clone Wars. The not vehicle aspects of Clone Wars were abysmal. I literally hated playing them and thanked god that there were not the focus of the game. Needless to say, I was NOT looking forward to playing them.

Thankfully, the on foot missions are not the primary focus of Rogue Squadron III. They really are just all over the place in quality too. Most of the missions look good, so that is definitely a plus. However, while they are far from the sub par quality of Clone Wars, they could have either used a little more work or simply have been left out entirely in favor of some original vehicle levels. Most of the levels which involve run and gun action fair better than the Luke as a Jedi levels. At least the Dagobah and Sarlacc levels are relatively short, because they are liable to cause some sort of brain injury. They simply stink. The controls and camera are not conducive to fine platform jumping. Levels like these only serve to taint a good game. The levels where you are just shooting work out better because they feature far less jumping.

With the horror out of the way, I would like to talk about the good, and for the most part, there is enough of it to make a Star Wars fan happy. The vehicle missions obviously show the most polish since the game engine was already in place. Factor 5 did try to tax the game a little more than the last time though, with a slight bit of frame rate dropping, but nothing that could cause any problems or make you think you were watching a Viewmaster version of Star Wars.

Graphically, Rogue Squadron III is a damn fine looking game. The ships and landscapes look stellar along with some nice lighting effects as your blaster bolt slice through the air, leaving burn marks where they hit. All of the models in the game tend to look very smooth, employing a lot of bump mapping which was used extensively in the last game, especially in the excellent ship models. A lot of the levels tend to be jammed pack with action, featuring tons of enemies whizzing by you windshields. Visually, you really can not find much to complain about with Rogue Squadron III.

Another difference is that Factor 5 included footage from the actual films to augment some of the pre and inter-level cut sequences. The nice aspect of the footage is that is does not suck, a common issue with the Gamecube due to developers using lower compression rates for video in order to compensate for the smaller DVD media. Thankfully, Factor 5 did not here since it really should not happen anymore. This isn't Sewer Shark after all.

Should I even cover the auditory experience? It is simply wonderful if you are a fan of the Wagnerian Star Wars music and signature sound effects. The music features a lot of familiar works along with some filler music in between. The soundtrack perfectly scores the action and what Star Wars fan doesn't get giddy when you blasting away Tie Fighters with your trusty old X-wing?

Gameplay wise, little has changed this time around for the vehicle missions. However, we are treated to some nice Imperial Walker action (both AT-ST and a little AT-AT) along with the new speeder bike levels. Not only that, but you even get to pilot a Tie Hunter, which is basically a shitty version of the Tie Interceptor but it has ion cannons and missiles. I guess it is a fair trade since the thing does have cool s-foils, not unlike the X-wing that we all love so much. Either way, the game ensures that you will be using damn near every ship in the fleet and then some.

Mission diversity is also the order of the day. You really can not complain that the game is too repetitive. One mission can contain some dog fighting, on foot blasting and then a bombing run. Overall it isn't bad, but levels like the Sarlacc Pit make you wonder why they included it. I also hate to admit that I still liked the Hoth level. I don't know how many times they are going to visit that planet, but the safe bet is that I am going to play it and still enjoy it because I am a whore apparently. At least it was a whole different angle on level, and they creatively edited the video to make it seem like Luke did not leave a body in the speeder to get squished.

I did like the mission selection overall. I didn't think I would like the speeder bike mission on Endor but it ended up being a lot of fun. People who mastered the first game will also notice that the difficulty does not seem to be as steep as it was in the last game. It isn't going to effect the casual player, they might actually appreciate it, however the expert players still have plenty to work for since the medal hunt gameplay is still in th game, allowing you to unlock extra bonus levels and treats.

Factor 5 included some really awesome treats this time around as well. Maybe they won't be as impressive to the younger gamers, but I for one love the fact that the original Star Wars vector graphics game was included on the disc. Not only that, but the hard to find Empire Strikes Back update to the game is also on the disc, faithfully emulated in all of its vector splendor. In addition to the arcade games, the usual treats like a music room, documentary, commentary, unlockable ships, etc. are all there as well. If you think that is cool, wait till you see the co-op version of Rogue Squadron II which they included for kicks. Grab a friend and go to town on a awesome game in addition to the already included two player modes.

Overall, I like Rogue Squadron III, just not as much as I liked the previous game. The on foot missions do hurt the game on the whole, but they could have been a lot worse. I understand why they want to branch out the series, but I think there are plenty of ways they could do it while remaining in vehicles. The AT-ST missions work out great and even the speeder bikes were fun, it is just some of the horrendous platform jumping missions which are terrible. Star Wars faithful should enjoy the game, especially if you have been a fan of the series. There are certainly worse Star Wars games out there. People who are just looking for an excellent space shooter might want to save some cash and just pick up the 2nd game in the series.