Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike

As in the other Rogue Squadron games you earn medals. This ups the replay value significantly because some levels need to be bought with points. You earn points by how good the medal is.
Gold: 9
Silver: 6
Bronze: 3

Pro's: Stunning graphics although capital ship explosions could be tweaked slightly (its barely noticible)
Excellent gameplay
Fun craft (fanboys like me are delighted to see several craft other than the X-wing
Unique missions
Excellent replay value
Multiplayer and Co-Op (in my opinion all games should have MP and Co-Op)
Missions often expand on scenes touched on in the movies but only briefly (for example in Triumph of the Rebellion you pilot an AT-ST as Chewie and actually move throughout the bunker as Han planting charges. This expands on a scene barely touched upon and this mission is a lot of fun)
Speeder-bike missions are wonderfully done requiring skill (nothing more satisfying than bumping some Imperial moron into a tree)

Con's: Ground missions are a lot of A button pushing it is very hard to die on these (except for the speeder-bike)
Ground missions shold have been more puzzle-solving and less shooting because everyone liked JKII
In multiplayer the game can degenerate into a homing missile shooting contest. These missiles are near infallible and often kill you in 1-2 shots

Other minor errors that don't bother me but their irritability varies from person to person

Result: Great game good sign for the future Rogue Squadron 4 shold be amazing if they correct the flaws of this great game rent it first. they try a lot of new things with this game therefore some think its great game others say its so-so.

People who rate this game below 3 are biased against GCN or haven't played the game enough. Even if look at its flaws from the most pessimistic point of view the game is still in the upper 60% of all games out there.

As I said Rogue Sqaudron 4 should be stunning if they fix all or even most flaws and if you think they aren't goin to make a 4th you are crazy. This series has been far too successful to trash at first sign of minimal setback

Until later

Mike

PROS: extremly good graphices, every fold in clothing, every speck of dust flying off an at-at as it hits the ground in ruins
-walk around levels, blaster AND (get this!) light saber missins
-CO-OP!(BIG DEAL!!!!) ((NOT BEING SARCASTIC))
-unlockable missions from old games, re-done
-huge battle fields, plenty of enemys to smash
-tie's and other enemies spin out when hit, fun to watch, gives you satisfaction of a job well done

but, sadly, the cons:

CONS: -no camera control on foot bad
-too much arcade syle jumping on the on-foot missions
-time lines confusing ( in 1 level, battle droids!! this game is about the original trilogy, people!)
-levels in no order of difficulty (one level could be super easy, the next you're smashing your beloved gamecube in frustration)

Ther's not much more to rant about..... its a rilly awesome game. i hily recommend it

THE GOOD:
-I'll say the most important good thing about this game first - YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE A STAR WARS FAN TO ENJOY THIS GAME!
-This game has more pilotable vehicles than the past two Rogue Squadron games COMBINED! If you want variety, you've got it.
-In addition to air vehicles, you'll also get to pilot Imperial walkers and swoop/speeder bikes, and even landspeeders!
-The graphics are stunning.
-There's a cooperative two-player mode featuring the missions from the previous game, as well as competitve two-player modes! And in these competitive modes, you can adjust a number of variables to customize your duels! For example, you can turn power-ups on or off, wingmen on or off, etc. And if you don't want your enemy to see what you're telling your wingmen to do, you can hook a Game Boy Advance up to the Gamecube, and use it to give them orders! That is, provided you have the GBA/GCN link cable.
-The game breaks the chain of "all missions are in craft", and has several "on-foot" portions of missions! This only adds to the variety.

-The game has two separate campaigns - one follows Luke Skywalker, the other follows Wedge Antilles.
-With a little work, you can unlock the ORIGINAL Star Wars video game!
-Star Wars games have been known for their "hit or miss" reputation, but I assure you, this one's a "hit"!
-It's not the expanded universe, it's the classic trilogy universe Star Wars fans know and love. That means no Jar Jar!
-A new type of Imperial craft makes its debut in this game - the TIE Hunter!

THE BAD:
-The missions, the Speeder Bike ones in particular, are HIGHLY UNFORGIVING. In many missions, if you make a single mistake, you lose. They should have left these Bike missions out of the game.
-Your objectives are often unclear. It's tough to tell exactly what you're supposed to be doing sometimes.
-There are a number of storyline/chronology errors. For example, many of these missions take place BEFORE Return Of The Jedi, but TIE Interceptors and A-Wings and B-Wings appear in these EARLIER missions! These ships didn't exist until the Battle Of Endor in the films. Likewise, in the Death Star Escape mission, Stormtroopers refer to Han and Luke as "Rebel scum", even though they hadn't joined the Rebel Alliance yet. It also seems highly unlikely that a Jedi Starfighter would remain on the surface of Geonosis for twenty years, let alone still work fine, and that its hyperdrive ring would survive in the asteroid field for the same amount of time (the reason I give this time is because I think they are implying that it is the one that Obi-Wan Kenobi landed on Geonosis in Episode II).
-YOU CAN'T ADJUST THE CAMERA IN THE "ON-FOOT" MISSIONS. This is the Achilles Heal of these parts of the game. If you remember right, a bad camera was the biggest flaw in Super Mario Sunshine as well.
-The control in the on-foot missions is very strange at first. Accordingly, I strongly suggest doing the Tatooine Training before playing the actual game. Personally, I would have liked it better if the game stuck to the "all air vehicles" formula of the last two.
-If you're using a cockpit view in a vehicle, you have to use the C-Stick to look around, whereas the "behind vehicle" view gives you a much wider viewing radius.
-You can't play the old Rogue Leader missions in single player, nor can you play the new missions in two player.
-The game features elements of the prequel trilogy (nothing major fortunately), and this is sure to turn off potential players.
-In the Multiplayer Deathmatch mode, there is always a targeting reticule around your foe. This makes it too damn easy to find whoever you're battling against!
-Multiplayer mode is two players only. You can't do four players.

OVERALL:
Rebel Strike is a fantastic game that lives up to the hype that has been created around it for so long now. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS GAME TO ALL GAMECUBE OWNERS, STAR WARS FAN OR NOT! Sure, this game isn't perfect by any means, but this game is a very strong candidate for "best Gamecube game to date". Don't pass this buy if you own a Gamecube - you'll just be hurting yourself!