The heads-up display features a health meter, a radar and an ammunition count for secondary weapons. The player can control five craft: X-wing, A-wing, Y-wing, snowspeeder and V-wing. Each vehicle offers a unique armament arrangement, as well as varying degrees of speed and maneuverability. The game initially restricts the player to a particular craft for each level; however, after a level is completed, it can be replayed with any available craft. Levels set on non-atmospheric moons expose the player's craft to space; thus disallowing the Speeder and V-Wing (which are repulsorcraft) from being used; but as on other levels, the craft is vertically confined. Nine bonus power-ups are hidden in different levels throughout the game. These bonuses improve a craft's weapons or durability and are applied to each eligible craft for the remainder of the game.
The player's performance is measured throughout the game, and performance statistics are checked after each level against three medal benchmarks. Each benchmark contains five categories: completion time, number of enemies destroyed, shot accuracy, number of friendly craft and structures saved and number of bonuses collected. If a player's performance exceeds one of the level's three benchmarks in all five categories, a medal—bronze, silver or gold—is awarded on completion. Acquiring these medals promotes the player's rank and helps unlock hidden content.
Unlockable content
Rogue Squadron includes a number of unlockable secrets. The player can unlock three bonus levels: "Beggar's Canyon", "The Death Star Trench Run" and "The Battle of Hoth". These levels are made available when the player obtains all bronze, silver or gold medals, respectively, on each level. Alternatively, they can be unlocked via passcode. Unlike the game's primary levels, the bonus levels are adaptions of events from the Star Wars films. "Beggar's Canyon" allows the player to reenact the race mentioned in A New Hope, while "The Death Star Trench Run" allows the player to execute an alternate version of the movie's climactic battle. In the "Battle of Hoth" bonus level, the player can join the Rebel Alliance's combat against Imperial troops, as depicted in The Empire Strikes Back.
Several craft are also available when unlocked. Both the Millennium Falcon and a TIE interceptor are initially present in the craft selection screen. However, neither may be selected until the player enters the correct passcodes or achieves all bronze or silver medals, respectively, on the bonus levels. Two other craft can be unlocked, but each is confined to a specific level. One is the T-16 Skyhopper in "Beggar's Canyon", and an AT-ST is playable in a basic demonstration level unlocked only via passcode. A playable model of a 1969 Buick Electra 225 based on a car owned by the game's sound designer, Rudolph Stember, is also included in the game as an Easter egg.
During Rogue Squadron's development, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace—the first new Star Wars film in more than 15 years—was less than one year from its scheduled release date. To take advantage of this marketing opportunity, Factor 5 included content from the upcoming film in Rogue Squadron. LucasFilm provided the developers with design art for the Naboo Starfighter, a ship prominently featured in the new film. These designs were used to create an in-game model. Because the game was scheduled to be released six months before the film, Factor 5 was required to keep the ship's inclusion a secret. As a result, most of the game's development team at Factor 5 and LucasArts were not informed of its inclusion. A complex scrambling system was also developed to help hide the ship's code from gamers using cheat cartridges such as GameShark or Action Replay. More than six months after the release of Rogue Squadron, LucasArts unveiled the code to unlock the Naboo Starfighter as a playable craft. The code has been named the Nintendo 64's most well-hidden code because of the length of time before its discovery.
Synopsis
Setting
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron is set in the fictional Star Wars galaxy, where a war is fought between the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance. The game's first fifteen levels occur six months after the Battle of Yavin—as depicted in A New Hope—and before the events of The Empire Strikes Back. As the Empire gathers strength for an all-out assault on the rebel forces, Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antilles form Rogue Squadron, a group comprising twelve of the most skilled X-wing pilots from the Rebel Alliance.
The sixteenth and final level of the game takes place during Dark Empire, six years after Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi's Battle of Endor. The Rebel Alliance has established the New Republic, which now controls three quarters of the galaxy. After the deaths of Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader, the Galactic Empire collapsed, but was reborn under a mysterious new leader (who is actually a clone of Palpatine). Rogue Squadron, now under the command of Wedge Antilles, continues to fight the Empire to protect the newly formed Republic.
Plot
The story is divided into four chapters, each of which starts with an opening crawl resembling those featured in the Star Wars films. Further story details are presented through the game's instruction manual, pre-mission briefings, character conversations during the game and in-game cutscenes. The game begins with Rogue Squadron briefly encountering the Empire at the Mos Eisley spaceport on Tatooine. The team then executes escort and rescue missions on Barkhesh and Chorax, respectively.
The Rebels learn that Imperial officer Crix Madine wishes to defect to the Rebel Alliance. The Empire launches an attack on Corellia, where Madine is stationed, to prevent his departure. Rogue Squadron, with the help of Han Solo and Chewbacca in the Millennium Falcon, fights off the Empire and helps escort Madine safely off the planet. Soon after, Rogue Squadron is joined by Gold Squadron, a group of Y-wings now led by Crix Madine; they are dispatched to the moon of Gerrard V to aid its quest for independence from the Empire. They encounter the 128th TIE interceptor Squadron and disable Kasan Moor's TIE. When Rogue Squadron tells Moor that she has been taken prisoner, she offers to defect and provide the Rebel Alliance with Imperial intelligence.
With the help of Kasan Moor's intelligence, the Alliance launches three consecutive attacks on Imperial bases throughout the galaxy. After an assault on the Imperial Enclave, a facility on Kile II supporting the Empire's Naval operations, Wedge Antilles is ambushed by a group of TIEs and is taken captive. The Rebel Alliance tracks Wedge to an Imperial prison complex on the planet of Kessel. The remaining members of Rogue Squadron travel to Kessel and rescue him and other Rebel prisoners.
