Star Wars: Rogue Squadron Deserves a Chance To Fly Again
So I have a weird sleep schedule sometimes. There are days I’ll sleep in late, and others where I’ll wake up at 4 AM and look at a couple of things before I get tired and fall asleep again. I dunno, it’s weird and I’d look into it if I couldn’t go back to sleep for some reason.
But anyway, before I nodded off this morning, I came across a neat video on YouTube that discusses a number of games that never saw the light of day. Like a Sonic the Hedgehog skateboarding game and a South Park open-world game that, honestly, was better off being canned.
In the video, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron comes up. It’s at the 20:25 mark if you want to jump ahead. In it, DYKO Clips discusses a couple of different Rogue Squadron projects that could have happened, but eventually didn’t.
After the success of the trilogy of games that came out for GameCube and Nintendo 64, Rogue Squadron went surprisingly silent — especially considering how well it sold. While Rebel Strike sold the least amount of copies, it was still quite popular in its day.
But then stories began to circulate as to how Factor 5 — the series developer — could bring it back. They attempted to produce a Rogue Squadron trilogy for the original Xbox, which could’ve been a best-seller, but it was eventually scuttled.
There was also talk of a Dark Squadron game, one that would’ve flipped the entire series on its head and put you in control of the Empire, with the option to change the events of what took place on the Death Star. That sounds a bit Force Unleashed II: Endor to some of you, I’m sure, but it would’ve been neat to see. Alas, it too went the way of the dodo, in favor of a Chewbacca game that never surfaced.
The Rogue Squadron Trilogy would attempt to rise again, this time on Wii with motion controls and enhanced visuals. But, yet again, even though the game was pretty much complete, Lucasarts wiped it from the face of the Earth.
Ironically, Factor 5 would then try for something new with Rogue Squadron: X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter, which would’ve been a launch title for the Xbox 360, but eventually would be cancelled as well. As a result, Factor 5 would pack up shop on the franchise and turn to Lair on the PlayStation 3 instead — which would ultimately be its undoing.
Now, Factor 5’s history gets a little shady after that, especially with the opening of a separate Blue Harvest (later White Harvest) developer that, like Factor 5 before it, would fold up shop due to legal woes from its unpaid staff at the previous company.
But it’s frustrating, you know? The Rogue Squadron games were absolutely excellent in their day. Even Rebel Strike, with its weird character segments, offered something cool to fans at the time. And with that, I believe that the series should’ve gone on to some extent.
Now, Lucasarts was going through some leadership changes at the time (poor ones at that), and, eventually, they would come across the 2008 financial crisis that hit the industry head-on. But still, man. This was a best-selling franchise, and to not take advantage while the iron was hot was ridiculous. Especially with a game that was practically finished, save for some testing and visual modifications.
The rights for Rogue Squadron would eventually go back to Lucasarts after Factor 5 bolted. However, just a few years later, Disney came in and…well, you know the rest. But I can’t help but think that this would be a great time for Rogue Squadron to make a comeback.
Aspyr, a company that’s currently on the run of a lifetime (save for that KOTOR remake) with the Star Wars license, expressed interest in bringing back the Rogue Squadron games.
“Here at Aspyr we’re huge Star Wars fans and love bringing Star Wars games to new audiences. For us, it’s all about the games we think players are most passionate about and would love to see brought to new platforms. If the demand is there, we’re on board.”
Nothing has been officially announced as of yet, but, hey, Aspyr likes to surprise. (They’re currently working on the Tomb Raider remasters that are set to drop in just a few short weeks.) So you never know. But I can’t help but think that, somewhere, they could talk with Disney about getting the code from the Wii or Xbox games that never arrived, work their magic on them, and re-release them for modern consoles. We wouldn’t even need online multiplayer, though that’d be nice.
Anyway, just a thought. I think Lucasarts dropped the ball with Rogue Squadron when it could’ve been clearly running with it. It’s not too late to recover the history and re-release it for new systems…maybe even the Switch 2. That’d be a nice little bit of irony. Rogue Squadron worked its magic on the GameCube, so why not the Super Nintendo Switch? (That’s what I’m calling it.)
I hope someone considers it because, as Sean Connery once noted on Celebrity Jeopardy, “You’re sittin’ on a gold mine, Trebek!” Seriously. The games would sell really well nowadays, and may even re-generate interest in the saga for a new entry. You never know.
At least we have Star Wars: Squadrons, which is great. Check it out when you get a chance. It’s actually dirt cheap on Steam!
Hope everyone has a great Sunday!
