Rogue Leader is a modern legend in the gaming industry. Developed in an insane nine months, it managed to be not only the most graphically impressive GameCube launch title, but a widely acclaimed arcade shooter that employed many new ideas while allowing players to experience the Star Wars universe better than ever. Everyone knew there would be a sequel, and everyone knew that it would be hard to follow up an act like this. Rebel Strike is thus not a surprise in either way.

Like the last game, Rebel Strike’s missions are a mixture of original scenarios and ones taken from the movies. All of the flying levels are new, except for one great bonus level that lets you take on the Super Star Destroyer, Executor. This time around, developer Factor 5 has done all the movie-based missions with alternative vehicles or on-foot sequences. The new gameplay types allow players to experience pieces of the movie that they’ve never been able to before, while the traditional flying levels manage to throw in a few new ideas and twists to their well-known formula.

Unfortunately, all the missions vary widely in quality, as do many other elements in the game, which is not a charge I could have leveled at either of the previous Rogue Squadron titles. The best parts in Rebel Strike are nothing less than excellent, but the worst parts are so shamefully bad that they taint the entire experience. You can’t help but play through a level like “Trials of a Jedi”, set on the planet Dagobah, without wondering what the hell the developers were thinking when they decided to keep it in the game. It’s a complete mess, from confusing level design to awful voice scripting to the dozens of bugs and glitches. Several other missions have these problems to lesser degrees.

Most of the criticism fired at Rebel Strike has to focus on the new on-foot gameplay. Even the best on-foot sequence, part of the new Hoth level, is amusing as a diversion only. It’s just too simplistic and too loose to be considered a serious gameplay addition. But if all the on-foot levels were so short and varied, they might have worked as a painless way to break up the vehicle action. Instead, the other on-foot portions tend to focus on blasting dozens and dozens of stormtroopers, which becomes laughable in execution since you can walk into a room and just tap the A button until all the enemies are dead. There is literally zero skill involved. Oh, how the difficult have fallen.

Even the otherwise solid flying missions don’t seem challenging anymore. Maybe it’s just that us Rogue fans have built up our skills, but the series certainly isn’t trying to keep up. If you played Rogue Leader thoroughly, you can plow through Rebel Strike in a couple of hours, and probably with a few medals to show for it. Some of the medals are tough, but you won’t have any trouble unlocking all the bonus missions within another couple of hours. And, even more distressingly, the main source of any frustration you may have with the game is poorly defined mission objectives, which still plague the series after five years and four games.

One of Rebel Strike’s great successes is its addition of ground vehicle sequences. Having played Factor 5’s first attempt at ground missions in the ho-hum Battle for Naboo on N64, I didn’t expect much from the new ones. But the developer has redeemed itself in this area, pulling off a handful of speeder bike and AT-ST missions which offer many of the game’s best moments. Both of these vehicles are interesting and challenging to control, and the levels are nicely designed around their abilities and limitations.

In terms of technology, Rebel Strike is certainly more capable than Rogue Leader, but the improvements are not as drastic as you might expect with the two-year advantage over a rushed launch title. The new light scattering visual technique is usually quite subtle, but it contributes plenty of mood to the environments. Having been copied directly from the movie props to begin with, the ship models understandably look exactly the same as last time. The new human character models look pretty good for the most part, but they have cartoonish animations that look odd for the Star Wars universe. Perhaps the most impressive graphical feat in Rebel Strike is actually its split-screen version of Rogue Leader, with the gorgeous original game being rendered twice at once…and the graphics have actually been touched up in a few ways. Amazing stuff.

The versus mode and aforementioned cooperative campaign mark the first time this series has featured multiplayer gameplay. Both modes are for two players only. Versus exceeds expectations with a handful of addictive options, including dogfights, AT-ST shenanigans, and even speeder bike races. Cooperative Rogue Leader is a game unto itself; it is nothing less than a technical marvel and a dream come true for many fans of this series. The missions have been tweaked quite a bit to rebalance the difficulty for two players, so get ready for a new experience even if you’ve played the original version to death. There are tons of new strategies possible with two intelligent pilots instead of one, and you’ll often have to plan out attacks carefully in order to win the battle. The only problem: with only half a screen, it can be very difficult to see TIEs in the distance. The issue could have been avoided with a LAN feature, but you’ll eventually sharpen your eyes and get used to it. It certainly doesn’t ruin one of the most robust and challenging cooperative modes since Contra.

There’s no denying that Rebel Strike is a good game worth playing and, if you have a friend for co-op, worth buying. The new vehicle missions slide into the formula seamlessly, and the flying missions are as good as ever, though not really improved. Yet the silly and inept on-foot missions drag the game down and make it seem less polished than it really is. Other, smaller problems add up, and the end result is a mostly fun game that nevertheless leaves a taste of disappointment. It’s still a good purchase for hardcore fans who will lust after gold medals and play lots of cooperative, while I recommend a rental if you just want to see the new missions.