Force Squadron: Star Wars. Oldies But Goldies

Rogue Squadron

Star Wars. It is going to show up a -lot- in these series considering how many old games are oldies but goldies.
Rogue Squadron is an arcade flight simulator that follows the shenanigans of Rogue Squadron, the elite unite of fighter pilots of the Rebellion and the one that Luke was in. I wont bore you with the story, it is not important.

What -is- important is that you get to jump on the seat of all the iconic ships in the star wars universe, including:

X-Wing: if you are the boring kind of person
A-Wing: Because dogfights are fun and they look like Jedi Fighters from the Clone era
Y-Wing: If you are a man of culture and impeccable taste
Snow Speeder: If you are a masochist
V-Wing(?): I guess this one existed too?
Millennium Falcon: For those who love overrated pieces of scrap
Tie Fighter or bomber or whatever: For the heathens of the Empire.

Gameplay

This game is the reason why I ruined about 3-4 joysticks in a few months. Pretty standard arcade sim controls, don't expect to have to worry about fuel, landing and takeoff and other more realistic simulators would.

Flight is responsive, the camera work is superb (for its era) and off course, with many camera options one of which is a cockpit view, then you got all you need for a kick ass star wars game.

Aside from that, the game offers pretty fun stuff. You will go through various levels where the Rogue Squadron will have to perform a series of tasks from escort duty, to protecting the area to downright hit and run bombing runs.

What is interesting however is that the game has a few bonus objectives spread around the map. From bonus unlocks to empower your ships, to various challenges that grant you different medals for each level.

Despite myself not being a fan of challenges, I found myself completing the entirety of the game (and its bonus levels) with gold medals via my own will than actually feeling pressed to do it.
The challenges are reasonable, with the gold medals requiring you to destroy most of the enemy buildings and units, within a set time, and with a high percentage of accuracy.

Gameplay Bonus Round

The bonus levels are surprisingly fun to play. One of them being the DEATH STAR RUN.

Yes, you read right, you get to do the iconic run and deliver destruction to the mighty Death Star, if you can survive it that is.

After finishing the bonus missions you get to unlock the tie fighter and millennium falcon as well as the ability to use any ship for any mission. Despite making things rather hard on some levels that would need the use of the speeder cable ability to topple Imperial walkers, should you unlock everything and fully empowered your ships then you should be able to be OK.