During Nintendo’s Gamecube era, Lucasarts and Factor 5’s Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II and Rogue Squadron III were among the best titles on that system. They were also some of the most beloved games of the Star Wars franchise on the whole. But they weren’t the only Star Wars games that Factor 5 tried to bring to fruition.
Via Did You Know Gaming?, the newest episode of Unseen64 has unveiled Factor 5’s previously unrevealed plans to make Star Wars: Dark Squadron, which would have put the player in control of the Empire’s forces as they crushed Luke Skywalker and the Rebel Alliance. The video tracks the origins of that particular project to two of the hidden levels of Rogue Squadron II, which allowed players to control Darth Vader and prevent the destruction of the Death Star before eliminating the Rebels on Yavin IV.
As intriguing as Dark Squadron was, it was apparently passed over by Lucasarts in favor of another previously unknown game that would have featured Chewbacca in a starring role as a bounty hunter. The Chewbacca game would have been set after his appearance in Revenge of the Sith, but Unseen64 reports that it was ultimately rejected by George Lucas himself.
Perhaps the most frustrating thing in this video is the reminder that the remastered Rogue Squadron trilogy for the Wii was finished, and it featured a lightsaber duel mode and speeder racing sequences that were not in the original titles. However, Lucasarts decided against releasing the game because of several legal issues with Factor 5, which are laid out in the video.
It’s one thing for games like Dark Squadron, Chewbacca, or even Star Wars: 1313 to remain on the shelf, since they were all in various stages of development when they were abandoned. But it seems like a huge waste to keep that remastered version of the Rogue Squadron games locked away, especially when it could have been released a decade ago. We’d still love to play it!
Which Star Wars games in this video would you still be interested in playing? Use the Force, and share your thoughts in the comment section below!
Image: Lucasarts/Lucasfilm
