Frogbull, the indie developer who has teased us with demos of Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy 7 on Saturn as well as Metal Gear Solid 2 on Dreamcast, is back with another project.
Earlier this afternoon, Frogbull tweeted his teaser for Star Wars: Dream of the Rebellion, which is still in the very early stages of development, but Frogbull reached out and kindly asked me if I’d like to try it out.
While Dreamcast owners got Jedi Power Battles, Episode 1 Racer, and Demolition on the system, we never got the chance to fly an X-Wing, something our GameCube-owning friends got to do plenty of in the brilliant Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron 2, which coincidentally was the game that made me buy a GameCube.
At this stage there’s only one mission available, which is the Star Destroyer Pursuit, but the
first thing that strikes me is how much Frogball has nailed the presentation aspect.
From the moment the game boots up, you get Darth Vader’s ominous breathing as Frogbull’s
logo flashes on screen and you get a fully fleshed out synopsis on the legendary Star Wars
opening crawl.
When choosing the mission, you can press Y to hear a briefing voiced by C3PO, and when
choosing your X-Wing, again C-3PO will describe your craft: “Behold the X-Wing, the
Rebellion’s steadfast companion in the struggle for freedom.”
I spoke to Frogbull earlier about the impression of C-3PO and he informed me it’s actually AI generated, and it does a great job.
There’s lots of little Easter eggs that Star Wars fans will enjoy and smile at. As TIE fighters
get too close, you’ll hear R2-D2 scream out to warn you, and continuing the game after being
blown up results in Jabba’s iconic “Ho ho ho ho.”
Gameplay-wise, it’s a relatively simple SHMUP with wave after wave of TIE fighters of increasing amount and difficulty. You can’t just go gung-ho with your X-Wing lasers, as there’s a cool-down mechanic built into the game — however, there’s no way to visibly know your weapons are too hot as of yet.
Frogbull told me he’s considering adding a weapon temperature gauge to aid the player, so we may see that in a newer build.
As a bit of a Star Wars geek, there was plenty here that made me smile, and I found this to
be quite addictive as I lost count of how many “One more shots” I had while capturing footage for the video below.
There’s little things I’d like to see implemented, like perhaps the stars being more animated to give the sense of movement, but the 3D models on the ships look great for an early build and we can’t wait to see future builds as Frogbull releases them.
Please consider checking out Frogbull’s Patreon for more information and until next time … we will see YOU on the SEGA side!
What is the status of XL2 and Unreal for 2024?
XL2 never intended to finish Unreal, just prove that it was possible to run on the Saturn. He retired from Saturn homebrew development, actually, hence he had no submission in the most recent SegaXtreme Saturn game competition.
This guy is just fishing for patreon subs using big names like Metal Gear Solid and Star Wars and Final Fantasy but will never actually release anything worthwhile. He’s just taking advantage of clueless of game dev fans of Saturn, Dreamcast, etc. Folks should know better than to hope a single person can somehow re-create all the complex programming of an AAA game like MGS 1 & 2, on wholly different platforms, without access to their source code, regardless of what tiny tech demos he can show off using stolen, ripped assets from those same games and other talented people’s middlware and 3D engines he had nothing to do with the creation of. Yet when people ask in the commments if he will actually finish or release this or that project or a demo he’s just being deliberately vague and coy about it, like saying who knows, or some positive/affirmate “muscle bulge” “right on” type icon reply to lead them on without promising (what he can’t deliver) but not saying no either.
Idk why you’re praising this so much, anyone with some experience in game playing, never mind developing, can tell from watching this and other footage that this is not a worthwhile rail shooter and the only things it has going for it are the Star Wars IP and 3D assets stolen from the early Rogue Squadron games or wherever. The enemy patterns have no design, the level has no design, there’s no art, scene or gameplay direction whatsoever, the control is super rigid and awkward and not at all fluid, immersing and fun like any of the decent (never mind the amazing gems of the genre) rail shooters one may play. Oh and the fact it’s running on Dreamcast for sour Sega fans somehow expecting this guy to prove their favorite systems really weren’t so bad, as if they don’t already have a ton of actually amazing games proving that. Do better than promote such stuff. If you find this so great then your opinion is void even when it comes to the actually great games in the genre by Sega (or other companies). This looks even more limited and awkward than the piloting bits of FMV games like Rebel Assault 1 & 2 despite using real time 3D (again, with stolen assets from other Star Wars games so showing no talent whatsoever so Idk why you praise the quality of the models or whatever, they’re stolen, anyone can steal). You may as well equate Panzer Dragoon Zwei to Panzer Dragoon Orta the promotional flash game and act like they’re equally good because hey both are technically rail shooters with the same themes and you somehow found yourself playing the latter over and over or whatever. Although even that flash game was miles better than what is shown here.