Star Wars: Rogue Squadron Studio Factor 5 Is Apparently Back From The Dead

For a handheld, the power between a Wii U and Xbox One is an absolute beast. And if Nintendo could make something so beautiful with less than that at launch imagine what they could do at the end

Also, welcome back Factor 5!

@Grandpa_Pixel Ya, as a handheld it's great but as a home console it's not so much.

I don't know if Disney will cut a deal to see Factor 5's Star Wars games released as a compilation. Probably not.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE Ehh. Let's be honest, this is a handheld first and a home console second. Always has been, always will be. And also, who cares! Look at the Game Boy!

@Grandpa_Pixel I care. I couldn't give a fiddlers about portable. And yes Gameboy was brilliant. Different times though. I agree it is a portable first and a console a very distant second, despite Nintendo's PR nonsense. Watch them change their tune about what it is when 3DS is lying still warm in its grave.

Between Wii U and XB1 you say? Well thanks for that Captain Obvious!

Seriously though, we all knew that, right?

Lair was the last game they put out and it was a flaming pile of garbage. This isn't even the same company anymore either. The Factor 5 that put out classics has been dead for a long time.

@daveh30 Yep.

You know, it's been reported that the Switch is several times more powerful than the Wii U but not up to spec with PS4 or XBOX One. So, it's kinda obvious where the power lies.

@Grandpa_Pixel according to Nintendo, it's a hybrid. So, it's anyone's opinion as to what it is. I'm taking the manufacturer's word of what it is. I play it on my 4k screen as a console and when I leave for work or to pick my son up from school, I play it on the go. As Nintendo stated it could be used for. It's all opinions as to what anyone else calls it.

@daveh30 You say that it's obvious the Switch is between the Wii U and the Xbox One... but there are still a lot of people pushing the myth that the Switch is basically just a mobile Wii U. Considering close to the launch Nintendo was still sending out it's updated dev kits, it's probably going to be a couple of months minimum before we see what the Switch is really capable of.

It's easy to forget that a console's graphics at launch are usually a bare minimum of it's actual potential.

I hope so I loved Factor 5

@Grandpa_Pixel Well, nintendo seems to disagree with that considering they're marketing it as a home console. Maybe they'll change their tune and make some more attractive packages later in the year, because right now it seems to have an identity crisis.

Regained control of all its original IP? What IP? Looking through Wikipedia the only thing that isn't someone else's creation is Lair, isn't it? Turrican was created by Rainbow Arts, Factor 5 just developed ports and sequels, or did they buy it?

Um, what?

@SLIGEACH_EIRE Can I be honest? That is honestly where the future will lie. Sooner or later, all this "not as powerful as Xbox" nonsense will be out the window the moment the human being can no longer spot the difference between resolutions, frames per second, processing power etc. They will need to look for another hook.

It has already happened with mobile phones. They started stationary then became mobile yet bulky and over time thinner and thinner.

And I see the future of gaming being exactly what Nintendo are looking to achieve. A portable/home console hybrid. You may not like it but that is the future and has been for a long time.

Computers -> Laptops
Phones -> Smartphones
NES -> Game Boy
Wii U -> Switch
PS2 -> PSP

That is just how technology works. We work to make it convenient.

@PtM Not sure if sarcastic or not but oh well. This isn't the first time Nintendo has made a handheld with home console tendencies. Game Boy could be played via a Super Game Boy player. Game Boy Advance had the Game Boy Player for the Gamecube. Sure they are different in execution but the mindset is the same. They remain a handheld despite their home console compatibility

@RedMageLanakyn It's PR. They need a hook to draw people in. It's called a Unique Selling Point in business terms. If they did not have this USP then they would be calling it a handheld already. That's just how business works. They sell the marketing and the sales will come

Now for the record, I love my Switch so much. I took it for a spin in Liverpool and it is already changing my life. But I honestly do not see it as a hybrid or a home console. I just see it as a handheld with a TV streaming feature. Would I be happier with a more powerful home console that was portable? Sure. But that is impracticable. Technological advances will cause home consoles to cease to exist anyway in time. So instead, I just want a portable with the power of a home console we see today. And that is what the Switch does. And you know what, that is good enough for me to warrant its purchase.

And I couldn't be happier! Roll on April for Mario Kart!

Arguing about whether the Switch is a handheld or console is like arguing whether a Smart Phone is a phone or a computer. Some day we will all look back and marvel at the rigidity of our caveman reasoning.

Love Factor 5 though, hope they get cracking on some real games.

I never got into their Star Wars games. I'm sure that's nothing against Factor 5, I just have no affection towards the Star Wars universe and as such could never get into the games. I always preferred Star Fox (on the N64 anyway).

They always seemed to get the most out of Nintendo hardware though. I'd love to see them do something new for Switch, assuming the same talent is still at the resurrected studio.

Yeah a new turrican would be amazing.... I'll have some of that.

@Grandpa_Pixel I know it's PR, but they flip flop on their PR so much it's hard to trust anything they say. At first the Switch was designed to compliment the WiiU and 3DS, and they killed the WiiU before it even dropped. Now it's the 3DS and Switch, because they're claiming it's a home console, yet most people claim it's a handheld.

It's just an identity crisis that could be solved by actually offering a true "home console" package by ditching the joycons and throwing in a pro controller. Variety and options are never a bad thing when it comes to consoles.

Factor 5's skills at coding is a wonder. I'm glad to see them move back from Touch Factor to Factor 5.

Can we get Super Turrican 2 again please? Too many people missed out on that before it was delisted from the Wii virtual console...

Rogue Squadron HD please. And all the sequels too

Disney should get behind this. I'm sure they would go for this as a money making exercise since Theyre content to stick a picture of Yoda on a sanitary towel nowadays (probably)

Factor 5 coming back is great news indeed. Before Nintendo, they made some great games on the Commodore Amiga, and besides the Star Wars games, they made a custom surround sound & music tool (MuSyx) for GameCube/Wii development, they had the Turrican series, and they helped Nintendo out with a lot of conversions of various 8 & 16 bit games to portable systems such as the Game Boy and the Game Boy Advance. (Contra, BC Kid, R-Type and their own Turrican titles)

And like Shin'en, they are of German origin and have always been able to work miracles and get the most out of Nintendo hardware. On the GameCube, there simply are no titles available that are more technically advanced than Factor 5's Star Wars games, and I'm pretty sure that they could do the same for the Switch as well, much like their fellow countrymen from Shin'en...

To have them back would mean having two parties besides Nintendo themselves, that are sure to maximize what's possible on the Switch.

Here's hoping that they can indeed cut a deal with Disney for the Star Wars games. A cartridge with all Star Wars games, both GameCube and N64, would be like the greatest thing ever for quite a few of us...

@RedMageLanakyn That is not true, the Switch was always designed and planned to replace both the Wii U and 3DS. Nintendo cannot kill off the 3DS since it had one of its best holidays this past year and sold a lot of hardware. They will keep up token support for a year or two until third-parties move on. The same would be true of the Wii U if the market was there.

And unless I'm missing something your home console idea would be the essentially the same thing, same price yet lacking several main features in the current form. Why would that help? Actually it's pretty clear that would confuse many consumers like the Wii U did.

Yeah bring Rogue squadron to the switch, it was my favorite game when it came out. Man a rogue squadron game on the go.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE if you care that much about power in gaming hardware, why are you even considering a home console? PS4 and XBox are already underpowered by whats in the GPU market the moment they are released.

And dont complain about pricing with PCs, thats like arguing you want to go fast and buy a Prius 😂

FYI for those who care, a port of the n64 Rogue Squadron is available for PC on Steam, http://store.steampowered.com/app/455910/. I didn't know this and was pleasantly surprised.

@RickRau5 Terrible argument. When has a console ever been more powerful than PC? The answer is never. I want the Nintendo games but I also want the big 3rd party games. I'd like to know what it's like to play a real Final Fantasy for the first time since the SNES. Games like Tomb Raider, South Park: TSOT, to play Resident Evil games again, etc.

It's not right to spend €450(let's get real, you won't get far with just the Switch for €330) and to be told you're not getting 3rd party support again despite paying so much money.

@ACK It was stated in an official interview with Kimishima that nintendo's hardware would consist of three pillars; WiiU, 3DS, and at the time, still known as NX. I know business plans change, but there was no warning. It went from they all exist in harmony to one is dead, have a nice day.

I don't think offering a different package with a pro controller would confuse consumers unless they called it the wiiu2.5 package. You can still use it on the go, in tabletop mode, with an NFC reader and motion controls. It's still a switch, with full functionality, just without the joycons. I don't really see a problem there.

Are you kidding me???
Factor 5 is back? Wow!

Loved Rogue Squadron on the N64. It's a shame what Sony did to Factor 5. But hey, Factor 5 is back!

Eh, there were many that stated that the 3DS was not as powerful as a Wii...which the 3DS had Wii titles ported to it with more added (Xenoblade Chronicles for one). 3DS even shows it can hold almost a whole Wii U title (Mario Maker and Wooly World with some features left out and HD not a part of it). For Switch, it was apparent that it wouldn't be as powerful as the XBONE or come close to the PS4, but it doesn't mean that the games won't still be good. I own a PS4, and there's certain games on it, that if they come over to Switch, I'll purchase again, not caring about the graphics or how powerful it isn't compared to the others...simply because I don't care. Switch, XBONE and PS4 are different...when I buy a PS4 game, I don't care about the graphics (granted I'm amazed at certain ones), just like I get the nintendo consoles for my favorite franchises too (and yet, don't care about the graphics either). There are many others like me, that look at the fun parts of a game and deployability, rather than a game that looks amazing, that ends up getting played once and put away...sort of why I choose nintendo and sony as my console gaming.

Anyways, glad to see that the systems could get a Rogue Squadron trilogy collection...part 2 was incredible for a Gamecube game.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE The impossible dream. A mega-system with all the good games in one place. Happiness is about expectations. If you set yours too high you'll never be happy.

@RedMageLanakyn There's no reason for a console bundle as you suggest. It defeats the purpose of the USP, which is the hybrid concept regardless of what Nintendo have said about third pillars (remember, the DS was supposed to be a third pillar alongside the Gameboy). The joy-con are central to the system's concept, and offering the pro controller as an ad-on is an acceptable nod to the more traditional gamer audience, even though that's not Nintendo's primary audience. If that doesn't align with how you game, maybe the system just isn't for you.

@Grandpa_Pixel Oh yeah, consoles are certainly going extinct. I expect that Sony and Microsoft are moving towards cloud-based gaming (PS Now and XBox Game Pass), similar NVIDIA GeForce Now service. If someone gets the pricing model right, we'll all be streaming PC gamers in the future. With Switch Nintendo is moving in the direction of carving a niche of hybrid gaming focused devices in the tablet market. If they can get the standard feature set of tablets right, they might be able to compete in that market by leveraging their IPs. Mobile gaming is convenient, but often bad. Nintendo has the opportunity to offer both quality and convenience, so their target audience isn't (and hasn't been for a while) the hardcore gamer. It's new gamers, either in the general population or among children. They need to go tablet to be the first point of gaming contact for children and to continuously establish their IP's relevance with upcoming generations (of humans, not consoles).

It's not a port, but the native PC version.

But since many old Star Wars games are being re-released on Steam, and a few on PS4, it could maybe happen on Switch too.

@nab1
"FYI for those who care, a port of the n64 Rogue Squadron is available for PC on Steam, http://store.steampowered.com/app/455910/. I didn't know this and was pleasantly surprised."

Wow loved Turrican back in the day!

I remember skiving school to go pick up my GameCube on launch day and I also picked up Factor5's Star Wars game. I don't like Star Wars very much, but I thought it was a good graphical showcase of the GameCube. Didn't think the game was very fun though, I much preferred Shadows of the Empire for N64.

But it's cool that they're back. I think him talking about the specs could be indicative of him working on games for the Switch. How else would he know it's easy to develop for?

@SLIGEACH_EIRE So because you don't care about portable gaming, that means the Switch sucks, is totally useless to everyone, and is already a complete failure?

Also, you seem to have a love connection with the Wii U, so one would think you'd be happy that there's a Nintendo system that functions as a console and is more powerful than the Wii U, and also has modern architecture and whatnot.

I'm sorry to say, but the 3DS is not as powerful as the Wii.

@JLPick
"Eh, there were many that stated that the 3DS was not as powerful as a Wii...which the 3DS had Wii titles ported to it with more added (Xenoblade Chronicles for one). 3DS even shows it can hold almost a whole Wii U title (Mario Maker and Wooly World with some features left out and HD not a part of it)."

@SLIGEACH_EIRE It seems like a home console to me. It works well on a tv. Certainly the graphic power isn't as strong as a PS4, but personally I'm not wowed by photorealism. I don't find photorealistim itself fun. Certainly I'm not against a game looking great, but the race of graphic power simply makes making games more expensive. And what was awesome, (ps one), becomes useless(b/c of PS4), and the PS4 will then become lame(b/c of ps5).

I don't agree that better graphics means more immersive. I find it easy to lose hour after hour in breath of the wild, but I find, for example, watching even a minute of Skyrim makes me vomit.

my fear is that some developers won't bother to bring what could be a great game on the switch because it's not as 'powerful'... but time will tell. Even the wii u has lots of great games, i must have 30 great games even for it. I don't need thousands of games, I can't afford the time or money for that many...

"Studio founder claims Switch lies between Wii U and Xbox One in power"

So pretty much what I said from the first moment I learned any details about the thing, and also right in line with my own original imaginings for what it could be that I posted a while back:

http://www.inceptional.com/2015/06/26/heres-the-gist-of-my-idea-for-nintendos-nx/

Hopefully we'll see these guys actually developing games for it, and ones that really show off the system's slightly lacking graphical power in the best possible light.

Interesting to see that Factor 5 is back. Hopefully we will get something good out of the company and I'm not saying Star Wars.

@NoxAeturnus ....It can still be a hybrid without the joycons. There is a reason for the bundle I suggested, just as much as there is a reason for a bundle that doesn't include a dock: options are a good thing.

After having held the joycons and played a system in handheld mode for about an hour, I absolutely wouldn't use it in that configuration. I don't like the joy cons at all. I don't want to pay for them, then buy an additional controller. Saying the system "isn't for me" because I don't like the joycons and would prefer a traditional controller is a cop out. There's nothing wrong with variety. I can wait it out to see if nintendo offers one, there's plenty of other options out there.

Oooooh! If Disney knows what's good for them, they'll let these guys make a Star Wars game for them!

@Yorumi
I was thinking the same. I'm even entertaining thoughts of them working with Nintendo to use the Star Fox franchise, though I feel gameplay-wise Star Fox does not quite equal Rogue Squadron. Maybe a spin-off would work?

Hopefully though they can talk to Disney and let them continue and/or remake the Rogue Squadron series.

As for Turrican, I would love to see that back. From time to time I still pick up & play Turrican 1/2 (C64) and Mega Turrican (Genesis).

Wow they gotta figure a way to get those Star Wars titles back in action. Talk to EA??

I have very fond memories of Turrican 3, it was one of the very few games that made me felt like my Amiga was a console instead of being what it actually was.
I played it with a Genesis gamepad and I had a button for jumping instead of just pressing up!
I would really like a Turrican 3 remake in digital delivery. Music by Chris Hulsbeck were absolutely great too! It was such a cool game

Hmm easy to develop for like ps4.. I would like to see him try develop a heavy duty ps4 game for it and then say it's easy like the ps4. We have heard from other devs how it would be difficult to bring there games to switch. Don't think he should be making comparison really

@Grandpa_Pixel to me it's a console first and foremost. Haven't detached it yet from day 1.

@RedMageLanakyn - Makes sense. Toyota should also offer a Prius that only runs on gas.

@RedMageLanakyn I think the only way you'll get what you want is to purchase the system, sell the joy-cons and purchase a pro controller separately, which is perfectly legitimate. My point is that the pro controller is not central to the core design of the Switch. From their perspective, providing it for sale as an ad-on is adequately meeting the needs of the audience who prefers that control scheme. If you want to color outside the lines, you certainly can, but with your proposed bundle the harm of muddying their message outweighs the benefit of additional options for consumers in an audience they're not necessarily targeting directly. Adding other items to a bundle creates a value proposition, but replacing standard parts with ad-ons confuses the average consumer, which again is Nintendo's target audience.

@bimmy-lee Nice try at a joke, but nope, analogy failed. If i had said "take the battery out of a switch so it only runs on the dock" then what you said would apply, but i didn't, and it doesn't.

@NoxAeturnus Yeah, you're probably right, a guy can dream though, can't he? Like I said, I can wait it out to see what happens. I didn't buy PS4, X1, or WiiU until it had an attractive bundle well after launch, so i'll probably wait for one of those and just ditch the joycons.

Look the Wii U has around 350 GFLOPS the Xbox One around 1350 GFLOPS and a Tegra X1 which at the very worst if the Switch has this is 1000 GFLOPS.

Well, if they get back up and running, maybe they can work with Disney/EA on a Rogue Squadron collection? The last 2 are still pretty games, a HD polish would be wonderful.

EA needs to get these guys on the phone and greenlight a new Rogue Squadron game. Now.

@RedMageLanakyn - You're advocating for Nintendo to offer a home console package for their hybrid system.

@Superzone13 While a new one would be great, maybe they would start with a collection of the first 3 games (And bundle what they can of the unfinished 4th game for Wii?) to both test the waters and showcase to newer gamers what made these games great to create more then enough interest in a new game.

@bimmy-lee Nope, according to Nintendo, it's a home console first-that you can take on the go. Way more emphasis in their PR material on home console than hybrid.

@Superzone13
Lol problem is,first Nintendo have to get EA on board because once Fifa is finished so will EA with the switch. It just ain't powerful enough Bro to bring there big games to it look at fifa they have had to build a new version just to get it on switch at extra cost no doubt. EA will be a flash in the pan on switch

I want them to create that Pilotwings game set in the late 40s to early 60s era of aerospace development in the United States that they were supposedly conceptualising.

@RedMageLanakyn Well, I think Nintendo's "PR material" may be on to something there because a home console that you can take with you on the go sounds pretty hybrid-y to me.

@bimmy-lee It is a hybrid, i'm not arguing that. I'm also not saying my suggestions are what they SHOULD do. I'm simply saying it would be a much more attractive option for people like me who rarely game on handhelds, and i'm not alone guaranteed.
There's also a crowd out there that would surely appreciate a bundle that was cheaper and didn't include the dock. That would also take away from the overall message nintendo is driving in "a home console you can take on the go", are those people wrong in asking for that, too? That would be a prius running on only battery, no gas, right?

Good Star Wars games are no more. EA is now handling everything, and except for TT Games (which still has LEGO licensing), no one else will make SW games until the exclusivity deal expires.

It's a real shame, since Factor 5 was probably the only company capable of delivering flawless SW games like RS1 and RS2.

That the power of the switch "lies between the Wii U and Xbox one" should be obvious. It would be sad if it were less powerful than the system it replaced, and it's clearly not more powerful than the Xbox one which is currently running in second place for horse power if you don't count the PS4 pro separately from the PS4.

Only NL could turn an article about Factor 5, including a quote confirming what we already knew that the Switch is more powerful than Nintendo's previous home console into a rant on how the Switch isn't a home console....

Yes, the form factor is a handheld first and foremost, yes there's PR because only a small niche outside Japan cares all that much about dedicated handhelds so the best way to sell it is as a console, but that doesn't make it shoehorned PR. As a home console it is still more powerful than Nintendo's previous home console. It's not like it's a downgrade, it's an upgrade, just not as much as some would have preferred. Not unlike the Wii vs. the Gamecube.

If you're all about power, skip the Switch, skip the PS4, skip the Scorpio, just get a full-size tower with liquid cooling, flashing lights, and a pair Titans in SLI. It'll be more powerful than anything Sony or Microsoft will put out for the next 10-20 years. And you still can't undock it and take it with you like a Switch.

That aside it's good to see Factor 5 alive again, but I hope it's not the Factor 5 from its dying years. Rogue Squadron was wonderful, but I suspect a lot of that had to do with Lucas Arts, more than Factor 5.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE I'll be honest, at first when I've read a bunch of your comments lately I thought you were just being a troll, but now I see you're an original NES/SNES fan like me, and disappointed with Nintendo for not returning to that form and brilliance of that era. Sadly, i doubt Nintendo will ever go on a toe to toe power war with Microsoft and Sony due to their reluctance to sell a console under manufacturing cost, unlike MS/Sony. Instead they'll try to innovate where possible, for better or worse. That said, I still love the Switch and believe that unlike the Wii U, it actually will receive plenty of third party support. Still wish they woulda used more ram and a faster CPU/GPU combo thou.

Edit - Wanted to add that the Switch runs faster than the PS4 in terms of boot and UI switching, which is an amazing feat for Nintendo. It's blazingly fast compared to Xb1's atrocious UI/Boot. Lol! (I hate Windows, and all things Windows, since about Windows 98, and One's UI is nothing more than modified W10)

@NintySnesMan You're sadly mistaken if you think any game console needs EA to survive. All EA brings to the table is sports (I myself not a fan, but I'll give ya this one), mediocre action RPGs (ME and DA have gotten worse every sequel), and Star Wars games they're more or less ruining. Pretty much every handheld released in the past 15 years proves that a console can fully thrive without EA. And as far as the developer saying "as easy to develop for as PS4", he meant it was as easy to program, code, and develop for as the PS4, not that he could directly copy code and expect the exact same outcome. It's because they're both based on PC architecture instead of proprietary nonsense like PS3's Cell arch or N64 Vector Processing. The Switch is based off the X1 chip which developers have been familiar with for awhile thanks to the Nvidia Shield. It's also why Nintendo is suddenly pulling in typical PC developers like Bethesda.

@NEStalgia my hero for that graphical power rant. 😁. My thoughts exactly.

Power doesn't matter? then whats the point in having a new consoles every 5-6 years with extra power? We might as well just let game-play mechanics go stale now, and have no innovation in gaming at all. Power doesn't all mean graphics, there are a lot more things power brings over graphics fact. Go and have a read at what dev's have been able to do gameplay wise because of power.

@Dm9982
What u talking about dude. U should read the comment correctly and who I directed it at,then go read there comment. If u had done that which u obviously didn't then u would have noticed that the other guy wanted EA and I was just replying that after Fifa that will be it for EA on switch.. Next time read the whole thing Bro before jumping in. Anyways mate the switch needs everything it can get tbh.. Yeah Bro I know what he was saying I was just fooling around

@NintySnesMan apologies if I misunderstood your comment, but after re-reading them both, it still sounds like you're just saying the Switch isn't powerful enough for EA (which, big whoop there) or powerful enough to be "as easy as PS4" to develop for. My point is that power doesn't equal easier to design and make. It just means "easier to port to" and gives developers room to run crap code. Lol. I'm a programmer and should know. It's a lot easier to brute force and shoehorn crap when you have more power, and makes it easier to be lazy. But in terms of truly easy to develop for.... a developer now days could make a game on a gameboy, or NES, with WAY more ease than a PS4....

Edit - gotcha! Thought you were being trolling, not joking. Sorry, wrestling an 18mo old toddler while reading/typing. Not the easiest task! Lmao

@Dm9982
Yep mate true..as a programmer you would admit that trying to port a ps4 game to switch would have many problems in doing so,apart from it been a dumb down port or even crap do u think it would be easy.... It's great that you programme,what games have u made or do u make apps,ah do tell ...Edit.. I was just reading your comment @SLIGHEACH_EIRE and your right he isn't a troll,I have been reading his comments for ages now and he speaks many truths where others dare not tread,yep it gets to most ppl because they have a love affair with Ninty more so than with there own partners/wife's.. I myself come from the NES/SNES era,actually that's a lie I had Atari first but I both Ninty/Sega mad though I did prefer Mastersystem more than nes. MEGADRIVE and Snes I liked just as much as each other,the golden age of console gaming and the console wars.. Great Times bro

@NintySnesMan porting to the Wii U from PS4 would be hard, but not as much so to Switch as the architecture is similar.

And neither, I actually do DBA (Database Administation) for the state. I've worked with coding since 1985 when my dad first brought home an IBM PC with MS-DOS running on it, back before the original Leisure Suit Larry was a king of pc games.

@RedMageLanakyn Hey, no harm in waiting it out. And actually I think the Prius analogy works pretty well. If a console only version is a non-electric Prius, then as you say a handheld only version is an all electric Prius, and autonomous cars would be like the streaming services that Sony and Microsoft are moving towards. Both are equally against the Prius' hybrid brand. However, one of these things is a step towards a sustainable future and the other one is not. Like it or not, traditional console gaming is dying, and unless something awesomely disruptive comes along, like nerve gear or something, in the future we'll be paying to stream games via PC or playing on mobile devices.

You're totally right that a handheld only version would be equally bad for their messaging. I could see them splitting it into two packages later, like with a system redesign, but it would mean a tricky rebranding. Even if a handheld and console version have parity, the Switch brand won't work for that sort of gaming ecosystem anymore. If they didn't have parity they'd be where they were with Wii-U and 3DS, losing the benefits of a unified system and instantly splitting the user base.

@Dm9982
You must have played loads of DOOM on that MSDOS.. most ppl here in the UK couldn't afford a PC back then so the nearest thing we had to first play Doom was the SNES or Jaguar or 32X versions, maybe 3DO .. Snes was the cheapest option... I still play Heretic

@NintySnesMan yeah SNES era was soooo badass. Still my fave home console gen.

Funny thing about pc, I didn't play Doom till it was out on SNES. Lol! Pc for gaming for me was all about point n clicks, LSL and Kings Quest back then, with some awesome online games on Prodigy. Eventually we moved to AOL 3.0, which had a host of amazing stuff.... miss it actually.

Edit - I did play Wolfenstein on pc at some point, but honestly can't remember when that was. And the only reason we had PCs back in the 80s was because my dad's job required ones for home, and paid well enough to afford em. Plus his best friend, Steve Bowers (now deceased) worked at IBM, so we had access to some of the latest tech / info. Steve actually travelled to New York and bought an NES for his son in 1985, and that Xmas was the first year I played one. 1986 I got mine.

Disney would be stupid to leave their past Star Wars library of video games un-plumbed. Unless there are legal agreements that need to be hashed out between Disney and former LucasArts contractors, the huge user base of retro-gamers would almost guarantee excellent sales. Translate all the old X-Wing & Tie Fighter games from PC and put them on these consoles. Re-master the Rogue Squadron series for HD. I can't see how Disney could possibly lose money on such a deal.

@LuckyLand
Loved the music from the Turrican games, even backed the Turrican music anthology on kickstarter

@Dm9982
IMO, Doom 64 is still one of THE best Doom series titles of all time. The SNES version was OK, but suffered framerate issues and a tiny playing window, though it was still impressive that they got it working on the hardware at all.

Great Job getting my hopes up with putting Rogue Squadron in the title then dashing them just as quickly thinking a new Rogue Squadron is coming to Switch.

@AirElephant I've never been much of an FPS fan, but Doom/Doom64 were fun, and amazing accomplishments. Doom 64, and Turok 1-3 were stupid fun to mess around with, activate God mode, and wreck everything. Ahhhh many hours spent with friends just messing around. Not as much as Mario Kart 64 and Worms Armageddon thou..... good god I feel like most of my time from 17-19yrs old was spent on just those games alone. With Tony Hawk 1-3, 1080 Snowboarding, coming in closely behind as my go to couch local mp games. Oh! And Goldeneye.... holy crap Goldeneye.... my friend and I spent an entire summer just playing that and unlocking EVERY cheat. Still have that cart with all the cheats unlocked.

@Grandpa_Pixel
Awfully expensive for a handheld.

@Mainsaile Vita launched at $249-299 for Wifi Only and 3G versions 6 years ago. Not far off pricing there, and the tech is far more advanced than the Vita's, which is still an impressive machine. Shame it only got 3 games I've truly liked, Borderlands/Persona 4 Golden, and Phantasy Star Nova. I mainly use it for remote play / ps1 games though.

@Dm9982
Great story but very sad at the same time... When I first popped Starfox into the SNES port I was blown away,I saw the future. Wow it had polygons on a home console normally only reserved for PC MS-DOS or Arcade games. Loved that Faux-chip/Fx I did,then I got Stuntrace FX and I knew we had something special Then came the big one FX-chip 2 with Doom,hook line and sinker for me,lest we forget Mario Kart was ace for snes and that didn't have Fx Chip.. Oh man I could go on and on.. When it comes to Ninty games though I will never forget those times but Goldeneye came along and that was a life changer for me aswell as Ocarina of Time

@Dm9982
I still play my Vita,mainly killzone online and yes I have borderlands.. I have 2 the original oled and slim but I use one of them for the Henkaku hack,emulation heaven.. I am busy playing The Warriors on my Vita at the moment

@NoxAeturnus I can see in 10 years consoles being gone. I think we'll get one more full gen and mid gen refresh from MS and Sony before they bow out to cloud based services. There will always be PCs (hopefully) for heavy, dedicated gaming, like 3D when that tries a comeback next decade, and of course VR/AR.

I absolutely LOVED Tirrican for a spell way back when (GN ORIGINAL?)

I'd love to play it again .

@NintySnesMan Lol, it truly sounds like we're cut from the same cloth bro. Should hit me up on PSN/Nintendo sometime, SN is the same as here.

And I, like SLI, have had... we'll call em disappointments at Nintendo. (Aka, wtf were you guys thinking.... ). I love Nintendo, always will cause Nintendo helped make for a rocking childhood. That said, I wasn't the biggest fan of Wii, Wii U, or DS. I hate motion controls, so Wii was blah for me.... (Resident Evil 4 with motion is the best version though, only game I loved the controls on.).... Wii U I had high hopes for the first year, then meh.... Splatoon is probably the game I spent the most time with on there, and I own basically all the Wii U must haves. DS for me was just Zelda and getting back into Pokémon (skipped GBA Pokémon, but had and loved GBA! Portable SNES? Eff yes! I even imported the translucent purple from Japan)

I had reservations going into 3DS, but it's turned out to be one of my all time fave systems.... doesn't quite beat SNES/N64, mainly cause of nostalgia, but it's got both systems and on the go, plus Fire Emblem which I hadn't played till Awakening, Pokémon, Zelda, etc....

Speaking of Zelda, I honestly didn't think OoT could ever get any better, but the 3DS Remaster was amazing..... hats off to that Dev team

@NEStalgia Well, it's not Nintendo Life doing the ranting, it's the "fans" lamenting what they think should have been, even though most of us instinctively and intellectually know that it would never have been what they wanted, because Nintendo will always want to offer something different than the competition, and they go their own way. They also don't have the muscle to go toe to toe with the other two, so them being indiscernible black box nr. 3 was never an option in the real world.

So it's a hell of a whole lot of people being disappointed with something that would never have been able to match up to their highly unrealistic expectations...

" Rogue Squadron was wonderful, but I suspect a lot of that had to do with Lucas Arts, more than Factor 5."

No, that truly was all Factor 5. Lucas Arts hardly gave them any help, other than giving them access to the Star Wars archives and models to base their game on (and of course publish the game), but they did all the work and coding themselves, and that is also why they are so fondly remembered and celebrated as a development house.

In the end, all Lucas Arts had to do was give a nod of approval, just like Nintendo did, and it's a good thing they did, because they were some of the best games on the system...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Rogue_Squadron_II:_Rogue_Leader

Factor 5 history
EDIT:
The Wiki says that it was partly "co-developed" with Lucas Arts but older stories that I've read, don't support that. Back in the GameCube days, it was Factor 5 getting all the credits for making these games, and there were video documentaries and stories on what trickery they used to get the games to look and play like they did, and that was all their own prowess in coding, not Lucas Arts'.

@NEStalgia And I'm still sad about this bit of history:
https://www.technobuffalo.com/2014/10/13/former-factor-5-boss-details-two-canceled-star-wars-rogue-squadron-games/

And that article also happens to show that the game Lair, that some people on here seem to think is proof of why we should NOT be enthusiastic about Factor 5 returning, was by and large Sony's fault, so they f-ed up yet another developer, much like Microsoft tends to do...

Factor 5 were an awesome quality developer, really hope they bring something to the Switch.

Genuinely good news that these guys are back.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE Disney has surprised me before with allowing deals to happen, such as Grim Fandango. Never say never! Unless it's about taxes and death.

@AirElephant Exactly!

@RickRau5 - Excellent post.

I haven't upgraded my PC in a few years, I never had the most cutting edge video card (just an iteration behind at the time I bought it) and only NOW are these consoles catching up.

If people are going to be graphics/power/tech fetishists, complaining about Nintendo, who are now the de-facto king of portable gaming, they may be barking up the wrong tree, falling on deaf ears, and asking too much while still whining about price.

Really thinking that marketing this as part home console could have been a mistake though, all it does it cause people to compare it to beefier and larger machines. Because, to be honest, having the power close to the XBone while also being about 1/14th it's size is impressive.

@Grandpa_Pixel As a handheld yes it is, too bad Nintendo has been marketing it as a console like fools.

@Grandpa_Pixel Tell Nintendo marketing that.

@Yorumi - Well, like I said, my card from about 2013 was an iteration behind because I was short on cash at the time, but it's served me pretty well.

I'm starting to see new games struggle to hit 60fps/1080p on my rig, but there's usually a tweak or two that allows them to look and run as well or better than PS4/XB1 still.

@EternalDragonX - How come every advertisement I see shows people using it as a portable as well as a console?

Like every single commercial.

Maybe there is one that doesn't...but it's the exception and I have not seen it.

@Grandpa_Pixel PSP and Vita didn't do so well

@EternalDragonX Vita didn't do well.

PSP did pretty well, and it was up against the Nintendo DS.

@ThanosReXXX I remember Factor 5 doing the hard work, too.

The Rogue Squadron games were a amazing, but I always liked the first one the best. I really wish they could get another chance at Star Wars, but just hope they get something on Switch, period.

While it would be great to see another rogue squadron when it comes to Factor 5 Turrican was always my game

Welcome back Factor 5!

that means their zombies run for your lifes!!!

I'd like for them to convince Disney to release that finished "Star Wars: Rogue Squadron Trilogy" game for Wii. We've got people releasing brand new SNES games these days, so I don't see the problem with taking the chance on a brand new quality Wii release.

I'd love to see the old computer versions of Turrican brought back into the light, especially as someone who'd only known of the console Turricans back in the day but saw the glory of Amiga thanks to the internet. Another day another try, right?

@SLIGEACH_EIRE You should know by now that Nintendo doesn't play the graphics arms race. It didn't matter that the Wii was underpowered compared to the competition, and I don't think it will matter for the Switch even as a home console. Nintendo makes up for it with their fantastic exclusive releases (including the back catalog on Virtual Console) and fun new ways to play such the hybrid nature of the Switch, HD Rumble, and bringing back the Wii's motion controls that are now more accurate than ever before.

Besides, it also sports impressive HD graphics itself, and unlike the Wii U, the Switch has more developer friendly architecture and is compatable with all modern gaming engines, so third parties should be able to make quality ports of almost all their major titles if they make the effort.

Ugh, I just want an Episode I Racer already. T.T

@Action51
Some people on this blog don't seem to understand the difference between "marketing" and "PR statements."

Nintendo has marketed (and continues to market) the Switch through TV and the internet advertisements as a hybrid gaming device with 3 different play modes: TV mode, handheld mode, and tabletop mode.
vs
Reggie told some interviewer after the Switch presentation that the Switch was a home console that wouldn't replace the 3DS, hence why the 3DS hasn't being discontinued like the Wii U.

Two very different things.

@westman98 - Yup.

Not only that but some people like to cherry pick which quotes they demand absolute strict adherence to, and some like to take quotes from ages ago and apply them to consoles and products they were not meant to include, or did not yet exist at the time of the quote even in concept form.

This is awesome news! They've always been able to push Nintendo hardware to its limits so I can't wait to see what they have in store for Switch. I know it's a long shot but like everybody else I would love for them to find a way to bring Rogue Squadron back. Man this is crazy, I can't believe they're actually back!

@SLIGEACH_EIRE

Disney will cut a deal with anyone who will make them a lot of money. A Star Wars Rogue Squadron HD Remastered Trilogy would be extremely popular and probably sell very well.

They released Super Star Wars, Episode I Racer, Bounty Hunter on the PS4 as PS2 upscaled classics. So you never know. I would love to see it happen personally!

@gaga64 They also bought all IP from Rainbow Arts.

@LeRaposa Lair was a lot better after control issue patches, to be fair. But at release, it was unplayable. And I think that was more the fault of an eleventh-hour publisher demand for motion controls on a launch title by Sony than Factor V's fault.

I honestly couldn't be happier about this. There was much profuse swearing and joy poured into my monitor when this was revealed. Factor 5 were a brilliant developer, even if not every game was amazing. Also, I'd trust Julian Eggebrecht's opinion on the hardware as they were very knowledgeable about the hardware side of things; they were also consulted on parts of the GameCube's hardware and made middleware tools for Nintendo as well.

Now, if only they could strike a deal with Disney, then that would be amazing.

@ThanosReXXX is absolutely spot on with the development roles. Factor 5 were the ones who made the Rogue Squadron games what they were. There were only a couple of Lucas Film people involved in the Rogue Squadron games and Factor 5 were left pretty much to their own devices. Lucas Film mainly provided the licence and material needed to make the game.

@mordecai fair enough then. Hurrah!

It would be great to have Factor 5 back! ^_^

@ThanosReXXX True, but NL keeps prodding said "fans" to do just that

I still don't get why anybody would want a THIRD PC clone on the market as though two aren't bland enough. And only one makes money. That's a lose-lose situation for almost everyone. If the first two didn't motivate a purchase a third surely won't. The same people complaining about Nintendo not making one would be the same ones complaining that Nintendo didn't do anything unique, guaranteed

That's pretty surprising if it was really all Factor 5. LA usually was closely involved in their projects. I only played the first Rogue Squadron but it was indeed a fantastic game.

Lair...it doesn't give much description as to what happened between them and Sony, so we don't really know what was on there. My interpretation was it was too tight a timeline on too unusual hardware and they couldn't work it out as expected. That may be Sony making demands that couldn't be met, or it may be that they signed up for a project that they only realized after they couldn't handle it. What a terrible game though. I actually liked it at first, and then once you had to start "lining up your flight next to another dragon" it was like endlessly repeating the worst stealth/escort mission of any flight game

Give me a proper Rouge Squadron compilation or a sequel and i'll have a reason to buy the Switch before the end of this yr.. Otherwise i might as well wait and see what happens until then.

Rogue Squadron was so bad ass! Hope we don't get let down. I am also entertaining the idea of Starfox by Factor 5. Might be what the IP needs.

@Action51 Go watch the reveal again

@EternalDragonX

The reveal?

You mean that 3:00 promotional video that was the first thing that the vast majority of gamers saw that blew up the internet?

The primary criticism of that was that it focused ONLY on how it was a console/portable hybrid. I don't even know what "reveal" video you would be talking about.

Even if we were to give you the benefit of the doubt about this "reveal video", that is still one video VS ALL of the advertising and promotional stuff that has run on TV and internet before and after.

You are really going out of your way to cherry pick in order to make your case.

@Churchy Thanks for the assist.

@NEStalgia I think you should read between the lines. Eggebrecht is an unusually polite man, but I could literally see the bitter disappointment in his answer how Sony wanted decided to rip out the unique identity of their almost finished game, and shoehorn dragons and other crap in it.

But there are more stories about it to be found online, and most of them point to Sony making it next to impossible for Factor 5 to have any chance whatsoever in making that game a success.

It was doomed from the moment that Sony decided it needed to have dragons.

They should have just left it as Factor 5 had planned and Sony could have had it's very own Rogue Squadron type game, and that would have been a good thing...
EDIT:
And yes, Factor 5 definitely were amazing, especially back then. They were literally WAY ahead of their time and could squeeze water out of stones. They were Shin'en before there was any Shin'en, except probably even better. They are also the inventors of the DivX video codec standard. And combined with their MusyX audio tool, those were just two of the solutions they used to make the Rogue Squadron games. It's no coincidence that both these companies come from the same country. German efficiency in its optimal form...

@ThanosReXXX Hey, no problem.

@NEStalgia Forgot to post links in the previous answer...

And it seems I have to correct myself and make an edit (something that happens a lot to me, lately) because I confused their canceled games with Lair. So it was always a dragons game, but there was quite a lot of stuff happening, and Sony were kind of harsh with them in my opinion, and they also dismissed the audience that badmouthed the game:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/factor-5-surprised-by-lair-reception
http://www.ign.com/articles/2007/09/06/factor-5-lair-haunted
http://www.gamesradar.com/sony-brushes-off-lair-critics

@ThanosReXXX That first link, what I find interesting is the parallels between Lair and StarFox Zero and the "gamer" reaction to both

That said, having played both, StarFox Zero is a great game that's built AROUND the control scheme and once you get used to the controls and treat it like a sit-down arcade cabinet game it's actually a great game inside. Not a 100 hours epic game, but an awesome "I have a roll of quarters and 30 minutes, let's spend some money!" arcade experience at home. LAIR was a steaming pile where the game CONCEPT was cool but the actual battle system was disastrous. Physical controls did not save the terrible battle system The game would have been really cool if the battle system itself had been gutted and replaced by something else, wither motion or button based. The dogfighting was actually fine. It was the stupid "match their flight and board them" that broke it.

Still it's kind of funny in a dark way that what ruined Factor 5 and gave Sony a black eye was really the Wii and Sony's misguided obsession with copying it

And it does sound like a lot went wrong with that game overall, and it sounds like most of it was "fate" more than Sony involvement, and a lack of Sony involvement almost seems to be a more key issue. I can sympathize with him for all that, BUT I can't ignore his defense of that game being "well, motion controls". In my experience with that game, the motion controls were not one of its more serious problems, and I bought the game (late) as a tech demo to play with the Sixaxis specifically

@ThanosReXXX That's cool about DivX though, I hadn't realized they were behind that. Though it's faded into almost obscurity these days, I remember when it was everywhere. Not to be confused with that OTHER DivX, the Circuit City, always online DVD rental disaster

@NEStalgia Well, what I actually should have said (or edited) in my previous comments instead of "Sony wanted Dragons" is "Sony wanted motion controls" because I'm pretty sure that this wasn't something that Factor 5 came up with themselves initially; they just wanted to give Sony their very own Rogue Squadron type game, albeit with Dragons.

And I actually do think that having motion controls shoehorned in what was basically supposed to be a pretty extensive RPG combined with a Dragon-flight simulator really didn't do it much good, on top of all the troubles they already had during development.

But be that as it may, my main point in the whole Lair debate was that I think it is incorrect to judge them based upon that game while they have made so many good games before that.

I just want people to see that it is a VERY good thing that they are back and apparently willing to work on the Switch, which means we'll have another great party on board.

As for DivX, that is still used in video conversion and such, and their products are still being sold today. A lot of video streams still have underlying tech that is based upon DivX, and it's spin-off XviD. Even Full HD video is still based upon it.

So, it's really not as obsolete as you seem to think. Just have a look at their current site and products:
http://www.divx.com
http://www.divx.com/en/software/divx
http://www.divx.com/en/software/converter/features
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DivX

And a lot of downloadable movies, even in HD format, can still be found in either avi or divx extension format, and all current avi files are also coded with DivX or XviD.
EDIT:
(man, here we go again. I need to learn to get it right the first time, lol)
For completion's sake, here's some information on the Factor 5/DivX connection, because that is not mentioned on the "normal" wiki page I posted above this edit, which I find quite strange, to be honest. I do need to correct myself, AGAIN: they did not make DivX, they made a videogame-specific SDK around DivX that made it easier to stream better quality video into games.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factor_5
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/92434/Factor_5_and_Divx_Networks_Release_Divx_for_Gamecube.php

@ThanosReXXX Very true it's not fair to judge them on Lair. But I think there's too much commentary from Sony and Factor 5 and everyone in the past on motion being the issue, when motion wasn't really an issue at all. They eventually patched the game to support regular controls to make gamers happy. IT didn't help the real underlying problem: Combat stunk no matter the control type Imagine Rogue Squadron if you had to play a rhythm game to mimic the enemy TIE fighter exactly and then do some QTE to then have Luke get out and board the TIE. Endlessly for every major battle. Inputs, no matter the merit to the complaints aren't really the game's problem Maybe that was Sony's fault. But the explanation should be "we built a really bad combat system to suit the controls we were trying to implement" rather than "gamers don't like motion controls." It's a shame because Sony, or Factor 5, or whatever, I'd love to see the Lair brand revitalized but with good gameplay it was a neat idea.

I wonder how much of the original talent the "new" Factor 5 has retained? Is it more current Rare (same name, an exec, and noneo f the rest of the talent), or more Playtonic (different name, most of the same staff) on the inside?

Aaah, that makes a lot of sense that they didn't make DivX....did seem odd that I hadn't been aware of that!

@NEStalgia Well, considering that Julian Eggebrecht himself (the original head of the Factor 5 team) is at the helm once again, I'd say it wouldn't be too far-fetched to expect them to be more like PlayTonic, and they have the benefit of never having been anyone else's property, so they got to keep their original name, so it's still Factor 5.

And with some of the same people on board, that is also instant recognition in the business itself, so I'm actually quite happy about this.

@NEStalgia P.S. Not a big fan of QTE's either. I'm not going to bash all games that contain them, because there have definitely been some good or enjoyable ones with QTE's in them, but in general, I rather have normal mechanics where possible.

@ThanosReXXX The leadership being the same is important, but often you really need a significant chunk of the former talent to make it the same studio. Look at Bioware for an example of original leadership but none of the core talent. Or id for that matter. Same with Interplay in their failed reboot bringing Chris Taylor back. With all the lapsed time I imagine a lot of the staff has moved on to other companies long ago. Optimism, but it might be a rockier road than imagined.

QTEs generally were always an ill fated attempt at "accessibility". By making an overly complex rhythm/memorization game, it made complex game actions "simple" but they really weren't simple at all, just frustrating. I'm glad that's been mostly removed except for some small places in few games.

@NEStalgia I'm pretty sure he can get most of his team back together. Most of them haven't done all that much since Lair, so chances are they will still be in touch with each other.

And the effort to get them together shouldn't be all that big, since it was only ever a small team, not quite as small as Shin'en, but not far off, which is why I always like to compare them to that, not just because they're both German developers.

And because they both possess the skills to do magic on Nintendo hardware...

Give em Star Fox Nintendo. They would nail it!