Are You Feeling Foxy Tonight?

Author's Rating:

Pros: great graphics and sound, good story line

Cons: easy to complete, can be repetitive

The Bottom Line: 
a great adventure game that will tide you over until the release of Zelda.

Author's Review
INTRO

I remember when StarFox was released on the SNES! It was a groundbreaking game using the all-new superfx chip! The graphics at the time were phenomenal, and the game was just superb! I was hoping that Nintendo would bring Fox Mcloud and his crew on to the Gamecube, and they have done, with a wonderful game called StarFox Adventures!

THE GAME

A distress signal goes out to Fox that something has happened on a war torn planet, so he arrives there and has tiny knowledge of his situation. It's very blatant that the residents of Dinosaur Planet need assistance, and lots of it too. This is where you come in!

The Gameplay concepts are a curious mixture of old and new. Fox is accompanied by old pals Peppy (in charge of directions), Slippy (weapons master) and Rob the Robot (who offers extra supplies) and they arrive at Dinosaur Planet roughly eight years after the defeat of Andross featured in Star Fox on the SNES. It isn't long before players discover that General Scales, having captured the pterodactyl princess of the land, is up to no good and its left to the Star Fox team, with the help of Tricky and Krystal, to save the planet.

Times have changed! Fox is no longer the happy-go-lucky crack-shot Arwing pilot we knew and loved. Well, he's supposed to be, but in reality, the flying shooting sections that made the previous Star Fox games great are a minor diversion - a sideshow that's obviously been tacked onto the game once the Star Fox license was added into the existing Dinosaur Planet game design. And to be quite honest, the flying sections suck big time. The flying sections see you fly through asteroid belts and have dog fights while on your way to your next planet! It's perhaps a good thing that the emphasis is very firmly on 3D platforming.

The Vast majority of the game is very similar to Zelda's Ocarina of time on the N64; in the fact this StarFox game is more of an adventure game than a flying shoot 'em' up like previous StarFox games! Fox runs, jumps and fights in a manner not dissimilar from Zelda, which is no bad thing. The fun in the game lies more in its platform sections, which are many and varied, ensuring that the game never gets samey. The levels are pretty big and are gorgeously designed. There are many puzzles and things to do, though it does get a bit repetitive running back and forth placing objects where they need to be. The main gripe with the game is the level of challenge. It starts nice and easy, but never seems to get much more difficult. Maybe this is intentional, aiming the game at a younger audience, but it sometimes seems that you just need to go through the motions, and you'll get through the level. Rarely (no pun intended) does the game require anything approaching avid concentration or serious thumb-skill to beat.


Another complaint is that the fighting is mostly a matter of hammering the A button once the Zelda style Z-lock is engaged. Though you do get a magical staff to use! The staff is upgradeable throughout the game and it does enable you to pull off some incredible combos! That said though there's little fun to be had from defeating the enemies.

Along with the standard platform sections, Fox has to pilot hover-bikes, ride wooly mammoths and take control of gun emplacements to achieve his goals, throughout the game which does add something extra to the game but not much.

GRAPHICS

One thing i will say about this game is that graphics are just brilliant. When you look at fox it is like looking at a real fox! his fur looks incredible! You can almost count every single hair! The shadow and lighting effects are just superb. During the cut scenes the facial animation of the characters is excellent, they actually talk in time with the words that are spoken! The game is flowing with realistic looking dinos, trees, rivers, grass, and rocks, not to mention some cool looking buildings. once again, this is another game that really shows off the Gamecubes abilities!


THE SOUND

The musical score is wonderful! It matches up to Nintendo’s usual high standards. Music is catchy, vibrant and varied, and it creates a great atmosphere building into a tense tune when danger is afoot! the voice overs of the characters is pretty good, but they are not the best, but it gets the job done!

THE CONTROLS

The game is very easy to play thanks to the controls. The 3D analog stick is used to move Fox Mcloud through the giant 3D worlds, where the Big Blue A button is an action button, for shooting or fighting an enemy. Meanwhile, foes can be targeted like in Zelda, where Fox can move around them and defeat them! You will be picking up and playing this game with ease in no time at all!

OVERALL

Overall i think this is a great adventure game. The Plot of the game is pretty good and the worlds are quite huge. The graphics and sound are second to none. The only flaw is that the game is quite easy to complete. This is the last game that will be published from Rare on the Gamecube, Microsoft has just bought them, and I think that this is a great farewell game from Rare!