Star Fox Adventures

GameCube

Rare/Nintendo - 2002

The sad thing about this game is that, for all the greatness of Star Fox Adventures, it basically is Zelda 64. It runs on the same fighting engine, and focuses on the same "retrieve magic things, fight final boss, save the world" idea of Zelda (and most games.) It contains dungeons and a bunch of areas to run around in. So it has to be good, right? A few years of fixing the Zelda fighting engine, and amazing graphics that Rare has been working on for years, right? But, in my opinion, Zelda was the better game. Everyone and their grandmother knows of Link's plight to stop Gannon and save the princess Zelda, so they are used to the epic quest Link endures. But Fox McCloud? On an epic quest? We grew up with him flying arwings and spinning a lot. Now he wants to take it to the ground and show off his Smash Bros. skillz? But all he could do in Smash Bros. was shoot his gun fast and do that super-fast run. Neither of which he has in this game. So what is Fox good for? Nothing apparently.

Not only is the game basically Zelda, it looks a lot shorter. There are 6 Krazoa Spirits (the medallions you collected in Zelda.) But wait, weren't there like 9 dungeons in Zelda? Apparently there are only 5 in Star Fox. I guess he's still a junior cadet in dungeon crawling. But I guess I shouldn't say anything until I see Link fly an Arwing. You also don't collect as many items as in Zelda, and the game is only supposedly 20 hours instead of, what, 40 for Zelda? But I digress.

So, enough bad stuff. Let's talk about the good stuff. Welcome additions:
1. When you save and quit, it starts you off EXACTLY where you saved. 'Nuff Said.
2. Prince Tricky. The little triceratops that follows you around. Sure he's almost as annoying to listen to as Navi from Zelda, but at least he does more than just target enemies. For example he, er, digs up items from the ground and, well, burns things with fire breath. Ok, well maybe it would be better to just have given Fox a shovel and tiki torch, but at least he doesn't say "Link!" "Look!" "Hey!" every five seconds. Instead he says, "Fox!" "Hey!" "Wait up!" Wait, I guess that is just as bad.
3. Speaking of bad, let's talk about the voices. (Yes I know this is supposed to be a list of GOOD things, but I ran out.) Fox has the only decent voice in the game, well with the exception of the giant Rock warpstone guy from The Neverending Story who has a scottish accent. He's the bomb dot com. But other than him, Fox is acceptable, only because everyone knows Fox is a boyscout already, so his "fetch quests" and "good deeds" and "annoying voice" are acceptable. But for everyone else on the planet to have annoying voices is something else entirely. Remind me never to take a vacation on a planet full of dinosaurs with annoying voices. Really. Just makes me want to cast MUTE on them all. Either that or DEATH on myself. To quote Jerry Seinfield, "And that Dinosaur Language? I mean, what is up with that?" It's worse than Final Fantasy X's made-up language. Rare should have noticed how no one liked it, taken a hint and dropped it completely. It sounds like everyone is on crack. And the english words that are thrown in randomly, like "Mrando aodn druack Dinosaur Planet..." don't help at all, for they speak them normally, which only gives the listener a headache. The worst has to be the salesman of the store, whatshisname. The fact that he HAS to talk every time you want to buy something gets old real fast. Either that or perhaps I've been ruined by the great voice acting of Kingdom Hearts. Sigh.

So I've bashed most everything in the game, now you ask, "I guess it isn't worth playing now, is it?" Well, I never said that, now did I? First off, the graphics are mighty impressive. Fox's fur for example is completely stunning.
Second, while the game does play like an easy Zelda, that is still a good thing. The Zelda engine was great after all. The only problems with the controls in this game are that:
1. There is no "switch enemy targeting" that I know of. This is annoying for multiple enemies.
2. To access items, you push the c stick. This means no changing the camera besides pushing L to lock on right behind Fox. This ain't no Mario camera control folks.
3. Speaking of the c stick, when you push it, it pulls up 3 menus which you rotate between. 1 is the items, 2 is Prince Tricky commands, 3 is Fox's staff's weapon spells. Navigating these becomes second nature after a while, but the first few times are quite annoying.

Other than that, the plot so far is there. After a few hours right at the beginning where you fetch a bunch of stuff for people, then you actually start going in dungeons. Then the game gets good. So if you can sit thru the first few hours, the game becomes pretty enjoyable.

What liked: I guess there were some stuff I liked. The graphics are sweet. It's moderately enjoyable. It's worth playing, or at least renting.

What disliked: Fly enemies, like bats and goblins. I can't seem to figure out how to lock-on to them. Also, you have to frequently talk to Slippy to find out what to do. If you don't, you will have no idea what to do. Other than that, everything listed above.

What to expect: Zelda, but shorter, easier, and with a Fox on a planet of dinosaurs.

What not to expect: Link, Gannon, or the Princess Zelda. Flying Arwings a lot. (you do a few times.) Using a gun.

What's so different from this and other games of it's genre: It's a Star Fox game, which means you should fly an Arwing, but you don't. It plays like Zelda, but it's not.

Ratings on:

Control: 6 - Due to the fact they seem to have taken a great fighting engine, the Zelda 64 engine, and gotten rid of lock-on changing and such. That and I would really like to jump, and control the camera.

Graphics: 9 - Wow, they are really nice. You can't tell this was originally a N64 game like you could with Eternal Darkness. It's not as good as Resident Evil though. Sorry.

Sound: 3 - The music is good in some places, but the voice acting is horrible.

Style: 3 - I think this game is confused. It's Star Fox, but wants to be Zelda. I don't know.

1st hour: 4 - I'm waiting for this to get good.

2nd hour: 6 - It's a little better, but says I'm 15% thru with the game already.

5th hour: 7 - Yay a dungeon! Let the enjoyment begin.

1st week: 6 - Never really gets better than average at best.

#1 reason why I hate this game: Do General Pepper, Slippy and Peppy have to talk EVERY TIME you pull open the menu? Really, it gets annoying fast.

by Hawke