Star Fox Adventures Review

Developer	Rare Ltd.
Publisher	Nintendo
Genre	Action

Rare’s one and only GameCube title is simply a disappointment. In this chapter of the Star Fox saga, Fox McCloud and his team respond to a distress signal on Dinosaur Planet. It’s been several years since the team has seen some action, and there’s a hefty reward in it for them. Upon landing, Fox speaks with the dinosaurs of the Earth Walker tribe. He learns that the evil General Scales has stolen the Spell Stones, causing the planet to split apart. Fox must retrieve these Spell Stones, eliminate the General, and restore peace to Dinosaur Planet. What follows is a Zelda-like adventure game, albeit poorly executed.

Dinosaur Planet is broken up into five areas. Essentially, there is one huge Overworld and four “dungeons.” The Overworld contains the friendly Earth Walker village, as well as several other areas. These are all connected, but Fox often needs special powerups to access each area. The basic flow of gameplay is simple. Fox is told where to go on the Overworld. After clearing said area, he must visit one of the four separate dungeons, clearing it. This formula repeats, with a bit of variation, until the game’s conclusion.

Where Star Fox begins to fail is in the gameplay department. The puzzles, while sometimes a challenge, seem to crop up again and again. It becomes tiresome to encounter what is basically the same exact puzzle more than a few times. Not only that, but some puzzles seem to be directly lifted from other games. Zelda’s influence is quite apparent. In addition to that, if the player ever should become stuck on a puzzle, merely pressing Start can give you clues. These clues are so painfully to the point that they stop just barely short of giving away the answer. While using these clues is optional, it’s difficult to avoid looking at them if stuck on something.

Combat is a snooze. Armed with a magical staff, Fox can defeat most foes by simply mashing the attack button. This results in spectacular combos that would make Killer Instinct’s cast jealous. There are several different combos, but there isn’t a real difference between them. Fox can block and roll, but there’s rarely a need for this. The average monster has no combat ability whatsoever, and most others merely require a certain kind of magic to defeat. When fighting groups of monsters, which is common, only one will actively battle you. The others look as if they are preparing to strike, but never do.

Despite the fact that Fox rarely takes damage in combat, health items are plentiful. All over each area are barrels and crates, which almost always contain health. Death is rare in Star Fox Adventures, but when it does happen, a magical creature resurrects Fox right on the spot. Fox can carry up to 10 of these creatures, and they are shockingly plentiful. If Star Fox Adventures has a Game Over screen, no one will ever see it.

There are many upgrades available for Fox’s staff. Most of these are fairly standard, such as the ability to shoot fire or ice, but they do make combat a tad more interesting. If Fox tires of simply pummeling his foes, he can freeze and then shatter them. The greatest one of all, however, allows Fox to skip a fair amount of combat by donning a disguise. With the combat as monotonous as it usually is, it is truly a great benefit to bypass it.

While the rest of Team Star Fox stays on board the ship, Fox isn’t alone in his quest. Tricky, prince of the Earth Walker tribe tags along. Tricky’s move list is short, but he is key to solving many of the puzzles. Often, he’ll need to dig something up or trigger a switch for Fox. The problem here is that these “Tricky areas” all look similar. If there’s something to be dug up, the ground will look different. These puzzles often just rely upon Fox paying attention.

The Arwing missions, while brief and incredibly easy, and the most enjoyable segments of the game. There are just a handful of them, however, and most last only a minute or two. These are filled with classic Star Fox action. The goal is to fly through a certain number of gold rings, while remaining alive. The Arwing takes a tremendous amount of damage before going down, so expect to blast through the brief mission without any difficulties.

For what it’s worth, Star Fox is visually incredible. Most areas are very nicely done, with slick water effects and even a day/night cycle. Friends and foes alike are well rendered, but lack variety. Each area, however, is wildly different from the last. The oft-hyped “fur-shading” is merely average. Unless the camera is zoomed in a bit, one cannot even see it most of the time. On the bright side, the framerate manages to stay steady most of the time, but seems to struggle occasionally during cinematics.

Rare has created a new language for Star Fox Adventures, and it actually provides quite a bit of flavor to the otherwise bland Dinosaur Planet. Sadly, just as the player becomes used to the neat language, Slippy Toad invents a translator. On the plus side, the voice acting is stellar. There are a few characters that don’t seem quite right, but the vast majority of them feel quite natural. The sound effects, like much of the game, are generally mediocre and not terribly noteworthy.

Overall Value - Fox’s quest isn’t terribly long; the average gamer should be able to complete it under 20 hours. After completing it, there isn’t much incentive to play again. The Arwing missions track high scores, but even they get old after a few plays. However, if the player enjoyed the game enough to finish it once, finishing it twice wouldn’t be out of the question.

Star Fox is one of Nintendo’s bigger franchises, but games like Star Fox Adventures only tarnish it’s otherwise fine reputation. Perhaps Nintendo should exert more quality control on any major franchise not being developed in-house. This game is a disappointment in nearly all aspects; make sure to give it a rent before even considering a purchase.

Review by Joe Mackie