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Star Fox Adventures (GameCube) artwork

Star Fox Adventures (GameCube) review


"To understand my disapointment in StarFox Adventures, you first have to understand my anticipation. First of all, when Dinosaur Planet was coming out on the N64 without StarFox, I was planning on picking it up. It looked like a very good game. Then when Starfox was linked to the game, I put that on the top of my list; next to SSBM. I love everything Starfox has ever done, and Rare has been the creaters of many great games. As soon as a release date was set, I preordered it. I waited those months..."

To understand my disapointment in StarFox Adventures, you first have to understand my anticipation. First of all, when Dinosaur Planet was coming out on the N64 without StarFox, I was planning on picking it up. It looked like a very good game. Then when Starfox was linked to the game, I put that on the top of my list; next to SSBM. I love everything Starfox has ever done, and Rare has been the creaters of many great games. As soon as a release date was set, I preordered it. I waited those months on end, watching the postponing and so forth. And yet it came out, and it was an ok game. But this is Rare and StarFox, so it should of been a great game. It's just the problems were there, and they really held StarFox Adventures back.

STORY (8/15): Most of those points are there, because a story is present. You have alot of little substories, like saving the Gatekeepers and so forth. The major underlying story has to do with StarFox wants to save Dinosaur Planet against General Scales, and gain some money for it. That's ok, cause that really was who StarFox is. And yet after that the story becomes two things. First thing is it really does not resemble StarFox's characters at all, and the StarFox team does very little in the game. Secondly alot of things are just thrown in there, specially near the end, so you remember it's a StarFox game. The dialogue throughout the game is really dumb, and made for like 5 year olds to understand. Really it is just dissapointing.

GRAPHICS (20/20): Best Graphics on the Gamecube this side of Metroid Prime. Everything is glamorously made, and you can see the fur and every flowing in the wind on Fox's features. The cutscene are also good, but the actual game looks just like those cutscene. My dad explained it best, he thought I was watching a movie with the Gamecube controller in my hand. The graphics are just that good.

SOUND (5/10): The sound is ok. You have various music throughout the stages, but known of it is catchy. I mean in the age that we are in, the music is so much more, and with all of its complextivity. StarFox just really does not take advantage of that as much.

The sound effects are very nice, as you blow one of the various Dinosaur horns and so forth. Also the audio voices are split one way or the other. Some voices are extremely annoying, while others are done fairly well (like Krystal and Fox). Thing is the dialogue is so annoying it even ruins the good audio vocies. But ones like the rest of the StarFox team, are just annoying. It just doesn't sound like Slippy anymore.

GAMEPLAY (25/40): This is where StarFox Adventures should have shined. With Fox in the game, and a land of Dinosaurs, it had potential. Firs of all, with all of Fox's high class technology, he uses a rediculous staff. It reminds me of Zelda, as you use it with various combinations to defeat enemies. Another thing about those combat techniques, the simplest one is the most effecting. Later on in the game I had figured out some complex and awesome looking techniques, but the simple one of taping ''A'' was the most effective. That just didn't seem right.

To really understand StarFox's gameplay, you just have to think of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on such a lesser level. You fight with a staff, enter various dungeon like things, and solve puzzles to collect Krazoa Spirits and Spellstones. Each land basically has it's own temple of either Spellstone, Krazoa Spirit, or both. There are only 4 boss battles in the entire game, sadly enough, and only the last one is even tricky at all. The lands are fairly large, and you will be forced to explore like every corner to figure it all out. You have a health bar and a magic bar, and you increase the health bar by finding a spellstone, and the magic bar by finding underground powerups.

Now to more fully understand the magical element in StarFox Adventures. The magical staff has many uses. You will need to do various things to open underground portals, in which your staff will gain needed powers. The only power you will not recieve in the portals is the transformation one, that Slippy will deliver instead. These powers are fairly unuseful besides the fire/freeze blasts, and will only be needed to win puzzles.

The puzzles in StarFox Adventures are very bland. They are move this block there, or find your way through an invisible maze. Most commonly though is to shoot a fireball through a colored torch, to match a colored orb. These puzzles don't take much thinking and are fairly simple. The biggest puzzles is finding the masters weakness, and taking advantage of them. Once you find that weakness though, the bosses become a joke.

Lastly the few and far between Arwing levels. It is obvious they were just thrown in at the end to give a little more StarFox feel to the game. They are all very easy, with no risk of all of defeat. The only things are you can no longer lock on to enemies and then shoot them, and you need to fly through the Gold Rings. There are no Dog Fights either in this Starfox. I guess we will just have to wait for StarFox Armada.

Starfox is fun though. Don't let all the negatives in the gameplay trick you. You will probably work your way to beating it, cause the game is an enjoyable experience as you beat up a Sharpclaw with your staff, or solve a fairly unstrenuous puzzle. Just don't let to the feel of the game get to you. It can be fun, just never be great.

REPLAYABILITY (4/10): This is a fairly long game, around 15 hours of gameplay. Once you complete all the puzzles once though, there is not much to do in StarFox anymore. Without any multiplayer or extra's into the actual game, there is just nothing to do. So once you beat it, relax for about a year or so, and maybe try to beat it once again.

DIFFICULTY (3/5): This game is almost too EASY. I only had to use one continue the entire game. The boss battles were a cinch, although a tad bit annoying and long, and the regular battles were few and far between, and void of any challenge.

However some of the puzzles are very annoying. They are basically to explore an entire terrain, and figure out where things are, then touch some lever and start shooting at bobbles through a staff. It is all control, and while doesn't take nerve racking it just gets boring after awhile.

OVERALL (65/100): I have played alot of games, and I do not regret buying this one. This is one of the games that needs to be in my library, even if it just isn't that good. The graphics are amazing and the gameplay at times can be fun. And yet there are alot of problems with StarFox Adventures, too numerous to count. It was not worth the anticipation, and just has me waiting for the next installment that will put the Arwing back into the string of things. It's an ok game worth a look, a purchase on the other hand is all according to the buyer.



ratking's avatar
Community review by ratking (December 07, 2002)

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