Star Fox Adventures - Review - 2nd of January 2003 System: Nintendo GameCube Television System: PAL Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Rareware Origin: UK Players: 1 Genre: Adventure Memory Card: 3 blocks Released Japan: 27th of September 2002 USA: 24th of September 2002 Europe: 22nd of November 2002 Several years ago a game named Dinosaur Planet was scheduled to be released on Nintendo 64 and was supposed to be Rare's Ocarina of Time. But when Nintendo GameCube was announced Rare said that Dinosaur Planet was to be moved to Nintendo's new platform and should now feature the Star Fox characters and be released just after the GameCube release. But the game's release just got further and further away. One year after the US GameCube release and one half year after the European GameCube release it's finally here under the name Star Fox Adventure. As most of you know, this is the last game Rare will ever make or at least in a very long time for a Nintendo console. A few month ago Microsoft bought Rare, both Rare's part and Nintendo's. You play as Fox from the Star Fox team. The Dinosaur Planet is in need and it's your job to save it and it's inhabitants. Explore the planet using a special staff, make friends with the nice dinosaurs and fight the bad ones. Use a large variety of items to help your way in this extremely well looking problem solving adventure game. Story Eight years have passed since the defeat of Andross and the mercenaries Star Fox team doesn't get many jobs now-a- days. Slippy's now a mechanic, Peppy has retired from the piloting and instead works as some kind of advisor. Falco is on a vacation, but no one knows where is or when he comes back. But Fox still pilots his Arwing which has become pretty crappy because the Star Fox team doesn't get any jobs. A job offering then shows up from General Pepper of Corneria. A planet named Dinosaur Planet is being terrorized by a blood thirsty dinosaur and his army of tyrannosaurs. This has caused the planet to tear a part and besides that a young fox female Krystal has been captured in a (coincidence?) crystal. Fox must now save the planet. Graphics 10/10 I don't normally give out perfect 10:s but this game really deserves it. It's extremely beautiful and well detailed and it flows in good speed. All environments as well as all characters are very beautiful and realistic and such variety. I'm astonished. From the hair of Fox's fur which moves in the wind to the autumn forest in Cape Claw, everything is done which such magnificence and such a fine taste for details and beauty. It's pretty hard to describe how good the graphics are, but I can't find anything to complain about and I'm pretty picky. I have never played any game with better graphics. Sound 8/10 The music is great, and most important it suits the game perfectly. As usual when it comes to Rare games, it's very well arranged depending on which situation the player is in. When be chased by barrels, or when you fight enemies it's fast and hysterical, when you walk around in the beautiful Thorn Tail Hollow it calm and soothing and when you're in the creepy Moon Mountain Pass the music is quiet and mysterious. Then it might happen something and the music quickly change style. Nothing to complain about the sound effects and the voice acting are OK, but the smaller roles are sometimes pretty lousy. But you've got to love the Warp Stone's Scottish accent. Controls/Gameplay 8/10 It's obvious that the game is mostly inspired by Nintendo's masterpiece Zelda Ocarina of Time, released in 1998, but it's not nearly as good. Don't misunderstand me, the game's great. The control scheme is smooth and feel natural both when exploring, doing the problem solving and battling. The A button is an action button and the attack button in battles, the B-button is used for cancelling, X for avoiding attacks, L centres the camera behind Fox and R shields. Similar to the C-buttons in Ocarina of Time, the Y button is used for assigning special items or weapons. Those are chosen with the C-stick in a surprisingly smooth way. What you do mostly in Star Fox Adventures is exploring and problem solving. It works very well. It's a nice feeling to walk around in the beautiful environments and solve the pretty easy puzzles. The game's very straight forward. You follow the storyline very strict and it's nothing to really go back and look for. This may be good and it may be bad. It's a matter of taste. I would rather have seen something more to do except just following the storyline. The area's are sometimes vast but I think you never get confused like in for example Banjo-Tooie or Donkey Kong 64. Moving on to battling. There are not too many battles in Star Fox Adventures and the battles you fight are mostly against the same kind of enemies which use the same kind of attack pattern. The battle system is pretty flashy. Fox fights with a staff he found. By pressing A and tilting the control stick in different directions Fox does various combos. But these are just something visual, they don't give the gameplay much. To defeat most enemies it just to guard one attack and then rapidly push the A button while playing with the control stick and you've won the battle. The camera automatically centres on the enemy, this is also similar to Ocarina of Time's system with the Z-targeting, but Star Fox's system is more simple. The fighting could have been better. In the beginning of the game Fox meets the dinosaur Tricky and he becomes Fox's follower. He works a lot like a dog and can do various actions, like standing on switches or digging stuff up. A fresh idea which gives the game more personality. There are lots of items in the game. In Rare's N64 games there were lots of items as well, especially in Donkey Kong 64, where it sometimes just felt silly. In Star Fox Adventures you have to collect mushroom, fuel cells, bomb spores, spirits, stones and much more, and I mean much more. Good thing it feels like most of the items have some kind of use. One of Dinosaur Planet's many problems are the fact that four parts of the planet has broken free from the surface and are now in orbit around the planet. To reach these places fox must use his Arwing in classic Star Fox shooting action. But these are just mere transport flights with enemies in the way. It's pretty much fun but it's too simple to give the game more depth. And you do it seldom. Something I've noticed is that because Star Fox Adventures from the beginning was Dinosaur Planet, it really doesn't feel like Fox belongs in this game. For example the space shooter elements, which doesn't really fit. Also (as my brother pointed out) Fox movement scheme was first meant for Krystal (who you shall save). Lasting appeal 7/10 Pretty short actually, surprisingly short due to the fact that Rare once promised 100 hours of gaming time. Right... it's more like a forth or fifth part of that time, but during the time you play it's really well done and at least I had a lot of fun. This game doesn't contain any extra stuff do to except the usual storyline which shortens the lasting appeal even more, and the game's not challenging so you won't be stuck either. Star Fox Adventures could have longer lasting appeal. Total 8/10 Not a long game but it's good as long as it lasts. It's also one of the most beautiful games ever made. A great good buy from Rareware. © 2003 Christian "Twink" Wall