Star Fox Adventures

Starfox Adventures
Reviewed by Pirate Yoshi

Over-view: Star Fox was Nintendo's revolutionary ace-in-the-hole back on the SNES, so it should come as no surprise that his N64 outing was equally well-received. So what happened when Rare launched the third game in the Star Fox series? Let's say that it was a *teeny bit* less liked than the others. Read on, Fox!

Graphics: 9.8/10
Not much to complain about here. One of Star Fox Adventures's strongest points was its fluid animation and beautiful backgrounds. Also gorgeous were the character models and special effects, from Fox himself to the individual Sharp Claw soldiers. The cutscenes played like a movie in appearance, and were definately a primary example of just what the GameCube can handle. On a graphical level, Star Fox Adventures is a very adequate challenge to all game developers out there, and shows a quality that could be very difficult, if not impossible, for anyone else in the industry to beat.

Sound: 9/10
Sound good? It should, the game's score was composed by D. Wise, the mastermind behind the soundtracks to the Donkey Kong Country games. Rareware's main sound man never lets us down, but I might note that Star Fox's music felt very inferior to the tunes found in Donkey Kong games. Some of the music was simply dry, while other pieces were ridiculously official-sounding, and possibly labeled as "over-dramatic". The real question, however, is not whether Wise has done better, but rather, has he done well? The answer is YES, because Star Fox Adventures has a great soundtrack. Also a plus are the great voice acting and sound effects, which are very professional. Though some of the voices begin to grow old quickly (namely, all the Scottish/English/Irish accents everyone in the game seems to have), Rare has done a fine job of maintaining the same, constant feel throughout the entire game in the sound catagory.

Controls: 8/10
The first of many complaints, and it all begins with controls. First of all, Rareware probably thought that using the C-stick to toggle menus during normal gameplay would be convenient and fast, but--put bluntly--it's not. In fact, it's a pain. Finding the weapon or item you're looking for is annoying enough to do standing still, let alone trying to use one eye to do it while on the run, or engaged in nasty combat with a bunch of blood thirsty reptiles. Another complaint goes to the weak one-item equip button, which is assigned to Y; players can pick one item or move and set it to the Y button for easy access. My question: why couldn't Rare have taken a (good) page from Zelda and made MULTIPLE assignable buttons instead, so that MANY moves and items could be a button press away? The Y button is rarely much simpler than just finding what you need via the crappy C menu. Finally, battling can be a pain, because Fox's moves seem unpredictable, and escaping from a fight requires you to put away your staff, a task that can be difficult when combined with a complaining little brat of a dino, whom you are to control with commands, and a barrage of opponents whom your A button presses lock onto and attack constantly. Over all, Controls here could have used some polishing.

Challenge: 10/10
This is the hardest game ever. Because it also happens to be the hardest game ever to make it through without barfing, dying, or going insane. Since Star Fox Adventures is pathetically bad, chances are that you'll never complete it fully, because doing so requires way too much mental punishment. Few on earth possess the required willpower to do it, and after those people played this game, no people on earth possess the said willpower any longer. Granted, SFA is actually very easy, in serious terms, although I never beat it myself because I could not find time to torture myself with this game.

Gameplay: 4/10
This is a disaster, and an obvious rip-off of classics like Ocarina of Time. One thing developers should realize is that what works for a game five years and one platform ago, isn't necessarily going to work again. Star Fox Adventures is filled with monotonous quests requiring dozens of random, worthless items to be discovered and used at the most uninteresting points of the game, strung together to ensure your loss of attention. While the combat system attempts to make up for the rest of the game, it, too, fails miserably, since almost any combination of button presses will result in the same after-math: Fox beating the crap out of the enemy. In later levels, this gets worse, as enemies begin blocking 9 out of 10 attempted attacks, then feeling the entirety of the final assalt; why couldn't they just take that hit the first time, and save you 90 seconds of your life? Over-all, the word "fun" is NOT what I'd use to describe Star Fox Adventures. "A Pain" may be, if I summed it into two words.

Replay: 1/10
The VERY LEAST that Rare could have done was to include some sort of change in the game, should you miraculously come up with 100% completion. But, they couldn't even go that far. There is no rhyme or reason to play Star Fox Adventures a second time, save trying to get a perfect percentage, should you not the first time. And, that said, there's not much of a reason to finish it for a first time, either. A boring adventure the first time, it only doubles its boring value on a second quest through. Save yourself the trouble altogether and rent this one, if it interests you.

**Story: 1/1
Gotta give props where you can: the storyline is weak, but reasonably complex, and the scenerio has just enough importance that you feel something of a drive that compels you to play (not really strong enough to finish, but at least to lead you to believe that you will enjoy your new game.)

**Multiplayer: 0/1
This game does not support multiplayer, but even if it did, I don't think I'd want to force friends to endure the same torture that I subjected myself to.

Graphics: 9.8/10
Sound: 9/10
Controls: 8/10
Challenge: 10/10
Gameplay: 4/10
Replay: 1/10

**Story: 1/1
**Multiplayer: 0/1

Total Score: 7.1

Score Explanation: ?!? After all my score-bashing on Fierce Deity for awarding Adventures such a high rank in our review list, I can't help feeling a bit ashamed at ending up with such a high score. Obviously, however, once the Challenge catagory goes out the window, then so does Star Fox's score. Don't get me wrong, this is a decent piece of trash that your GameCube will play, but it's sooooo over-lame-ified with its gameplay and poor Zelda-esque quests that I can't help but feel like it's the worst title on earth. The average gamer won't feel so strongly about Star Fox Adventures, but it is worth warning the world that this is not the "awesome new Star Fox" that everyone was excited about years ago. This, put plainly, is unimpressive wastage of a perfect good GCN disc. Rare should have totally recreated this game halfway through and saved themselves the awful performance they ended up with.