Gaming Star Fox Adventures

[Semjaza]

Nothin' much going on in here, so I'd figure I'd write some impressions for Star Fox. I bought this along with Kingdom Hearts this past Tuesday. I wasn't expecting all that much from this game, but it is honestly pretty good. I am enjoying it far more than KH. Oddly enough, KH is more of a collect-a-thon than SFA is. Who would have thought, considering all the useless crap Rare usually packs into a game. Anyway...

The game has a decent story. Fox lands on Dinosaur Planet to help save it. Basically, you are told that the planet contains a strong magical force that is constantly trying to push the planet apart. The inhabitants created these magical items that helped keep the planet together, but the Sharptooth CLan led by General Scales stole them. As a result parts of the planet are floating around in an orbit. You basically have to go to each of these areas and find the magical items to get the planet back together. Yeah, it's [i]really[/i] weird... even Fox admits it.

Gameplay wise, the best comparison is Zelda. B and A are both basically context sensitive, although A generally lets you use something (talk, attack, etc.)and B lets you cancel. Y can have an item mapped to it for quick use. The C stick is used to cycle through your various item menus... It's a little weird at first, but in the end I think it was done rather well.

You can't fight until you find a staff that is dropped in the opening by Krystal, another fox who actually lives on Dinosaur Planet. I'm not going to get much into her side of the story, but the staff is useful. You get various powerups for it (shooting, rocket boost, etc.).

The actual fighting is kind of disappointing though. Basically, as long as you just keep mashing A you can't lose. Enemies block once in a while, but that's about it. Generally you just beat the **** out of them til they die. The game does different moves depending on what direction you press the stick with A, but for the most part this is useless. There is also a Roll move you can do by pressing X, but the enemies are so easy it doesn't matter. On top of this they just attack you one at a time. The others just circle you blindly until you kill one of them. I don't get this at all, and it's what really makes the game seem so damn easy. There are enemies that do require some actual tactics and thought to beat, but they are simply too rare. Edit --- They also totally negate the challenge, because every enemy you kill gives up an item. In the rare occurance you do get hit by an enemy, the thing drops a health item when it dies... basically making it even more easy.

You spend a lot of time just doing Zelda type tasks. A lot of people complain the game is all about collecting useless crap (like mostother Rare games), but I just disagree. You NEED all these items, and each basically has a comparable item in Zelda. Makes no sense why collecting gems to fill your magic up or collecting bomb spores is such a horrible thing for this game, but is fine for Zelda. There are times when characters make you find specific items for them, but it's hardly a HUGE deal. I found Kingdom Hearts to be way more annoying in this aspect.

The sound in the game is amazing... One of the few Nintendo published games I can think of on GC that doesn't use some form of midi for nearly all the sound. Everything is fully orchestrated, and really well timed. The music goes along with the cut scenes very well, making it seem even more like an actual movie. The voice acting overall is pretty good. There are some really strange voices though... The giant stone character (known just as WarpStone) sounds like Fat Bastard for some bizarre reason. Characters randomly have British accents, some don't. I know this was made in the UK, but there is like no uniformity to it at all, and to me that was rather distracting.

At first the characters speak their own language, and Fox has to have Slippy translate for him. the language sounds really weird, but it is done pretty well... If you pay attention they use the same word for the same meaning each time, so this isn't just some random thing characters speak because it sounds good. It's treated like an actual language.

I like Fox's voice best I'd say... It's the same one as in Starfox 64, although Rare gave him an attitude that I hadn't noticed before. Fox rolls his eyes at other characters constantly, he even mocked the queen dinosaur as she told him her story. I guess even he is tired of this same old crap in these games lol.

The graphics, expectedly, are amazing. They looked good on my old RF switched TV in my room, but I hooked it up with component cables on my new TV downstairs and put it into progressive scan (basically HDTV mode). The picture was like 10 times better. The game makes use of tons and tons of different textures, some of which are really elaborate and simply beautiful. Characters also have a nice fur effect, which is even more visible on a better TV. It's possibly the best fur I've seen in a game, because unlike other titles that use it... it looks realistic and doesn't stand straight up. The grass also has a similiar effect, which makes it look a lot more realistic. Again, I could barely notice it on my old TV lol.

Overall, I'd say this is up there with Rogue Leader as the best looking game on the system. There are some issues with slowdown, but they do not ever affect the gameplay and are honestly VERY slight. There usually seems to be the most problems with that in certain areas that are designated as loading spots (generally in some sort of tunnel).

Anyway, I wrote way too much... And generally when I do no one here responds to it lol. Good game, and I feel it's definately worth getting if you want a Zelda-type adventure.

[Turkey]

*Grumble* You just had to post this, didn't you? I'm expecting UPS to deliver it tonight, and if they don't get here in the next 3 hours, I won't be able to play it 'till next week.

Thanks for nothing...

(Note- Everything above is true, expect for the bad mood. I'm actually kinda glad you posted this! :D).

[Desbreko]

[color=indigo]I sooooo wish I had the money to buy this game and still be able to afford the two Metroid games and the Zelda: A Link to the Past remake that are coming out later. If I did, I'd definitely get this game. ...But, Metroid and Zelda are higher on my priority list.

About the enemies, though, that is disappointing. When I saw screen shots of four or five enemies circling around Fox, I thought you'd be fighting all of them at once. *sigh* One-on-one fights can be fun, but not for the little dinky enemies. For those fights to be fun, you have to be outnumbered by at least three to one.[/color]

[Schrat]

I havent played SMS for a while and picked it up again the other day, im almost done with it.
WHen i got into school on weds everyone was talking about fox! So as soon as I beat sms im picking it up, its gotta be great!

[Charles]

I was considering picking his one up. But, having bought Kingdom Hearts (two scavenger hunts in a mere ten minutes? C'mon) only days before, I figured that I'd wait until I finished K. H. before I moved on to Starfox. Thus, I sold out to Tekken 4 instead, lol.

Anyway, I noticed that you didn't address any camera issues (unless I passed over them or something:nervous: ), which should be a good thing. After all, it shows that the camera isn't glaringly atrocious.

In any case, a couple recent high caliber titles have been criticized for somewhat disappointing camera issues. Kingdom Hearts and Mario Sunshine immediately come to mind.

So, how does the camera hold up while platforming and during combat?

Rare's notorious for packing in that towering graphical punch, but often disappoints in fluidity. I'm glad to hear that slowdown doesn't botch things up too much.

[Turkey]

It arrived on UPS at 5:00AM today. It's either met or surpassed all my expectations, and I'm only starting.
I was worried that Prince Tricky would hinder the experience, but he has ended up being an above-average sidekick.
Also, I was worried that Rare would "over-jiggle" Krystal, just to get more "perversion sales", but they kept it subtle, as in Resident Evil.

[Semjaza]

The camera isn't really an issue... It's almost exactly like OoT, it just follows the character. When you get in a fight, the screen becomes letter boxed and you basically circle the enemy and the camera follows suit (again, just like Zelda lol).

Whenever you need to straighten out the camera you can just press L. I personally have had no problems with it, unlike KH. My main problem with the KH camera was that it had no percecption of height... The bosses are huge, and half the time you can barely see what you should be aiming at. The camera barely keeps up with the enemies either. These are not issues in SFA at all.

I think the reason we hear so much about slowdown in this game, is that if a review doesn't mention a lot of people simply pass it off as "biased." There is slowdown, but NEVER has it affected gameplay for me. It generally happens when you are looking over really far distances or when you run past a loading point. I notice the cut scenes seem to run at a slightly slower frame rate, but not stuttery or anything.

The same was said of SMS though, a game I only noticed slowdown in twice... and both times were at Gelato Beach. The final boss battle, which was supposedly the worst FPS offender, barely slowed down at all... To a point where I didn't even notice.

So in closing, FPS is fine... Camera is fine lol.

Good game... but it does feel like you are put on item hunts for no real reason. They are never aggrivating, because the item in question is usually like 10 feet away. Liking it so far, but rarely get to play... My little brother took the game over :).

[Solo Tremaine]

Interesting. I have an NTSC GameCube and was thinking of getting SFA, but I'm not really much of an RPG player (they're too intelligent and complicated for me usually). The StarFox franchise is my favourite of the Nintendo lot though (Even though there's no Falco in this game). From your first impressions, do you think it'd be worth my while getting it?

[Turkey]

Actually, Falco is in the game. I haven't met him yet, but you'll see him...
This is not a spoiler, since he's even in the Manual.

[NorykoAngelcry]

[COLOR=darkred][SIZE=1]While I hate to say this - the game plays like a weaker version of Zelda. The puzzles were far too easy, only one or two gave me even the slightest problems. The fighting was rather lame, with only one enemy trying to fight you at a time? Bring on the melee!! Another thing that upset me was the wasted time in HAVING to connect your whole combo to actually take off any damage. I was really 'urked' about that part.

Some of the cutscenes could have done without, and I would have spent time in the gaming hall if there was actually any real need for it. The money system was reminiscent to Zelda:OoT because. . well, I just didn't need it besides the one or two big purchases you HAD to make. Money seemed like it was just too easy to get *shrug*

One more thing that upset me was General Scales final fight - I won't go into details, ant this is in no way a spoiler. Those that have played will know what I mean.

The space missions were a nice touch to the game, though they were FAR too easy and extremely short lived. Flying through the rings added a bit of a challenge on one board in particular for me, but for a space junkie, it was just a little too late. . well, just too little at least =P

Overall, the game wasn't bad for a first attempt at a real RPG from Rare. They are great with FPS, but I just wish they would have spent a bit more time on the game. While it would have been a very nice first attempt in a long line of Star Fox Adventure series. . . we all know this is most likely the last >_<

Even though I just brought up bad point after bad point, on a scale of 1 to 5, I give the game a solid 4. I would recommend renting the game fist, then buy it if you like it. The game is just too short to buy if you don't have plenty of money to waste on it. [/SIZE][/COLOR] [COLOR=darkred][SIZE=1] [/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Semjaza]

I agree about the fighting. The whole one on one things kills off any excitement. You can be surrouned by 10 guys, and only one will fight you...even if you hit others in the process.

The money is annoying, mainly because there is only one way to get it: under rocks. The other problem is that once you get all the scarabs from under the rocks, you have to completely exit the level until they respawn. I do agree most of the stuff that is sold in the game is useless, but I liked messing with some of the extra items.

I haven't gotten to play this in days... My 7 year old brother took it over on like Friday. He's farther than I was, so that might say how easy this game is.

[Turkey]

I gotta admit that the game has plenty of flaws (Rare, what were you doing all these years?), especially in the fighting department. Mark of the Kri has a battle sistem that would've been perfect for this game.
Strangely, this game is still loads of fun, and pulls you in to play some more.

I give it an 8.25/10

After playing the incredibly fun Arwing stages, I know I'll be getting Star Fox Armada.
Also, I wouldn't mind playing another Star Fox Adventure, but with Jet Force Gemini gameplay...