Star Fox Assault Review



 Players: 1-4
Develop by: Namco
Publish by: Nintendo

 Fox’s 1st game was back in the SNES called Star Fox. This was a 3-d game in polygons. It was actually impressive because there was no 3-D in the time of the SNES. The game introduced animal characters that talked and acted like humans. Later comes Star Fox 64 and is another success by allowing the player to feel even better that is in a ship. The movements were fantastic and the game looked spectacular. Then the Gamecube is released and Rare decides to take for a spin the Star Fox franchise as a  result they bring Star Fox Adventures. This game totally changes the series by allowing the player to walk around with fox and visiting all the different tribes of dinosaurs. You can shoot in the arwing when you are moving to another planet but nothing else. While the game was fun it was not Star Fox’s style. So later Rare leaves Nintendo and Namco decides to take Star fox for a spin, so they release Star Fox Assault. It brings all of the classic shooting stuff we love but with on foot and Landmaster shooting gameplay added.

Story

The battle begins when the Corneria Army is battling the last of Andross’ army that is now leaded by his nephew Andrew Oikonny. The Corneria starts to get losing in the battle until the Star Fox team arrives and take their mission to capture Oikonny. But then after defeating Oikonny in a small battle an alien with strange patterns arrives and destroys Oikonny. Later the alien shoots at Krystal, so the team returns fire and eliminates the creature. Later the Star fox team reunites and soon discovers that those aliens once destroyed a whole fleet of the Corneria army around 15 years ago. These creatures are called the aparoids, which can infect you and make you join their side. So the Star Fox team takes the mission to this destroy the aparoids.

Gameplay

Star Fox Assault brings the classic arwing shooting missions and they are still really good with the number of enemies on screen and how fast you can kill them. All of the explosions are there and your teammates still fly around. The boss battles are pretty much the same by shooting them in specific places.  You can still roll around to avoid attacks only this time it works more then Star Fox 64. You can also do boots to reach faster enemies that are in a far place and you can also use the brakes to get rid of the enemies that are behind you. Some missions are rail while others are free to fly around and that’s where things change a bit. When you hop into an arwing while you are in a planet you can fly around the whole place. Sadly the planets can feel small to explore on arwing. But this will not be frequently it will be when enemies are flying around the planet and you cannot let a huge amount of enemies take control of the skies of the planet.

Assault also introduces the ability to go on foot but with guns not a magical staff. You get a variety of guns including a homing launcher, machine gun, grenades, Sniper rifles and a few others. The game’s on foot stuff is basically is destroying the aparoids on your way. You mostly have to take out hatchers that make more aparoids. What feels really nice is how big the planet is to walk around. The control can be clunky at 1st specially when trying to do a roll to avoid your enemies attack but after you play the game more and more you will get into it. While you have a certain amount of weapons some of them can feel pretty useless at times. What also is a problem is when many enemies are shooting you at the same time. Most of the stuff in the environments can’t be destroy making the game feel less realistic.  Some enemies have to be destroyed with specific weapons but with the homing launcher you can mostly take out anything.

There is also the Landmaster that doesn’t have his own missions but you when on foot you can hop into it and destroy enemies faster. You can give the Landmaster a boost that can throw away aparoids in the way. The Landmaster can be really helpful when you have many enemies around. On the other hand it’s hard to shoot enemies that are in the skies, but you can charge your shot so it can target the enemy. The problem here is how slow it runs and how slow it shoots. Another thing is trying to make it fit in some places. A nice touch of it is the ability to hover for a limited time with it making more possible to reach other areas.

The boss battles take place mostly on arwing adding less variety to it. But it’s the better way to defeat them. The game gives you 3 level of difficulties bronze (easy), silver (normal) and Gold (hard). The game also has a survival mode which is playing the entire game but without saving and you can play that in all of the 3 difficulties. The main game is 10 missions only, no secret missions or bonus. What you get is an old classic game Xevious that can be unlocked after collecting all silver medals. You get medals for each different difficulty; in order to receive them you must destroy a certain amount of enemies in that mission. It doesn’t matter if you beat the game in the hardest level, that’s probably where the game gives you some challenge. After defeating the game once in a day, you may not want to play it again the same day.

Graphics

Star Fox assault has a nice look and feel to it with the different planets you visit and that you can walk around. Yet some special effects felt bland, like the explosions when you destroy any spaceship. While the environments do look good, not everything is destructible. The characters are very well design and they don’t have old clothes like they did on Adventures. They are some videos in the game that show a realistic look but they are very little. The aparoids on foot and on arwing should have a more varied look. Yet the planets all beautiful to look at for the most part and the characters have a nice touch that makes this one a good looking game.

Sound

The music of Star Fox has always being orchestrated and this game is no exception of that. The musical score fits in nicely with each stage and are very nice to hear. The music can be intense but is also not annoying. The voiceovers on the game are pretty adequate with each other. Falco’s voice sounds weirder and less manly compared to his voice in Star Fox 64. Andrew Oikonny has a more cartoon voice instead of being a strong one like all bad guys. The other voices from other characters are nice enough. The Sound effects are also a nice touch in this game. The explosions sound great, the arwing sounds very impressive and the machines and robots sound also very nice.

 Controls

The game features 3 types of controls but they change mostly the on foot and Landmaster controls. The Dual stick is better for on foot because aiming is easier with c stick and you shoot with the R button. On the other hand Single stick is better for Landmaster because is easier to move, because with the Dual Stick controls you move left and right with the c stick making it very irresponsive. The on foot controls can get tricky at 1st but once you play more stages you will get more into it. The arwing won’t give you that much trouble to control since it uses less buttons.

Replay

The main game is 10 missions long and yet it does offer a few challenges trying to collect all medals, but what makes this game more fun is the multiplayer. Up to 4 people can play in and battle each other by going on foot and hoping into and Arwing or Landmaster at any time. If you want only Arwing then just choose the arenas that only feature arwing. You get all of the set of weapons and you can also unlock new ones by battling a number of times your friends. The arenas are the same planets and places that you visited in the main game. There is also a number of different modes to play in that add more fun to it.

Personal Thoughts (overall)

Star Fox Assault is a fresh shooter that mostly Star Fox fans will enjoy. If you haven’t play the other games then you might be confuse a bit in the story. Is hard to recommend Assault simply because it’s not a shooter for everyone, nut is best to rent it first and see for yourself if you like it or not.

Gameplay: 8.5/10
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 9/10
Replay: 8.5/10
Tilt: 9/10

Overall 8.5 out of 10