Starfox Adventures

Link is off to save Zel--err Fox is off to save Krystal!

Platform	Presentation	Controls	Variety	Audio	Depth	Value & Fun	OVERALL
GameCube	9.00	6.00	6.00	9.50	6.00	6.50	6.76

Presentation

9.00

The standout in the visuals are the character models. Everyone looks brilliant, and the sense of texture is beyond reproach; Fox's fur looks very soft, and the scales on the dinosaurs look appropriately rough in texture. The environmental effects are also well done, particularly the rain. However, the environments themselves can feel a little drab in areas, there are some clipping issues, and the maps are mediocre.

There are also day-nigh cycles which do little more than be annoying. NPCs go to sleep at night, so you'll have to wait for them to wake up to complete certain tasks that are mandatory for the mission. It also makes it much harder to see.

Controls

6.00

     This is where the Zelda similarities begin.  Roll with X, attack with A, and assign to Y.  Starfox tries to mix it up by making your inventory accessible via the C-stick which comes across as cumbersome, especially considering you can only access it real-time.  The fact that you can only assign to Y is bothersome.

Whenever you load the game, fall down a hole, or fail a timed challenge the Y button resets to nothing assigned, which is also a hassle.  As for Fox himself, he controls well, and the camera is excellent, making the lack of direct camera control not a problem and actually a good thing.

     Combat is the main issue, though.  To start, there is no L-targeting like in Zelda, but rather auto-lockon whenever your staff is drawn.  To combat the obvious issues that auto-lockon creates, Rare's ingenious plan was to only have a single enemy attack you at any given time--that's right, you can be surrounded by 5 enemies and only one will attack.  You'll also be fighting virtually the same enemy over and over throughout the game, with minimal variety (certain ones block better).  Once you land a single hit, you can continue to press the A-button to attack and finish the combo and repeat until the enemy is defeated.

     The auto-lockon, however, does not work on airborne enemies; those you can't target with your staff at all.  You have to shoot those down with magic, or wait until they fly directly above you (which consequently means you'll take damage as that's how they all attack).  Once spotted by a flying enemy, damage is virtually unavoidable and is a pain.

Variety

6.00

     As previously stated, there's a serious lack of variety in enemies and combat.  Also as previously stated, the game more than resembles Zelda--it's a blatant knock-off; strangely, exclusive to the only console in which Zelda is available.  Relative to Zelda, there is a lack of items, sidequests (as in any), NPCs, dungeons, shops, towns and basically every category there is.  In the game, you have to collect 4 spellstones and 6 Krazoa spirits (5 you actually have to do something for).  The spellstones are located in Zelda-esque dungeons and are placed in either the Ocean Force-point Temple or Volcano Force-point Temple which you visit each, obviously, twice.  For the Krazoa spirits, you find in a very short dungeon (three hallways) and then complete a tacky minigame.

     There are several instances of tacked-on minigames lacking inspiration.  Tests of strength that have you mashing the A-button, sections of rail shooting, or a short snowmobile race.  What's also wrong with the minigames are that they make no sense in context to the story--such as infinite blasts with your staff ONLY during these minigames, and situations in which would have been easy had you used your Arwing instead.  You also have to complete a short flying mission whenever you travel between sections of floating planet where you fly through X number of gold rings to "open the forcefield".  The game never explains those "forcefields".

     But what's really lacking is a sense of cohesiveness that is simply amplified by these minigames.  The whole world feels very segmented.  You travel to the 4 different sections that have split off of the main planet in your ship, you start off by travelling via the warp-stone, one time you wake up in a new area, and the areas change for no other reason that because you have to revisit them.  There's no real travelling-the-world feel.

Audio

9.50

The highlight of the game is by definitely the sound. While the visuals were animated and lush like and animated film, the audio brought it to life. Island style chorus', epic scores and quirky melodies make the game much more enjoyable than it would have otherwise. The voice-overs are great, but maybe a bit ham-handed in areas. The main detraction is that the music gets repetitive by the end of the game.

Depth	6.00
The combat is extremely simple for most enemies, but there are some clever instances in enemies as well as puzzles. The minigames, despite being out-of-place are in spots varied, and the bosses have some thought to them. But it is more often than not confusing puzzles, direct enemies, and hindering minigames that have little depth other than patience.

Value & Fun

6.50

     This is a rare instance in which a game seems to be very good for a certain audience--that is, males age 6-11.  Ironically, though, it's rated Teen, so the game is useless taking the ESRB into consideration; however, they cite animated blood, which I never saw in the game and I see it entirely fit for an E rating.  The presentation is very much like a Pixar animated film combined with a morning cartoon; it absolutely fits a young male.  However, outside of that sect, things seem slow, repetitive and most of all disjointed.  The puzzles eminate confusion more than cleverness as the clues you get from Slippy from the start menu seem like a crutch from the development team rather than a helpful guide for players who are stuck or haven't played the game for a while and forget.  What comes across as flashy and fresh, more and more weighs down the experience as it is repeated ad-nauseum and shoved down the player's throat.  Even two boss battles are essentially minigames.

     Another strange thing about the game is the character Krystal who begins the story but isn't explained and has no impact afterward, making her essentially pointless other than having a token female character.  What caps off the disjointedness of it all is the final boss battle (no spoilers).  It is entirely out-of-place, illogical, doesn't fit into the story, theme or gameplay in any way; the only good thing is it's difficult, if only because it's so abstract that it takes adjustment.

     To address difficulty, you'll probably lose all your health a few times throughout the game (namely on the final boss) but there are very few instances in which you are in any real danger or being defeated.  Even then, you can collect items that look like brown moogles from Final Fantasy that work identically to fairies in Zelda (revive you when you lose all your health.  In Zelda, you can carry one fairy per bottle (max of four) and they don't fully heal you.  In Starfox, they fully heal you, and you can very early buy a bag that carries TEN of them.  You'll likely never use more than one.  Furthermore, ever crate in the game contains health, and every crate respawns (even during boss battles).  Respawning is also annoying, as enemies will respawn, often while you're trying to solve an inane puzzle.

Overall	6.76
For the 6-11 male audience, Starfox Adventures gets a high recommendation, everyone else should stick with Zelda. As much as it borrows from Zelda, there's not really any reason for its existence on GameCube.

Posted by Ellyoda Sat, 06 May 2006 00:00:00

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