Star Fox Adventures

The Good
The game plays like a (N64/Gamecube/Wii) Zelda game, which means it is basically an action adventure game - something which might be a bit irritating when you hear the Star Fox name. Apart from that you get all the great features from the Zelda games: excellent controls, a cute setting with different sceneries in different parts of the world and wide landscapes.

Graphics are just excellent: The characters have detailed shadows, you get dynamic day / night changes and nicely animated water. The closer an object is to the camera, the more details can be seen like very realistic fur for our foxy characters or single blades of grass on the floor. Combined with nice facial expressions the visual impression is just excellent - and Fox's expression when taking an important item is just priceless.

The Bad
The game plays exactly like Zelda. In fact the differences are so minimal that it would be enough to replace the main characters (Fox with Link / Crystal with Zelda) and leave out the occasional Arwing scenes to get an original Zelda game. As already said this is not bad in terms of gameplay, but it doesn't have elements to set it apart from the Zelda series - be it gameplay, levels, mission design, story or graphics. Even those few additions not seen in Zelda games like your little dinosaur companion "Tricky" didn't make an considerable difference - he could just be a fairy with new abilities...

Aside from the conventional adventuring the game adds in a few interludes like a racing game (where you have to chase enemies) or shooting sequences (riding on the back of a dinosaur and shooting incoming objects). And this is were the real trouble begins: While those "minigames" add a diversion to the rest of the gameplay, they are not optional. And unfortunately some of them are actually quite difficult - namely that one last rail shooter sequence a few minutes before you reach the final boss. It's ridiculous: You play through the entire game, just to be confronted with an extremely hard sequence of an entirely different genre than the rest of the game. Just imagine you'd play a turn-based strategy game, but at the end of the final battle the game would suddenly switch to first person mode and require you to kill the boss in melee combat. Seriously: Mixing of genres is nothing bad per se, but please prepare the player for the task adequately! That scene was definitely one of my most frustrating game experiences since I started playing games...

The Bottom Line
Starfox Adventures is an excellent Zelda game with Starfox characters. I'd highly recommend the game, though it may be frustrating towards the end if you are not into button smashing.