Star Fox Assault

The Good
In general, the concept and most of the execution are excellent. I like the idea of foot combat and the developers did a decent job here.

The plot was decent, the characters were interesting (though the voice acting was a little bit off). I particularly liked the Star Wolf team.

The graphics and music are very good, and look and sound nice. The graphics are excellent. The music is not exactly memorable stuff by all means, but it's pleasing enough and fits the situations well enough, and fits the general style of the series.

The Bad
The number one problem with the game is, pretty obviously, that there's only 10 single-player missions. Another problem is that they're pretty disproportional: Most are foot combat, and there's not enough of the famous Star Fox roller coaster ride style space shooting.

The foot combat works for the most part, but the makers should have put a bunch of additional effort to that; right now, it's just good, it could have been excellent. The Landmaster tank in particular is very aggravating thing to control: slow to get moving and impossible to aim with.

Time limits that crop up in some missions are also pretty annoying. The action is extremely hectic as it is, and adding additional hurries on top of that is a bit much. You only start to live with the time limits on later times when you play through the game, and, well, people don't play games too many times through these days, do they...

One small problem is that the plot doesn't really take full advantage of the characters and the potential; okay, in the end it doesn't really matter if the game where you blow tons of stuff up has a plot or not, but it seems to me that they developed some great potential but didn't use it all.

The Bottom Line
Star Fox Assault is a game of good old-fashioned space shooting and space fighter combat, but also a game of foot combat, with interesting twist that in some missions, you can pick your vehicle freely. The environments include familiar Star Fox locales and some new ones.

The concept works well enough. In free-form missions, fox can run around at staggering speed and even more staggeringly hypnotic tail-wagging. There's tons of enemies, tons of weapons strewn around the levels, tons of Stuff to Blow Up. Never in the series we've seen this much of senseless cartoon violence. It's kind of fun once you ignore slight frustration on the first time around. Regrettably, it never rises above the "kind of fun" afterwards... but it's "kind of fun" enough that I won't drag this game to the second-hand store.

Overall, the game works pretty well, looks and sounds pretty well; certainly, not the worst game imaginable. Not just exactly as smoothly playable as the previous parts, but it makes it up with the hectic pace. Okay, the previous parts of the series didn't exactly make you think; this game doesn't give you enough time to think at all, which is another kind of fine numb feeling.

The only big problem is that the single player game is stunningly short. The multiplayer game is fun, but does not feel like something you can play for too long at time. Perhaps with, say, twice the missions and a little bit more varied multiplayer mode this might have been a really great game, but right now, it's just something you pull off the shelf to play occasionally. Still, a very much decent game and doesn't ruin the rest of the series.

The Good
This game finds the Star Fox universe fully realized with its wonderful graphics and character interaction. This game features a single player campaign that doesn't just consist of arwing combat, but also of landmaster and on-foot combat. These various styles of gameplay greatly facilitate variety and the game's ability to tell its story.

While Star Fox 64 introduced players to multiplayer, Star Fox Assault virtually perfects the experience. While it may seem unbalanced to be able to switch between arwings, landmasters, and on-foot combat at the same time, it works extremely well. The unlockables provided drive players to play with friends more and more.

The Bad
The single player campaign is pretty fun, but it's quite short. The game can be completed on the easiest difficulty in just a few hours. Perhaps it's not that the game is actually shorter than its predecessors, but the multiple styles of play distract from the series-staple of arwing combat. It felt like there were not nearly enough flying levels. Overall, the game's multiplayer aspect is much more appealing after a few hours than the short single player campaign.

The Bottom Line
A great addition to the Star Fox series after the stylistic departure of Star Fox Adventures just a few years earlier. If you are a fan of the series at all, this game is well worth it. If nothing else, the multiplayer will keep you playing for weeks and weeks.

The Good
StarFox is one of most beloved of all the Nintendo franchises. The SNES and N64 versions of the game were amazing the Gamecube one sadly sucks.

The plot is typical of StarFox only more moronic. I won’t get into it here.

The Graphics are good. Hell they are amazing. Easily one of the games best features. Alas graphics do not make the game. This game really shows the power of the Gamecube. The multiplayer is fun. There are many different modes of play all of which are fun to play. If you have friends and multiple controllers, sadly there is no online component. If only the rest of the game was as well done as the multiplayer.

The Bad
The Gameplay is horrible. There are three types. Rail line shooting, in an Arwing. Free form shooting in an Arwing, and segments in which Fox goes on foot. The only one of these segments that is well done is the free fly ship mode. The rail line segments are lame, and the on foot missions are almost impossible. The controls are shit. And the objectives are often unclear. There are also regenerating bad guys. Why Nintendo?

The voice acting is horrendous. And the music and sound effects leave too much to be desired.

The Bottom Line
Overall I can not recommend this game. If you must have a Star Fox game get, StarFox Adventures. Or get this game cheap and just play the multiplayer. Why did Nintendo let Namco make this game? Namco can not even make there own games well. Shame on you Nintendo.