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Star Fox Adventures

by Ed Shih - August 29, 2002, 10:20 am EDT

Impressions from the final version shown at last week's Fall Nintendo Gamer's Summit. It's okay to wanna smack Slippy upside the head...really!

Star Fox Adventures was fully playable at the recent Gamer’s Summit. I must admit that I haven’t been looking forward to the game too much. It’s been around for quite a while, all the way back to E3 2000, and has lost some of excitement usually associated with a game of this caliber. Playing the game at the Gamer’s Summit, has gotten me excited about Fox’s first out-of-cockpit adventure once again...and a little bit worried, too.

I put in a little over an hour into the game, playing the first two areas of the game and then skipping ahead to some of the later levels just to get an idea of what lay ahead. There are several features which most gamers will notice about Star Fox Adventures after only a few seconds of playing. First, the game is absolutely beautiful. Rare’s games frequently look better than the competition’s and SFA is no exception. This is a game that you’ll use to impress your friends and family and show them just what the powerful little Cube can do.

The next thing that you’re likely to notice is how great the game sounds. From the sound effects, to the music, to the background/ambient noises, Rare seems to have got everything going up to their usual high standards in both audio and visual presentation. The voice acting is quite solid, though I found the language spoken by the Dinosaur Planet natives to be a bit odd at first...almost like some Native American tongue with a sprinkle of English here and there. It’s an interesting stylistic choice by Rare, but I don’t think it quite worked for me. Of course, it’s a very minor point far outweighed by the fact that Slippy did not sound anywhere near as annoying as he did in Star Fox 64. ( “Help me Fox!” Yeah, I’ll help you alright...help you to hell! Medals be damned! Ahem, sorry.)

And the last thing that stands out about Star Fox Adventures is the control. You can definitely tell that the game takes a cue from the N64 Zeldas. It works very well, though, and veterans of those games will have little trouble getting into Star Fox. The only minor complaint that I had about the controls during my time with the game was that the camera seemed to swing behind Fox a bit violently when pressing the L Button to center the camera. It’s another nitpicky thing that really didn’t affect gameplay, but it’s something that stuck with me none-the-less.

With great graphics, sound, and controls the game should have no trouble becoming a great AAA game, right? Well, from a little over 1 hour of gameplay in a game that promises to be truly epic, I just can’t say for sure. Although the 1st area is quite important and sets up a lot of the story, it really felt like a training level. This isn’t a bad thing, as I’m a proponent of giving players time to become acclimated to a game; it just means that I didn’t get a chance to get into the real meat and potatoes of the game. A good part of the 2nd area was devoted to training the player in using Fox, too, so there wasn’t much meaty there either. Also, the Arwing levels that I played were fun, but felt a bit extraneous. Anyone who’s played any of the previous Star Fox shooting games should have no trouble with these levels.

Still, Star Fox Adventures really does seem like it’ll be a game worthy of the term epic in terms of both story and gameplay. Your dinosaur companion, Prince Tricky, promises to allow for some cool gameplay elements (he played an important role in a boss battle during a morning demo). I’m sure there’ll be some who find him annoying and cutesy, but the little bugger seemed cool to me. Also, Fox’s borrowed Magical Staff acts as a handy tool to help in solving puzzles in addition to being his weapon of choice. Add to that a plethora of items and power-ups to be found in the game, and there’s should be plenty of solid gameplay to go around.

In the end though, after 60+ minutes of test driving the game, I felt like I barely got out of the garage. I can tell that there’s a lot to the game and the production values are incredible. There were plenty of places to go with plenty of things to do, I just got a little antsy and needed to move on to some of the other games. This doesn’t mean that I’m going to cancel my pre-order, though. Quite the contrary, actually. I know that I’ve barely scraped the surface of the game and am eager to dig further from the comfy confines of my home. Star Fox Adventures is definitely a big game with a lot of promise. It just may take awhile to get into the game, and I hope that the game’s size and scope won’t scare off too many gamers from what should be the first truly great adventure game on the GameCube.

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Genre Adventure
Developer Rare
Players1

Worldwide Releases

na: Star Fox Adventures
Release Sep 22, 2002
PublisherNintendo
RatingTeen
jpn: Star Fox Adventures: Dinosaur Planet
Release Sep 27, 2002
PublisherNintendo

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