Many of you may remember Star Fox, the old Super Nintendo classic in which a spaceship pilot Fox McCloud must defeat the evil bad guy. Well, Star Fox Adventures for the Nintendo GameCube takes this familiar character and gives it a new spin. While there is still some flying aboard the trusty ship Airwing, the majority of the game puts you in the place of Fox McCloud himself, as he runs his bushy tail all across Dinosaur Planet.This fourth title in the Star Fox series, which dates all the way back to the Atari 2600 (ask your parents, you younger kids), is a large departure from the classic titles. Fox and his crew are assigned a mission to investigate Dinosaur Planet and when they do, they discover that it is literally breaking apart! Fox and his crew must do what they can to make sure the planet remains in one piece before it is too late.
For the majority of the game, you control Fox McCloud. Movement is very straightforward and is achieved by using the analogue stick. The top R button will center the camera behind Fox, but there is no controllable camera as such. The Z button, however, will allow you to enter a first-person mode to examine your surroundings in greater detail when called for. Inventory and ability management is cleverly handled using the C-stick. This system is split into three menus, and moving the C-stick allows you to scroll between the three and up and down amongst the items and abilities you currently have available.
Fox's weapon that he must use to defeat the Sharpclaw, the minions of the evil General Scales, is a magical staff. This staff once belonged to a mysterious girl named Krystal, who Fox soon realizes is held captive, and enamored as he is, he decides in addition to saving the planet, he also must save her.
Thankfully, Fox is not alone on his quest. He is joined by a young dinosaur prince named Tricky. During the adventure, Tricky will be your trusty sidekick and while his cries of "Let's Play" may become annoying at times, he more than makes up for it with his usefulness at solving puzzles. While this game is an action role-playing game, there is a great deal of puzzles to be solved to progress the quest. Although there are a large number of these, they are all well-presented, and the objective is usually very clear. However, Fox also has his crew to help him. One of the crew members provides hints for the current objective, another presents a map of the planet and instructions on what area to proceed to next, and the final crew member gives Fox a look at his current status.
Although this game has been available for more than 18 months and is now one of Nintendo's Player's Choice titles, the graphics are still superb and really show off what the GameCube is capable of. Shaders are used to detail Fox's hair and tail, and the effect is really amazing. The camera moves in and out of focus when changing the perspective and action of the scene, giving it a very cinematic quality. All models are rendered very well, and the animation is seamlessly done, giving a very lifelike look and feel to these fantastic characters. This game also supports progressive scan and widescreen for those lucky enough to possess these capabilities.
Sound is presented in full Dolby Pro Logic II and offers a wonderful soundtrack. Most of the dialogue presented is done so using great acting talents and helps the story to flow along. Each area of the world contains its own musical theme and each is quite distinctive, further setting the mood of these many different and varied locales.
There is no multiplayer in Star Fox Adventures. There are, however, three separate save slots available for multiple games to be played concurrently.
Star Fox Adventures offers a solid story and backs it up with solid gameplay to make one of the more engrossing and enjoyable titles available for the Nintendo GameCube. As part of the Nintendo Player's Choice line of titles, this game can be found at a budget price, and I would not hesitate in highly recommending it for players of all ages.
I've been playing games ever since I was a wee lad. My favorite games as a child were the classic Pitfall and a game called SNAFU, which was a sort of puzzle game along the lines of Tron Light Cycles. I've had most of the major console systems since the early days and have a wide range of tastes of games and I'm always eager to give a new one a try.
