Star Fox Assault-quick impressions

[YoshiM]

I'm sure many of you know that Blockbuster is renting this game two weeks before its intended launch date. I happened to swing by and find that the news was true and snapped up a copy. After a little bit of play I figure I'd share my initial impressions.

The presentation was pretty decent. It looks like the movies are using the game engine so that's a plus. Everything is clean and crisp. Nothing that will knock your socks off this far in this generation but it Assault isn't ugly by any stretch. Voice acting sounds decent. Nothing overly hammed up thus far. The dialog between Starfox members kinda reminds me of old anime shows like Battle of the Planets, almost to the point where you could almost transpose G-Force into the Arwings of Starfox. Maybe that's just me.

Anyway the first cinema brings us to a confrontation between Cornierian forces and an ex-Andross fleet. The combat shown is very reminisent of space combat from Robotech (arcing missles, laser barrages, etc.). When the Cornerian fleet, thinking they have the Andross forces on the ropes, get surprised by a special attack Starfox team comes in to save the day. This is where the game starts.

Basically, it's a graphical update of Starfox 64. Play is practically the same: hold a button to slow down, press a button to boost, click a trigger for a barrel roll, hold the fire button down for a "lock on", etc. However to me it seems as though the flying part has slown down some. I didn't get that sense of speed that SF64 gave me. I'll have to pull the cart out and give it a play to see if it's not awkward hindsight. There also seems to be a camera issue that I check to see if it's adjustable. The Arwing seemed to be way too close to the screen so that if I slowed down half the ship went off screen. Plus at that perspective it looked as though I was getting some cheap hits done on me (rocks banging into me, large power blasts I thought missed hit me, etc.). I'll hold off on my "cheap hits" verdict until I check that out.

To me this early in the games feels, well, uninspired. Beyond the graphical update and possibly different locales it's the same game. I must be spoiled on a full flyable world (like Crimson Skies) but the combination of lack of speed and rails feels awfully restrictive. But like many games these days you can't really judge the title by its first level so I'm going to forge ahead and play more this weekend.

[NintendoMan]

Hey, thank you for this post. I am too awaiting StarFox and went to Blockbuster yesterday for the first time in about 3 years, but it was all rented out.
Can't wait to see how this one plays out. Even if it is, I do hope it's more though, the graphical update to the N64 one, that fine with me!

[ubersaurus]

I heard there's only 3 "on rails" levels in the game. Only 5 are dedicated arwing stages, and the rest are ground based (although I think you can still board an arwing manually on those ones).

I've heard that outside of the Landmaster, the game is pretty sweet. Not the same as SF64, but still good.

[YoshiM]

I heard there's only 3 "on rails" levels in the game. Only 5 are dedicated arwing stages, and the rest are ground based (although I think you can still board an arwing manually on those ones).

I've heard that outside of the Landmaster, the game is pretty sweet. Not the same as SF64, but still good.

That's why I'm withholding any final judgement. I've got the game until Wednesday so I'm sure I can fit in some time with it. I will say it does have its difficult spots on the "silver" mode (there are three difficulties: bronze, silver and gold). A few of my deaths, however, seemed cheap due to that slow speed of the Arwing. This was most noticable with the first boss: the attack is dodgable but you have to move just before the attack is made and not during. You can't turn or barrel-roll out of the way fast enough and believe me I tried.

I'll post more once I have a couple more levels under my belt and after I played some SF64.

[Crush Crawfish]

I haven't heard anything too great about this one...IGN gave it a 7.0. But, I don't really care...I loved SF64, and this one looks great too! I'm probably gonna buy it the day it comes out, along with Wario Ware touched.

[ubersaurus]

I haven't heard anything too great about this one...IGN gave it a 7.0. But, I don't really care...I loved SF64, and this one looks great too! I'm probably gonna buy it the day it comes out, along with Wario Ware touched.

I've been keepin an eye on the gamefaqs boards and review page, and it just seems like one of those games you either enjoy alot or just plain don't like. From what I hear though, the on foot stages are like Jet Force Gemini (read: Good), and the all range stages and rail stages are pretty much standard star fox. Only complaint I've heard over and over is that the landmaster is too slow and weak to be of much use in the levels it's in, and the fact that it's not any of the rail stages hurts it.

I'm looking forward to playing it, and unlocking some of the cool stuff in it. Star Luster, Battle City, and Xevious are all in there I hear, along with a ton of multiplayer unlockables. I personally can't wait to take the Star Wolf team's fighter out for a spin :-P

[Kid Ice]

I think Nintendo dropped the ball on this franchise. The first game was ahead of its time. Starfox 64 was just OK. IMO the cool factor really dropped off with the 2nd game...it's just really cartoony and silly, and way too easy compared to the 1st game. I've never played Star Fox Adventures...my impression is that it's Star Fox on foot, like Zelda or something. Give me a break. I think Nintendo, somehow, got the impression that the popularity of the first game was due to the characters, not the gameplay, graphics, and especially the sounds and music. Wrong idea.

[PDorr3]

wait this game actualy sticks to the oldschool roots and has you actualy flying instead of the dumb on foot action in adventures?

[ubersaurus]

wait this game actualy sticks to the oldschool roots and has you actualy flying instead of the dumb on foot action in adventures?

It's a shooter, with a mix of flying stages, and ground based stages, where you run on foot, drive a tank, or, well, fly an arwing. Some are classic star fox on-rail stages, others are all range like in SF64.

[hezeuschrist]

Holy crap, blockbuster is renting it out early? I work there and I didn't even know.

[Predatorxs]

Also this is one of the new guys in the game i found this pic a few weeks back.. Not sure what he does in the game but at the top you can see he ( Wolf O'Donnell ) is leader of the STARWOLF team, and fox mcloud is the leader of the STARFOX team? Friend or Foe? I don't know LOL or maybe just another team you can choose from?

http://www.xs.dsl.pipex.com/avator/wolf.jpg http://www.xs.dsl.pipex.com/avator/fox.jpg

http://www.xs.dsl.pipex.com/avator/ms_ufo.gif..XS

[PDorr3]

well its good to hear they are starting to include some of the flying from the previous games. Now all we need is an all out remake of starfox 64.

[spoon]

Holy crap, blockbuster is renting it out early? I work there and I didn't even know.

Dork! LOL

Star Fox Adventures was bad. Although, it has it's reasons. It started out as Dino Planet. Nintendo decided to change it to a Star Fox game instead. Star Fox is about shooting things and sweet ass gameplay. Not running around collecting stuff.

[Predatorxs]

Holy crap, blockbuster is renting it out early? I work there and I didn't even know.

Dork! LOL

Star Fox Adventures was bad. Although, it has it's reasons. It started out as Dino Planet. Nintendo decided to change it to a Star Fox game instead. Star Fox is about shooting things and sweet ass gameplay. Not running around collecting stuff.

Hey StarFox Adventures wasn't bad!!, just out of interest spoon have you played the game right thru? :/

http://www.xs.dsl.pipex.com/avator/ms_ufo.gif..XS

[ubersaurus]

Star Wolf was in Star Fox 64, and the SNES proto of Star Fox 2...basically he's the leader of another team of mercs that get hired by the bad guys to eliminate Star Fox. A nemesis, pretty much. The fight with his squad on Venom 2 in star fox 64 was one of my favorite moments in that game.

[hezeuschrist]

Haha, thanks for the heads up, I got myself a registration code at work tonight ;)

[Predatorxs]

Star Wolf was in Star Fox 64, and the SNES proto of Star Fox 2...basically he's the leader of another team of mercs that get hired by the bad guys to eliminate Star Fox. A nemesis, pretty much. The fight with his squad on Venom 2 in star fox 64 was one of my favorite moments in that game.

Ahhhh i see, i'v only messed around with SF2 and i'v never played Starfox 64.. :embarrassed: Thats why i didn't know wolf, well ya learn somthing new everyday! ;)

http://www.xs.dsl.pipex.com/avator/ms_ufo.gif..XS

[GobopopRevisited]

As Much as I hated StarFox Adventures, it was one hell of a beautiful game. Assault doesn't even come close to the visual detail Rare gave us with Adventures. I think StarFox Just needs to die off for a while, maybe StarFox 64 DS but after that, the last Nintendo franchise to appear on "Revolution". Nintendo needs to stop screwing up winning formulas and leave truly original ideas to original IPs (well... except Jungle Beat :-P ). Now... how about some Pilotwings!!

[Predatorxs]

As Much as I hated StarFox Adventures, it was one hell of a beautiful game. Assault doesn't even come close to the visual detail Rare gave us with Adventures. I think StarFox Just needs to die off for a while, maybe StarFox 64 DS but after that, the last Nintendo franchise to appear on "Revolution". Nintendo needs to stop screwing up winning formulas and leave truly original ideas to original IPs (well... except Jungle Beat :-P ). Now... how about some Pilotwings!!

But once you get into Adventures, it's a sweet game, i think alot of people never game it the chance! shame really.. and the graphics are beautiful! Great game me thinks! ;)

http://www.xs.dsl.pipex.com/avator/ms_ufo.gif..XS

[spoon]

Holy crap, blockbuster is renting it out early? I work there and I didn't even know.

Dork! LOL

Star Fox Adventures was bad. Although, it has it's reasons. It started out as Dino Planet. Nintendo decided to change it to a Star Fox game instead. Star Fox is about shooting things and sweet ass gameplay. Not running around collecting stuff.

Hey StarFox Adventures wasn't bad!!, just out of interest spoon have you played the game right thru? :/

http://www.xs.dsl.pipex.com/avator/ms_ufo.gif..XS

Sure have. Should have stayed Dino Planet IMHO. Would have been a better game. It is just not a good Star Fox game.

[YoshiM]

Alrighty, now with more StarFox Assault under my belt I can add to what I started with this thread.

The best way to sum this game up is Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike (the combination of air and land missions) combined with a dash of Blaster Master Blasts Again (vehicle use reminded me of this game) set in the Star Fox universe that has all the benefits of character and branding along with all the deficiencies of Star Fox 64.

Like I said before, the on rails flight plays almost exactly like SF64. I mentioned that the Arwing felt slow but really it was more with the pacing. My problem with the ship pretty much revolved around the controller. The N64 stick is way more precise that the Cube stick so the ship was more responsive. On the cube you can use the L trigger to bank which gives that needed response. Still not as good as SF64 but after using the trigger the rail combat became more enjoyable. The speed, however, still feels slow but I think that’s more due to the pacing and the lack of control of the ship’s overall speed (more on this later). I couldn’t find any camera adjustment so the Arwing is usually in your face which is a bit uncomfortable and can throw off the perspective when it comes to oncoming fire. However it seems most of the game does not revolve around this.

Like Ubersaurus mentioned, ground based combat does play a lot like Jet Force Gemini. Personally in this day and age of dual stick movement (one to move forward, back and to the sides while you use the other to turn and a look about) is the way to go in these on-foot situations and thankfully you can switch from the default to a dual stick mode. Again, the Cube controller really doesn’t do it for me. The C stick doesn’t have the same response as the main thumb stick and in the heat of battle your viewpoint can whip wildly about. There doesn’t seem to be a sensitivity adjustment (at least not in the control setup) to fix this either.

To Namco’s credit they did improve over what Factor 5 served up in 2003 with Rebel Strike in regards to ground combat.. Which ever control mode you choose you can run about and be fairly accurate (as opposed to the “fire and forget” willy nilly target lock that Rebel Strike seemed to use). I used the “default” control which allowed me to utilize the jump button more effectively. The camera also can’t seem to be adjusted and you will get cheaply nailed from behind as the enemy seems to be very accurate (even when zig-zagging and running at full speed). One thing that bugged me was taking damage: when Fox gets shot he’s stunned and can’t return fire for a moment (which sucks if you get surrounded). However bad guys hardly miss a beat if you nail ‘em in the face with blaster fire-they recover a LOT faster than you. You can roll to avoid shots but you can’t fire while rolling which I think is rather dumb. In contrast you can roll the Landmaster while launching shells-o-death at bad guys with no problem. Plus there is a slight delay when you get back up from the roll, allowing bad guys to lock in on you and blast you before you can fight back.

Overall the ground combat is fairly fun. The Landmaster is a blast to use. Finding targets can be a pain as the radar doesn’t indicate if the targets are above or below you but it’s usually a matter of time combined with a sharp eye. However the Arwing is a disappointment in these levels. Like the SF64, you cannot make your ship manually loop. Once you get so high your ship stops, if you are flying above the ground or even in space. You’d think after seeing games like the Rogue Squadron series (even back on the N64!) and Crimson Skies Namco would change up the flight model in Assault to allow you to truly dogfight without flight limitations. Instead, you target can gradually climb and loop out of the way while you have to hit the C stick down (I believe) to loop and corkscrew to rapidly change directions. More often than not your target is now out of view (and sometimes out of range) and you have to play “catch up”. Shame, Namco, shame. They also seemed to have lessened the effect of the bombs, but I could be wrong on this. They don’t have the glorious almost nuclear explosive effect as they did in SF64.

In later missions you’ll have to sometimes hop into the ‘wing to save your fellow pilots as they seemed to have dropped brain cells since last game. They don’t do a whole lot. Now this is understandable in rail missions but in the others they should at least be able to keep themselves from getting shot down. Also the enemy draw distance doesn’t seem to go all that far. You can see terrain but enemies will kinda “fog in” when you get close enough. After how many years in development and on advanced hardware you’d think you wouldn’t see fogging like this. Again, shame Namco.

Now with all the blemishes I gave the game is it fun? To be honest if you took the Star Fox characters out I wouldn’t give a rat’s patoot about the game. But because they are in there it holds my interest and that familiarity does make the game more interesting and thus more fun. There’s a nostalgic history with Fox and the gang so I want to see how the story plays out, so I keep playing. On Silver level the game isn’t overly difficult. If you die you start the level over but you typically know what you did wrong so you can easily correct your approach the next time. It can probably be beaten over a weekend. I haven’t tried the multiplayer modes so your mileage may stretch with that. I would strongly recommend renting it first even if you are a die hard Star Fox fan. Other than the franchise there really isn’t anything outstanding in this game to make it stand out.

[cr0n0]

I agree with everything said before on this post, but I wanted to add a few things. Now please keep in mind that this is coming from someone who places StarFox 64 as the best shooter of ALL TIME! (my opinion)

I am VERY dissapointed that there are no branching levels (at least I haven't found any) to help the replay value. You just go from one level to the next whether you like it or not. The ground levels are very big and sometimes it is hard to pin point the targets you need to attack, even with the radar helping you. The blaster the game gives you is way slow (don't even get me started on the Landmaster's cooling rate) so it's good you get extra guns, but pray when the bullets run out. The blaster plain sucks. I won't get started on the third person controls for fox, because that would take about two more prargraphs, but two words should sum it up...NEEDS POLISHING!

The Arwing levels are beautiful to look at. The frame rate flows at a steady rate and the whole thing has a polished look. I am somewhat sad to see the arwing design change somewhat from the model used in Starfox Adventures. I know it is by a different company, but I was hoping... :/ But in the end, the arwing looks fits in with the rest of the game.

So far I find the game interesting, but nothing that blows my mind the way SF64 did so many years back. I would probably buy it, but I am in hurry to... if you catch my drift. :)


NINTENDO...if you are reading this...REMAKE SF64!!!!!!!! Or stick closer to the formula of the classic the next time!!!!!!

[Jive3D]

This is funny to read, especially since I just picked up StarFox 64 LAST WEEK (6 bucks!)

[retroman]

not a huge fan...but i have the other foxes so...when the price drops,i will then pic it up.

[cr0n0]

Starfox 64 for only 6 bucks!! AWESOME! You will love it!

my favorite quote from the game...

"I CAN'T BELIEVE I LOST TO THIS SCUM!" :angry:

[ubersaurus]

Well i've got my copy of assault now, and here's my thoughts.

On rail stages-totally cool. I like em.

All range stages-if you liked the ones in 64, these are pretty much a more expansive type. Personally they were my favorite parts of the game, so I'm perfectly fine with them here.

Like I've heard elsewhere, on foot parts are like Jet Force Gemini...I don't know what the fuss was about them. They're fun. Even the landmaster is pretty cool, outside of it's awful rate of fire.

I haven't tried multiplayer yet, waiting til I can get some friends together to try it.

God the stages are long though. I think the shortest time I had beating levels was like, 13 minutes.

The writing is pretty weak, but at least the new voice actors are trying to make do with it.