When you think of Nintendo franchises, what kind do you think of? Of course, Mario and Zelda come to mind, but what about Starfox? It seems like today, a comeback or a new game doesn’t seem possible, but I still think there could be a new game in the series. I am going to talk about one of my favorite Gamecube games released during my lifetime known as Starfox Assault. How does this game stand up today? Let’s find out.
After the last game, Starfox Adventures, a lot has happened. For one, Falco left, but came back, and Krystal, the blue wolf girl from Starfox Adventures, is the new addition, taking Peppy’s position, who is now with Rob. The Starwolf team has also changed, with the pig character Pigma, and the monkey-like teammate Oikonny also left to be in charge of Andross’s old army. The team, though, does have a new team member named Panther Caroso. Back to the story though. This game takes place one year after the last game, and Oikonny has started to attack Cornerian army groups, and it is up to Starfox to take him down. Shortly after, though, they find an even bigger threat known as Aparoids, which is a viral machine-like race that plans on taking over and absorbing everything in the known universe. The Starfox team must stop them and save everyone.
The game play is at the same time the same, but also different from the old games. The game is split into two different styles. The first one is classic Starfox 64, where you control the Arwing and the Landmaster through half of the levels. The other half includes running around on foot, and doing a third person shooter kind of thing. Of course, the flying parts are simple, since all you do is shoot down enemies during a rail shooting-like level, or during the all-range mode style, like in Starfox 64. The on the ground run-and-gun segments are a new thing, where you control Fox and use different weapons. They are basic weapons that you would know what to expect, but they get the job done. The boss fights are huge and crazy. You won’t know what to expect for each boss fight in the game. It’s like you might fight a giant robot or maybe an infected being or something… it’s always different, which I like since it doesn’t get really redundant. The music is also classic Starfox. It isn’t anything mind-blowing, but it gets the job done. I also like the references from the last game, like you actually meet the Prince from the Dinosaur planet again in one mission. It’s interesting, to say the least, since I also enjoyed the last game.
With every game I review, I do have a lot of gripes to top off with the good parts, but there aren’t a lot of them. While the run-and-gun game play is interesting, the controls just aren’t there. I struggled getting through the second run-and-gun mission, due to the controls being awkward. I also think the game is way too short. I could beat this game in one sitting, which is one day. That doesn’t seem right, and seems stupid to market a game you could beat in a day. I wish there were more levels where you fly a plane instead of running on the ground. When I think of Starfox, I think of flying around, but this just isn’t it.
However though, this game is pretty solid. It might not be the sequel to Starfox 64 we might have wanted, but it’s a fun game, overall. I say pick this game up for a couple of bucks. I wouldn’t pay a lot for it. I am happy though, since there is talk about a new Starfox in the making, but nothing is known about it, so I’m pretty excited. If they could just bring stuff like Kid Icarus and Kirby back, then they should be able to bring Starfox back.
This game gets an 8 out of 10.
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