Customer Reviews

Star Fox Adventures

5 star:		(153)
4 star:		(78)
3 star:		(24)
2 star:		(27)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

"Star Fox Adventures" is the newest game of the Nintendo Star Fox series, the other games being Star Fox for the Super Nintendo and Star Fox 64 for the Nintendo-64. The series was also shown in both "Super Smash Brothers" games.

The Hero of the story is Fox McCloud, leader of the mercenary Space Fighter Squadron, Star Fox. This consists of five people: Fox, the leader, Slippy, the frog mechanic, Falco, a Punk Falcon, and Peppy, a hare who knew Fox's father.

In both of the original games, the player, as Fox, was hired by General Pepper of the planet of Corneria to take down the mad scientist Andross, who was responsible for the death of Fox's father, James McCloud. Along the way, you are fought by Andross's ships, planet-based hazards, and a rival Mercenary band hired by Andross: Star Wolf.

This game takes place eight years after the second game. The team has not had a job in a while, they are low on money, Peppy and Slippy have taken up non-flying positions in the team, and Falco has left without a trace. So when General Pepper calls, saying he has a job for them, they gladly take it. Their mission: Save Dinosaur Planet!

Meanwhile, in a converging plot, a blue girl-fox named Krystal, while searching throughout space for her parents, hears a distress call from Dinosaur Planet. She goes to it, and discovers that the Evil General Scales and his minions, the SharpClaws, have chased the Kranoa away from their shrine. The Kranoa are powerful spirits that in the right hands bring peace, but in the wrong can bring terrible destruction. So, of course, Krystal goes and looks for the Kranoa. Unfortunately, she is accidentally pushed into a magic beam and gets sealed inside a (surprise!) giant crystal!

Back in Fox-Land, Fox meets the Queen, who is looking for her son, the Triceratops Prince Tricky. After you find him, he becomes your companion, able to do useful skills like breathing flame and finding secrets hidden in the earth. You take him back to his mother, who tells you that Dinosaur Planet has a powerful magic field that is constantly pulling it apart. To counter this, four "spellstones" were created, but General Scales scattered them and the planet is being ripped apart.

So, you must fly in your Arwing fighter craft to the different chunks (four in all, with one per spellstone) and recover them. Flying to the different chunks brings back memories of the other Star Fox games. You must fly through Gold Rings, you collect laser powerups, you blast enemy ships, and you get to the area. Unfortunately, you can't warp back to places you already visited, so you must keep doing flying scenes. To counter the boredom of this, there is a "Best Times" scoreboard, keeping track of fastest trips to different areas.

The gameplay in this is very much like the Legend of Zelda games. You attack with the A button, you collect money, you buy stuff, you get magic powers. Fox finds a Magic Staff, which is his main weapon and can be enchanted to shoot fire, rocket upwards, etc. Most of the game is spent this way, with the occasional puzzle thrown in, like mazes, some "Shoot this spot" puzzles, and so on. One of the most annoying puzzle/action sequences involves a ramp, a barrel that you must bring to the top of the ramp, and other explosive barrels flying down the ramp towards you. Donkey Kong, anyone? But the ground-based gameplay, despite some minor annoyances, is still very good. This, combined with the Flying sequences, combines two great games of the N64 and brings them even further.

The Graphics in this game are great, from the skin of the dinosaurs, to the fur on Fox, to the warts on Slippy. The staff that Fox finds glows and burns with a bluish light, and the effects of that are done very well. The Great Fox (Star Fox's Mother Ship) and the Arwings (Star Fox's Fighter Jets), which were white and polished in the original games, are now gray, dark, and dirty, showing the state of poorness Team Star Fox has fallen into. The cutscenes have the same quality as the in-game graphics, but you don't notice because the in-game graphics are very good anyway. When an enemy dies, they don't stay on the ground, or lie for a little while. They fall backwards and at the same time disintegrate (or something like it) into a bright, white light. The overall effect of it is amazing, and it looks cool without having bodies everywhere.

The sound of the game is also done incredibly well. The voices are better than the last game. Slippy, who in Starfox 64 sounded like a girl (high, whiny annoying voice), now sounds recognizable as a boy (though he still does have a high, whiny annoying voice-just one recognizable as a boy). The dinosaurs' growls and roars sound incredibly real. The warpstone, a giant stone creature that sends Fox to different areas, has a rich Scottish accent. Why, I don't know, but it's kind of funny anyway. The music is very beautiful, with far-off dinosaur cries punctuating the haunting music. The lava music, as one might expect, is very rocky and hot sounding: Rumbles, sounds of fire being blasted upwards, and low drum beats. It makes a very real experience, and if you play this game without sound, you are missing a lot.

Overall, this game was incredibly good. I could not find any major errors with it, so I will rate it a 10 of 10. The sound, graphics and gameplay combined beautifully, with no errors, problems or bugs. I congratulate the team who made it.

...The Story:
Fox Mcloud had beat Andross in the past adventure for the N64. This time he goes to an nknown planet filled with dinosaurs, and has to save a female fox named Krystal. He has to defeat huge bosses and the Dinosquads. With the help of Slippy Toad, Peppy Hare, and Rob the Robot, Fox will have to travel trough all the planet and save the day...The game has just a bit of the use of the Arwing. It's only use is to travel from place to place within the planet. So basically, the game is an adventure game.
You will also have a magic wand or stick to battle your enemies with huge combos and special powers.
I also know this game is an RPG (Role Playing Game), which means you will have to think. In a RPG, almost everything is interactable, which means you can talk with almost any character, and touch many things. So if the game is an adventure and also an RPG, this makes it an Adventure-RPG, just as Zelda (well actually Zelda is similiar, because Zelda is an Action-RPG).
The planet is huge, which makes you explore alot, and has lots of bosses in it.

What makes this game a must buy?:
The answer is quite simple: It uses the best techniques from an RPG, the best techniques from an adventure game, a great and world wide known cast of characters, has unbelieveable graphics and fighting tactics, has a great story-line, and the game is just a MASTERPIECE...Just remember the quality of games Rare makes, and you'll be happy to buy this title...

Star Fox Adventures is the choice of a true GCN owner. You can't beat the graphics, it's so vividly detailed! Everything in the game is so realistic like the shimmering waters, the beautiful landscapes, the plants, and even the fur on Fox (which is using fur rendering technology)! The music is by far the best I've heard in any GCN game. The voice acting was very well done, and also the sound effects. You'll just simply be amazed with everything about this game. Though, I see a few people here already putting it down when they haven't even played it at all. As they say, you should never judge a book by its cover. Who knows, you might start liking it sometime. :)

Overall I can safely guarantee you 100% that Star Fox Adventures will be one of the best gaming experience yet, and therefore highly advise you to order. For those who think otherwise, you might want to get your head checked. Order it, order it NOW!

There's a definite anthro feel to this game, with the super-cool Fox and the sexy Krystal character whom you play in the beginning (and later, but no spoilers there ...)

You start out playing as the uber-hot Princess Krystal who has landed on Dinosaur Planet to answer a distress call. From there, you arrive at a mysterious palace with little idea of what to do or what's going on. Talking to the triceratops around gives you a generalized idea. By the time you're out of the intro, the story has explained itself a bit more and General Pepper has contacted Fox McCloud once again ...

This game is a Zelda-influenced platformer, but it is NOT a clone. I have to admit that I am a longtime fan of the Zelda series, but I have never before played any of the Star Fox games. Perhaps that's why I can appreciate it for what it is: a platformer with RPG and adventure elements which is puzzle-driven that manages to mix in a little bit of shooter, racing, and piloting as well. It's a lot of fun, and a little challenging without a walkthrough. There was one part of the game where you're racing two other baddies on a snow sled that took me ages to defeat - maybe I just stink at racing. Otherwise, I had a good time playing it, and the game progressed very smoothly.

The solutions to the puzzles are often intuitive after some thought is given: or, you may remember an area that you overlooked or missed, and decide to give it another look only to find the answer there.

Another thing to consider is that this game has great graphics and atmosphere.

If you like Zelda, and if you're willing to play a Star Fox game that is low on the piloting elements but high on adventure, get this game! You won't regret it. I bought it used for 10.00 at EB Games, and haven't put it down since. To me, it's even more fun than WindWaker. That's saying something for a so-called "clone" of Zelda ...

This is one of the BEST Gamecube games ever! Almost anyone will ADORE this game. For those who are fans of the old space shooter style won't be dissapointed. there is still parts in the game that takes the skill of piloting the arwing to get to parts of the world. If you are a fan of the zelda series and aren't sure about the sci-fi style of star fox, don't worry. When you're not blasting away squadrens of space fighters, you're hoofing it as fox. It's almost exactly like playing link in the zelda series. You get this really cool staff that can eventully shoot fire, and ice, create giant earthquakes, shoot you right into the air, and kick some major dino but. As for the other pilots of star fox team, peppy supplies world maps, slippy gives tips on what to do next, and General pepper (who isn't really one of the pilots) shows mission status. For you people who don't know who the heck I'm talking about, try it and you'll learn *snap* just like that. The main storyline is there is this planet on the far reaches of the Lylat System that is starting to fall apart, and eventully blow up! so General Pepper hires the elite piloting team, (Drum roll please) Star Fox. They're mission: stop the planet from blowing up and send huge chunks of it at the inhabited planets. A few hours prior to that, a blue fox girl named Kristal (pictured on the cover) is flying on a Pteridactal A.K.A. a member of the cloudrunner tribe. Then a huge ship comes at them from behind and starts shooting at them. They start shooting fireballs back at them. for a while you play Kristal against alot of enemies WITH NO ATTACK TO FIGHT BACK WITH. You can just skip them all. After a couple puzzeles solved, you'll get captured. That's when you will take control of Fox. You do some space shooting to get to dinosaur planet, when you land Fox will complain to general Pepper about not being able to bring a blaster gun so you're first order of buisness is to get a weapon. That's when you get Kristal's staff and can move on.

When you swing you're staff when there isn't an enemy around, it will be SSSSSLLLLOOOOWWWWW to recover from the swng. But when there IS an enemy, well, read the title. MAN my hand's getting tired so that's it. PU-LEEEAAASEEE say this was helpful to you!!!!!

I must admit that I bought the GameCube under the impression that the Rare games would be coming out in huge numbers for this system. I, perhaps ignorantly, assumed that the reason for the delays in the N64 days was due to the system's cartridge format, and difficult development field. Apparently Nintendo didn't see things that way, as they passed on the opportunity to buy Rare outright, and make them an internal development house, since then Microsoft has purchased Rare, LTD, and all of its licenses. Aside from Nintendo owned properties like Star Fox and Donkey Kong, Microsoft now has control over everything that made Rare LTD so great, from Conker to Perfect Dark Microsoft owns it all. It is with a great swell of sadness that I write this review, as it will be the last Rare game released on a Nintendo console. I own an Xbox, but Nintendo was a part of the magic of Rare, and vice-versa. It won't be the same, ever again. To be honest though, I firmly believe that Rare is loosing more loosing Nintendo, than Nintendo is in loosing Rare, but still, for Rare's final offering this is the icing on the cake of what has been a great software line up on what I still believe is the greatest console to date.
I am one of those gamers who don't care if the game "rips off" another game as long as the story is original, and the game is fun. Star Fox Adventures began as a game called Dinosaur Planet for the N64. Apparently Nintendo was working on a similar game in house and decided that it would be best to combine efforts and so Star Fox Adventures was born.
Rare has never been about innovation as much as perfecting already established engines, that's why they worked so well with Nintendo. Nintendo would develop an engine (In this case the Zelda Engine) and Rare would perfect it. Although the game engine is not perfected, as Zelda was executed better, this game is a joy and a wonder to behold. While some may criticize its engine as being unoriginal, or even less efficient than the Zelda original it works brilliantly, making this game just plane fun to play. Every aspect of this game is enjoyable, from the exploration, to the cheat tokens; even Tricky (Fox's side kick) is enjoyable. The game is nearly (note nearly) flawless.
Graphically Star Fox is above and beyond what other games of this genre have tried. Microsoft boasted that its version of Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex would sport fur. To be honest the fur didn't look very good, in Star Fox; however, the fur is not only there, but looks very real and very convincing. Individual strands of fur seem to blow individually in the wind, and react on their own, independent of each other, which is a huge technical feat. The graphics are arguably better than Resident Evil. The only feature I would have liked to see is the effects of water on the fur, as this was the only thing lacking. With as good as this game looks it makes me feel very ripped off by Eurocom's port of Crash Bandicoot, and its lack of fur. The GCN proves once again that it is more than capable of handling the same sort of high graphics being pulled off on XBox. If only third party developers would realize that!
The story is enjoyable, and complex. It has a Disney quality feel to it, with that Rare and Nintendo magic thrown into the mix. I don't know why the game has a "T" rating, as the back of the package has a "mild animated blood and violence" label, but there is not a drop of blood anywhere in the game. Parents wondering if its safe to get this game for their kids can be assured that the game is perfectly child friendly, however, young children likely won't appreciate or enjoy this game as much as someone in their teens, or older.
Rare has gone the extra length to make sure that you don't need a guidebook for this game. This is greatly appreciated as not having to buy guidebooks means I have more money to buy the games themselves. There are moments that will have you stumped, but like Eternal Darkness before it, there is a solution in sight, and not something that is so over the top and nonsensical that you need a guidebook to explain how to do it. You can get through this game on your own. Even the secrets are pretty easy to find once you figure out what you're looking for.
The only area that this game takes a hit with me is the music. While many of the tunes are enjoyable I do feel strongly that the age of MIDI music in games is obsolete, but it's forgivable. I just wish that the game would have had orchestrated tunes.
All in all there's about 20-25 hours worth of an epic game here, and while it feels more like a Zelda Game than a traditional Star Fox game its well worth the price of admission. At least Rare is leaving Nintendo with a bang, and for that I thank them. I only wish that Microsoft would stop buying everything in site.

Ever since Starfox was originally released on the SNES, It has redefined the space-shooter genre. This time, it's coming full force, and on Nintendo's newest console, The Gamecube. This game is packed with action. During the majority of the game, Fox McCloud travels a planet as detailed and vivid as Shigeru Myamoto's imagination. Inhabited with many dinosaurs and a fox princess, the planets hold many secrets. As the game progresses, Fox gets to explore more and more and even gets to visit several surrounding chunks of the planet too. Fox's objective in this game is to stop the evil dinosaur ruler General Scales (Who, by the way, is more sinister than bowser) from blowing up the planet. Armed with nothing but a battle staff, and assisted by Princess Krystal, The Earth-walker Prince Tricky, Slippy, and Peppy,(Some fans may be dissapointed in the fact that Falco will probably not appear in this game) Fox McCloud has definately got his work cut out for him. This game is for true gamers. An RPG like this doesn't come around very often, so buy it fast and explore a new world through the eyes of a space-traveling Fox.

This is one of the best games that i have ever played. If you like the zelda games, then you will like this one. It follows with the same game play, and adds lots of new things. It is not only a third person style game, you can also get in your Arwing (fox's space ship).

Really good!------Go get it NOW!

I've been a Star Fox fan from the first, So of course I was very interested in this game, although I had some reservations when I read about all the changes they had made to the story.
I'm sure not many people are actually concerned about the Star Fox characters themselves, and are only concerned about individual games, but this game was a huge departure from the norm of the series. Fox himself was changed from a charitable do-gooder to a money hungry mercenary. Since the story was set in the future a bit, it made sense to age Peppy a bit, and drop Slippy to a mechanics role, but they completely wrote out Falco because they simply had nowhere to put him. The last minute writing of the story is very apparent, especially during the ending movie of the game.
From what i've read, the original premise of the story was to have Krystal and Sabre be the two main characters. Krystal had her staff, and fought much like Fox does in this game, and Sabre had his own repertoire of fighting moves. The story was much different and there was a set up for a romance between the two. It sounded like a great game.
But then Rare was bought out, and Nintendo hastily bought the rights to the game by changing it into a Nintendo franchise, namely, Star Fox.
The story is so threadbare where the Star Fox team is included, you can almost feel the chills... and poor Krystal got yanked from the spotlight to being trapped in an... er... crystal... for the entire game. the acting on Fox was decent, and I actually enjoyed the character, but the rest of the acting was almost embarassing, especially when Krystal was using the dino-language. I shudder to think of it. Fox using MAGIC because they won't give him his blaster because "he's not there to blow the planet up"...?? what the heck???
As for the game itself, it's great. The first time. The animation is awesome and the fighting was very enjoyable for me because I love quarterstaves. The puzzles are pretty fun, and not too tough. The story was good, except where it was very obviously patched into a star fox game. The arwing missions are ridiculously easy and may as well have been left out of the game altogether. they're an obvious attempt to appease traditional star fox fans. Overall the game feels exactly like Zelda, except not nearly as epic.
The bad... The combat is basically just mashing the button. There is no skill involved. The puzzles, while easy, frequently stymied me. Not becuase the puzzle was hard... but because the panel i needed to press was hidden in some obscure location i would NEVER have looked in. So if you dont turn around and look t the ceiling behind you, you're stuck there forever unless you cheat. Some of the puzzles are yanked straight from Zelda too, like firing through a flame to activate a switch.
Tricky.... is the most annoying sidekick in the history of video games. I Do NOT want a dino-child following me around, shouting "Look at THIS!!! haha hahaha!!!" and begging for food all the time. not to mention the obligatory being KIDNAPPED and needing me to go save his useless butt... grr. The scene where you say goodbye to Tricky was so sappy I had to go rinse my mouth out afterwards, too... ugh.
Also annoying was the little scene that played EVERY TIME you pick up an item. I don't need to see this ridiculous expression on Foxs' face and the little fanfare EVERY TIME.. thank you.
And then the final battle. I will attempt to not ruin it for anyone, but if you've played ANY star fox game, this is an incredible let down. Can we say "unoriginal"? I knew you could. Not only that, but the controls on the Game Cube make it insanely difficult. Not difficult as in, needing skill... difficult as in "this controller broke my barrel roll AGAIN and I have to start over AGAIN now... AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!"... the way the L and R buttons work make barrel rolling difficult (the two click system means to barrel roll, you must push it down rapidly, but NOT all the way down or you simply roll to the side and stay there...) and barrel rolling is the ONLY way to win the final fight.
I enjoyed the game the first time though. And except for possibly playing the game through to show my neices the next time I visit them, I will not be playing it again... sadly. I suggest renting the game. You'll enjoy it once, and probably won't play it again either.
I have high hopes for Star Fox armada though... crossing fingers!

This gorgeous looking game proves to be a nice getaway from the traditional Star Fox space battle games. All though it takes pretty much all of it's playing content from the Zelda series, Star Fox Adventures is an enjoyable video game with beautiful graphics, great sound, an intriging plot and high replay value. It's quite a lengthy game, so it's worth every bit of your money.