"If my dog could shoot aliens in a starship, we would be rich."

Star Fox Assault is quite a debated game. Many people say it's awesome. Many others say it's crap. And still others say it was okay, but Star Fox 64 was better. With so many opinions, it can be hard to make up your mind. So I'm going to try and shed as much light on this subject as possible. As always, I'll rate the game in seven categories: Plot, Graphics, Sound and Music, Gameplay, Aftermath Fun, Control Ease, and Game Length. Afterwards, I'll add up the scores, then discuss any flaws in the game. Then comes the conclusion, which includes if you should rent or buy it. (For the record, I never rent games, because if a game is honestly that good, who wants to give it back? It's a waste of money. ...But if you're the renting type, I might suggest you rent it, so check the conclusion.)

PLOT: 10/10. First of all, I'd just like to tell you that, if you haven't guessed already, the Lylat System (equal to our Solar System) in this game is inhabited with nothing but walking, talking animals, so don't be too surprised. If you're used to previous Star Fox titles, you might be expecting a half-developed plot with no real value to it at all. Star Fox Assault, however, surprises us with an amazing story. What starts off as a simple, ordinary seek-and-destroy mission turns into absolute war with a dangerous, mechanical-bug species known as the aparoids. The Star Fox team is sent to capture or kill Oikonny--you might know him as Andrew from Star Fox 64--who has started a rebellion against Corneria with the remaining troops of Andross's army (the villain in previous Star Fox games). After beating this boss, though, Fox encounters the aparoids and learns just how potentially deadly--and smart--they are. Seriously, they're smart enough to know to distract the Star Fox team by invading a planet and making the team waste time over there, then attack another important planet while Star Fox is busy. (I'm not allowed to reveal the full plot itself, so that's as far as it'll go.) Star Fox Assault has amazing plot twists and surprises to keep you musing.

GRAPHICS: 8/10. The graphics are pretty crisp and clear, and the game runs pretty smoothly and has no lag time; but then again, this is on the GameCube, so no game has lag time. Colors are bright, and whatever's metal looks metal indeed. The Arwings and Landmasters have been redesigned to look more real and less like a bunch of big, plastic toys. Explosions in this game, for there are many, are great, but that's to be expected. (This is Star Fox, you understand.) When your vehicle has been beaned a few times, the occasional electric pulse or puff of smoke will emanate from it. The hair on whatever furry characters there are in the game looks pretty cool. You can almost pick out every last individual hair. The annoying conversation windows from Star For 64 are gone. The characters' faces no longer face the camera (they're turned diagonally to the side), the "static" doesn't appear before and after someone speaks, and their mouths don't move at a hundred miles per hour. On occasion, though, characters inside aircraft will not move their mouths when they talk (both the conversation window faces and the real faces talk), and the mouths are little more than just little flaps opening and closing without actually moving the face. Still, this is an improvement from the often-annoying Star Fox 64.

SOUND AND MUSIC: 9/10. Before we begin on this category, let me explain to you that the voice acting for the old characters has been changed. For the better, though, but you may be surprised at some voices. For instance, Slippy has a slightly deeper, more nasally voice that clearly distinguishes him as a male instead of female (which everyone thought he was in Star Fox 64 due to his ridiculously high voice). Wolf has a deeper, more menacing tone. He sounds kind of like Maugrim from the first Chronicles of Narnia movie, only with a deeper voice (who, incidentally, was also a wolf....) Fox no longer has a high-pitched, immature-sounding voice, but it's been deepened, and he talks like a real person. As a side note, Fox also makes a lot less stupid jokes and wisecracks than in Star Fox 64. Voices aside, the laser sounds have been upgraded. In Star Fox 64, the sound of the weakest laser level was so pitiful, it sounded like you were throwing eggs instead of shooting plasma. This time, though, even the weakest laser sounds mighty. Unfortunately, there is not really a distinctive difference in laser upgrades, so the Twin and Hyper upgrades don't sound too different. In Star Fox 64, the laser upgrades sounded much different and progressively stronger than the weakest laser. Both voices and sound aside, let's review the music. The music has been well-made. Many tunes are themes from Star Fox 64, like the Star Wolf battles and music in the Saragasso Hideout, Fichina, Corneria, and other places are remixes of the old music. You may find yourself whistling to a lot of the tunes. Star Fox 64's music was nothing special, but this time you can actually get into it.

GAMEPLAY: 8/10. Star Fox Assault mostly returns to its own roots, but frequently introduces a third-person shooter mode in places like Katina and Corneria. Many people think this third-person shooter mode is flawed and suffers from lack of good controls.

I don't see their point.

The controls are AWESOME and are not at all sloppy. The third-person shooter moments are actually the highlight of the game for me. Weapons and health packs await you in the big, twisting stages. Shoot gajillions of enemies and even fight other guys with guns. You can only access Landmasters in these third-person modes. In fact, the Landmaster tanks themselves have been improved. They don't move forward on their own, and while they lack the rapid-fire capabilities previously seen, the shots don't look like green, soggy waffles being shot out of a cannon. While on foot in the third-person modes, you can hop into Arwings and Landmasters at any time just by pressing Z. To make things even cooler, you can hop out of your Arwing and stand on it whenever you want to by pressing Z. (This only works in certain stages, though, but it's fun.) There are tons of weapons strewn across the levels, like machine guns, gatling guns, homing launchers, sniper rifles, and more. The whole basic concept of the third-person shooter modes is that there are certain targets you have to destroy; these are red dots on your radar on the bottom-right part of the screen. These targets can be anything, from Aparoid hatchers to shield generators. After taking out these targets, you can move forward through the story.

However, a good many of the stages return to the ol' rail shooting roots, where you fly along a guided path and shoot anything that comes your way. Insanely fun. As a matter of fact, you get medals for shooting down enough enemies on the three different difficulty levels (Bronze, Silver and Gold). Bronze you barely need to sweat for, Silver really makes you focus and often develop strategies, and Gold requires you practically give your life just to shoot one enemy. These medals can make you feel mighty proud when you acquire enough of them, however.

Not to mention this game has an awesome multiplayer mode. Star Fox 64's stank. I will just say that. There were two stages to pick from, there were few rules or settings, and you were forced to be a certain character depending on which controller you were. These rotting concepts have been tossed aside, to reveal selectable characters (each with their own advantages and weaknesses), HUMONGOUS levels, many rules and settings to pick from, and the ability to ride Arwings and Landmasters at will. Also, you can unlock an absolute PLETHORA of stuff by playing a certain number of Vs. Matches, so you can unlock new characters, stages, items, and settings. If you complete all-range mode stages in the story mode (where you can go anywhere inside a circle as opposed to a guided path), you can unlock them for use in the Vs. Mode.

AFTERMATH FUN: 8/10. It doesn't take all that long to beat the game (that will be covered in the Game Length section). However, there is still a lot of stuff to do after ripping through the story mode. There's the multiplayer mode--and its many unlockables--to keep you busy, not to mention the medals for each stage on each difficulty and just plain setting high scores. After completing each mission, which may be composed of several phases (like three "target-destroying" phases and one boss phase), you can play it anytime you like. All of these little things seem to make up for the short story mode. This will probably last for awhile, then sit dormant and collect dust on your stack of games. Then, later, you will pick it back up and become hooked on it again. It happens.

CONTROL EASE: 8/10. The controls differ from Arwings, Landmasters, and "Pilots," so explaining this may be a hassle. They're all pretty simple, though, I'll say that much. In every mode, press A to shoot. In the Arwing, press Y (no need to hold it) to use the boost for a limited time, hold R to brake (also for a limited time), hold X to land in land-able areas in all-range modes, and press L to barrel roll (which deflects enemy attacks and overall makes you look flashy). Press B to use Bombs. Push the C-Stick up to loop (do a vertical, circular path in the air) and push it down to U-turn (turn straight around). In the Landmaster, B gives you a short boost, Y makes you hover for a limited time, R lets you aim, and press L in conjunction with pushing the control stick to the side to roll. As a pilot, press B to activate barriers if you have any (they deflect enemy attacks for a limited time), hold R to aim, hold L lightly and use the control stick to strafe, hold it all the way down and use the control stick to roll to the side, press Z to enter/exit vehicles, and press Y to jump. So it isn't sloppy, but on occasion you may accidentally boost again when you mean to stop the boost (you have to press Y again to make it stop), and in the worst-case-scenario, you'll wind up rolling instead of strafing as a pilot. As a note, the boost/hover, brakes, loops, and U-turns all take away energy from a gauge. This gauge refills rapidly and fully recovers in a matter of seconds, but enough techniques and you'll wind up dry.

GAME LENGTH: 7/10. Star Fox Assault has returned to its roots. This also means that the game is pretty short. Not nearly as short as Star Fox and Star Fox 64 (which was a remake of Star Fox), but still very short. It only takes about 3-4 hours to beat it. Still, this is nearly five or six times longer than Star Fox 64, but if you hate short games, you might not like this. The multiplayer mode and earn-the-medal factors play in, though, and are great reasons to keep the game.

TOTAL SCORE: 58/70. Only twelve points short. This means it's a good deal.

FLAWS: There is the small game length. Also, if you'd rather have short, simple multiplayer stages as opposed to the gigantic, almost maze-like ones featured here, you might seek another game. The game's lack of a training mode can be a little disappointing when you want to brush up on your skills and, well, can't. And for those of you who enjoyed Star Fox/Star Fox 64's choose-your-own-path style of story mode, that isn't here. All destinations are predetermined for you.

CONCLUSION: Star Fox Assault is a hard game to say whether to rent or buy. It's pretty short, so that may lean it towards rent. If you're looking for a little thrill to get you going, rent it. However, if you actually want to unlock everything, get every medal, and play the game to its fullest extent, you should buy it. If you're not interested in getting everything, you should rent it. (Or not...read the introduction.)

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/01/08, Updated 06/09/08

Game Release: Star Fox: Assault (Player's Choice) (US, 04/24/06)