Star Fox: Assault

"Get ready! Fox and his crew are back in an all-new adventure!"

Welcome, my friend, to the wonderful world of Starfox. As you know the latest installment in the game is the much anticipated Starfox: Assault, or SF:Ass for short. This game, developed by Namco's Ace Combat 4 team, is quite the crowd-pleaser. In this game you will be doing the impossible; Heading strait through enemy lines and taking on that which nobody else could. You will find yourself fighting side by side with old friends such as Falco and Slippy and the new person on the team, Krystal. Krystal, for those of you who have not played Adventures, is a female fox and Fox's love interest. Over the course of this game you will find yourself reunited with many old friends…and many old enemies. So sit-tight, buckle your seat belt, and prepare for a headlong dive through enemy lines!

Gameplay: 10/10
What can I say, Starfox: Assault has it where it counts. When I initially got this game I was eagerly awaiting it, but still slightly skeptical as to how Namco would pull it off. But my, oh my, did they ever pull it off! The game-play here is absolutely fabulous, from the heavily populated space battles, with literally dozens and dozens of enemy and friendly pilots dog-fighting over a base, to the ground based levels that take you back to Starfox History, such as Corneria and Dinosaur Planet (Sauria). I guarantee, you won't even be out of the action for a second. From the time I started, to the time I put the controller down after beating it the first time, I didn't even have a chance to take a drink of milk while the game was playing. The single player is very balanced in the bronze level, not too difficult, but not a walk in the park either. However, on the gold and silver levels, the difficulty rises substantially. This game also takes quite a lot from it's history; Playing this you may even have flashbacks from Starfox 64. One thing, for example, is that your wings will break off after taking damage, leaving you with normal lasers. And don't even get me started on the Multiplayer mode. Those of you who played the Multi Player mode on Starfox 64 know that it really sucked. Not only could you not choose your own character, but the game was horrendously unbalanced, strongly favoring the Arwing. In this multi-Player mode, the Characters actually look like they should, which means no more running around with Fox who has a potato strapped to his butt. In this you can get many weapons, from the machine gun and blaster, to a Gattling Cannon and Bazooka. This combined with the fact that there are many places for Infantry to hide and fire rockets at Vehicles, makes the game a lot more balanced. The Multiplayer also has several modes. Normal mode, with all weapons, Sniper Mode, with only the Sniper Rifle available, and Rocket Mode, where everybody gets a rocket launcher and unlimited ammo! In addition to this, all the characters are NOT the same. Fox has higher Combat abilities, while Falco is quicker and faster. Slippy and Krystal are both weaker, physically, but sport special abilities, such as the ability to have double shielding or to charge weapons twice as fast. This combined with the many, varying, levels, makes for a balanced and fun Multi-Player experience. Plus when you add on the many, many, unlockables in thee game, this game will keep you busy, and won't get old!

Story: 9/10
The game features a good plot for a rail-shooter, and actually makes you kind of care about them. While this is by no means an RPG storyline, it's great for a combat shooter, and you really get a feeling for the different characters personalities. Fox is the natural Leader, and in love with Krystal, though somewhat embarrassed to talk about it. Krystal is very compassionate and caring, and has psychic abilities to boot. Slippy is more emotional and tends to get overjoyed easily, or brought to tears just as easily. Falco is an ex-gang member, with a cocky attitude, though he is not nearly as sarcastic and arrogant as he was in SF64. The idea is that the enemies are invading and the Cornerian Army is losing. While they aren't quite as useless as they were in the other games, they still aren't all that great. Though you do get a lot of hero worship from the troops in the few instances you are fighting together.

Graphics: 9/10
I'd not give this a 10 for detail. The game is not Metroid Prime 2 or Starfox Adventures. It does however have dozens, and sometimes even what seems like hundreds, of enemies on the screen at once and maintains a perfect frame-rate with no slowdown whatsoever. The Graphics aren't terrible or anything detail-wise, but they aren't phenomenal. The character models don't have the detail that they did in Adventures; No fur bristling everywhere being all fuzzy like, and the water effects aren't as good, but the action is usually so thick you will not notice. And it's actually good that it doesn't have that level of detail If it had that level of detail, and the amount of enemies and rapid game play that this game has, no system could run it well.

Sound: 9/10
First the music. The music here totally rocks. From the incredible Starfox theme in the opening movie, to the remix of the theme of a certain enemy I won't spoil here, the music is great. Even the credits music is an awesome version of the Starfox 64 music. While there is some good, new, music in there, and I suppose newcomers will like it, but there's noting like sitting down to play and hearing an awesome version of a familiar old song, to get you in the mood to play. As for the sound, it isn't that great, and can get just a little bit monotonous, but not much at all, and it is only when three people are all spamming the blaster pistol so you hear nothing but that sound for a half a minute, that you notice. The sounds are well done and fit seamlessly into each other, overshadowing, but not drowning out, the background music.

Replay value: 9/10
This game has very good replay value, but that's something to be expected of a Starfox shooter. To beat the game you have to collect 30 flags, one from each level on each difficulty level, 30 badges, one from each difficulty level and level, weapons in Multiplayer, Stages, Characters, and much, much, more. That added to the fact that the multiplayer is awesome and the single-player is addicting, and you've got yourself a real winner here!

Summary: 9/10
This game is a winner, and definitely a buy game. If it's before Feb. 14th and you can only get at it by renting it, sure, rent it. And then buy it! Not only will you be getting this game, but also you will be getting three classic NES games such as Xevious, as unlockables, and who knows what else! This game definitely has a place in any good collection, and trust me, you will love it if you like this genre, and probably even if you hate it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/03/05