"Not exactly what I had expected, but still an awesome game!"

Star Fox 64. I found it to be a fun game. I used to play it for countless hours. Look ahead to 2002. Star Fox Adventures is going to be released. I hear that you play on foot in this game. Well, that's not right. No Arwing? No Star Fox Adventures for me. Look ahead to 2005. Here comes Star Fox Assault. I see the commercials. I see that you get to fly again, just like in Star Fox 64. Looks fun, so I pick up a copy. Star Fox: Assault isn't exactly what I was expecting, but it is still really fun.

STORY (4/10): Andrew Oikonny has taken over the remains of his uncle Andross' army and begins to attack Corneria. The Cornerian army tries to fight back, but surprise surprise, they are being beaten. General Pepper once again turns to the Star Fox team for help. During their fight with Oikonny, the team encounters a strange creature called an aparoid. The game centers around Star Fox trying to figure out what the aparoids are, and how they can keep the aparoids from taking over the Lylat System.
It's a pretty basic story. However, it loses points for all the character "deaths" that occur. I can't give exact details, so I will just say that basically, a character will die (or so they would have you think with all the explosions), and then a few cutscenes later, that character will be alive and well. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't want all the characters to be killed, but if you're going to kill them, keep them dead. No mysterious revivals, please.

CONTROL (7/10): The controls are great. The Arwing's controls are almost exactly like they were in Star Fox 64. Some things have changed, however. The R button is now your brake, you only have to push the Y button to boost as apposed to holding it down. When you press the L button, you will roll instantly as apposed to tapping it twice. Once you roll, you will turn to the side depending on which direction you rolled. If you roll to the right, you will turn to the right. Same for left. You can do a Loop or U-Turn buy simply pushing either up or down on the C-Stick. For the controls during All-Range Mode stages, there are three different control settings, so you'll be able to find something to suit your needs.

GRAPHICS (9/10): The graphics are absolutely spectacular. I see nothing bad about them.

SOUND (3/10): The music in this game is quite good. However, some of the sound effects are rather dull. For example, when your shot hits another enemy, it sounds dull, as if you didn't do much damage. Some other sound effects are missing completely. You can smash the wing of your Arwing into something, and the only thing that will happen is that the wing will blink red for a few seconds. No sound effect; that is rather annoying. Also, the voice acting for this game is horrid. All the character's voices are slightly robotic, and they have almost no emotion for anything they are saying.

GAMEPLAY (8/10): Ah, good old gameplay. What games should be primarily rated on. Star Fox: Assault has excellent gameplay. As I said before, it wasn't what I was expecting, but I still enjoyed it. The game has three of the Star Fox 64 Arwing flight missions. Those are still what I enjoyed the most, but you also have the All-Range Mode stages. These have you roaming around in a confined area trying to accomplish some goal. You can travel on foot, wielding many different weapons to suit the type of combat situation you are in. Or, you can hop in a Landmaster or an Arwing if one is provided for you. Also, there are two segments where you will be standing on the wing of someone else's Arwing. During these segments, you will be given a Plasma Cannon, and you will have to shoot at enemies that try to attack your buddy's Arwing, and destroy missile launchers on the ground before they can take you out. There are also All-Range Mode stages where you are in the Arwing only, just like in Star Fox 64. I really would have liked more standard Arwing flight missions, but the new things to do in All-Range Mode are indeed quite enjoyable. One thing to note, though, is that the game has only 10 missions (levels). However, these missions are broken into different objectives. In one mission, you start off in the Landmaster, trying to take out some power generators. Once those are destroyed, you can enter a building on foot, where you must survive against the guard robots until reinforcements arrive. At that point, you will be on the wing of an Arwing, taking out foes until a boss appears, at which point you will be given your own Arwing to take it out. So there are plenty of things to do in each mission, it's not ten short stages. And let's not forget how much fun you can have in VS Mode.

PLAY TIME/REPLAYABILITY (7/10): As I said before, the game has only ten missions. However, as you complete each mission, you are able to play it again at any time you choose to collect medals and other objects of achievement. You will get one medal for keeping all of your teammates safe during the mission. You will also be able to get three different medals per stage based on how many enemies you take out. These medals range come in Bronze (easy), Silver (medium), and Gold (hard). The kind of medal you are going for also effects how much damage you/your vehicle can take before dying/being destroyed and how much damage you deal to the enemies, so you'll have to practice to gain the skills needed to take on the missions on harder medal levels. In addition to that, you can find five Special Flags in each stage by taking out a specific enemy, or by shooting at something suspicious. You can also unlock new things for VS Mode by playing a lot of VS Mode matches. You can get new characters, new stages to play in, and new match types among other things. As if VS Mode wasn't fun enough by itself, you now have even more incentive to keep playing.

FINAL RECOMMENDATION: If you're the kind of person who just likes to play through a game's main story mode to see the story and how it unfold and ends, and then not play the game further to do everything else that is possible to do, stay far away from Star Fox: Assault. Even renting the game wouldn't be worth it, as you can blow through the game in one or two days. If you're that kind of person, and you really have to play this game, try to find a friend who will let you borrow it. However, if you love getting 100% completion in a game, Star Fox: Assault will provide you with many, many hours of play time, and you should consider this game as a "must buy."

FINAL SCORE: 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/28/05