"How about that! Slippy is STILL annoying!"

I was a tad too kind in my original review for this game. Maybe I was being a bit biased since it was a Star Fox game. I've decided to go back and tweak my original review for Star Fox Assault and give it the score I feel it deserves.

Star Fox dates back to the days of the SNES. It really was a breakthrough it terms of graphics when it first came out-- the entire game was in 3-D! When you look at it now, it really is quite laughable. Arwings are nothing more than triangles, enemies are giant squares and circles always look like hexagons. But you must understand, in 1993, these graphics were considered to be amazing. A breakthrough. And so the Star Fox series was born and made itself known.

When the Nintendo 64 came out the world was given Star Fox 64, a remake of the original Star Fox, completely redone from what the game was originally. And I use the term “remake” very, very lightly as basically the only thing that made this a remake was the storyline. The graphics were one thousand times greater than its SNES predecessor. While Star Fox 64 took the same basic gameplay from the original, it felt completely new with all of the added characters, levels, vehicles… Star Fox 64 wowed gamers across the globe and it hailed as a classic for the N64 and gaming in general.

Next came Fox McCloud's adventure on the Nintendo GameCube, Star Fox Adventures, developed by Rare (the same guys who made Donkey Kong Country and Banjo-Kazooie). What's interesting about Star Fox Adventures is that it originally was never planned to be a Star Fox game at all. Originally it was to be released on the Nintendo 64 under the name Dinosaur Planet, but after constant delays again and again Rare was left with no choice but to wait for the GameCube. It was then when they made the choice to turn it into a Star Fox title, after being convinced by Nintendo.

Nintendo and Rare were taking a very big risk when they made Star Fox Adventures. It was far different from any Star Fox title in the past as Star Fox Adventures took place on FOOT. Yes, no longer were you in the Arwing for the entire game. While the game did have a few small moments that would require Arwing travel, the vast majority of the game took place on foot where you fought enemies in hand to hand combat. The game received a fair amount of mixed reviews. Some loved the game but others hated it for messing with the Star Fox series formula. While it was no Star Fox 64, I found Star Fox Adventures to be decent enough and I applaud Rare for trying something a little bit different.

And now we have the latest adventure for the Star Fox team in Star Fox: Assault, which was created by Namco. Namco decided it would be best to take gameplay ideas from both Star Fox 64 and Star Fox Adventures. They gave the game flying missions and well as foot missions. Unfortunately, the result was quite the disappointment resulting in what I would easily consider to be the worst Star Fox game yet.

Gameplay 3/10

What Namco attempted to do here was barrow gameplay elements from both Star Fox 64 and Star Fox Adventures. I'm not going to lie, the Arwing missions are fun. Really, they are. They bring back the old-school Star Fox feel that was missing from Adventures.

But what really killed Assault in terms of gameplay were the foot missions. While Rare, in my opinion, handled the idea of Fox being on foot very well, Namco's take on it seemed extremely lacking. For starters, the controls for the foot missions are really clumsy. Basically all you'll find yourself doing is running around and hitting A over and over again to just keep shooting enemies. The sniper rifle has the ability to zoom in to get a more accurate shot but its controls seem very stiff and clunky.

But this shouldn't be too bad with enough Arwing missions to balance things out, right? Unfortunately, Arwing missions are pretty scarce in this Star Fox outing, with the horrendous foot missions making up the majority of the levels. I would be overcome with disappointment every time I started up a new level only to find out it was just another foot mission, even though the last three missions were foot missions. They were boring, tedious and just really a chore to do. It's not so much that they were hard, no the game was actually very easy, but they just plain aren't fun. And the later foot missions in the game seem to take forever to complete.

The Arwing levels may be fun, but they can't make up for the sheer boredom and monotony of the foot missions. They really are that tedious.

Story 6/10

I actually liked the story for Assault. Rather than bringing back Andross again, which I was sure they would do, Assault offers a brand new threat to the galaxy: an insect like race known as the Aporoids.

The Aporoids are on a mission to take over the Lylat System and it is up to the Star Fox team to stop them. The Aporoids really was ruthless creatures that can literally controls someone's mind and suddenly they become your foe. While I won't give any spoilers, it was pretty cool to fight some of the bosses (which usually took place in the Arwing, thankfully).

Falco has returned to the Star Fox team as you may remember from the ending of Star Fox Adventures. Peppy is still old and retired and Slippy is still annoying as ever. The Star Fox team also has a brand new member, Krystal, the lovely vixen from Star Fox Adventures.

Sadly, the characters all seem lack personality. Fox is the leader, Peppy is the old guy, Falco is the cool dude, Slippy is the annoying one, and Krystal is the girl. That is really as deep as the personality goes. The Star Wolf team also returns, with personalities as interesting as a paper bag. Wolf tried too hard to be badass, Leon has lost his suave and sophisticated personality from Star Fox 64 and is now just a raving lunatic, and Pather, the newest member of the team, is a cliché ladies man who hits on Krystal whenever he gets the chance. Pigma and Andrew have both left the Star Wolf team, but you encounter them in the game as well. But they're nothing spectacular.

Because of the characters lack of a personality, the storyline of the game suffers. To make a story interesting, you're going to need some interesting characters, which Star Fox: Assault, sadly, lacks.

Graphics 7/10

The graphics, like the rest of the game, are a bit disappointing. Star Fox Adventures looked much better than Assault. In Adventures you were able to see each individual hair on Fox's bushy tail. Assault lacks that kind of detail. I'm not saying the graphics in the game are bad, but they could have been much better, especially considering that a game that came out several years before it looked better.

Sound 7/10

The soundtrack to this game is fantastic. Really, it is. The majority of the music is remixed from Star Fox 64, now performed by an orchestra, and it sounds simply fantastic. The soundtrack is easily the best thing about this game and, without it, the game would be getting an even lower score than it already has.

The voices, however, are the worst in Star Fox history. Assault has none of the one-liners that were memorable from Star Fox 64 and pretty much all of the characters sound annoying. Fox sounds like a robot, lacking any and all emotion. There's a point in the game where someone close to you performs a sacrifice to help you, and Fox sounds like he could care less. Falco tried too hard to sound “cool” and has a New Yorker accent. Slippy, while no longer sounding like an annoying little girl, now sounds like an annoying little boy with a cold. All the characters voices have changed and it most cases it's a turn for the worst, including Peppy and the Star Wolf team. Basically the only decent voices are Krystal and ROB64.

Replayability 3/10

I think they want you to desire to try to get all the badges and keep beating your score, but I have no desire to. Playing this game through once was enough for me and the game went by really quick too. While the multiplayer mode can provide some level of fun, it's not enough to make up for what the game lacks. It goes by far to quick, the voice acting is terrible and the foot missions are extremely boring.

Rent or Buy?

I'd go with rent. While I did buy the game, I really don't think I got my moneys worth. “Star Fox: Assault” has fun Arwing missions but the foot missions are what really kills it. Let's hope when the next Star Fox game is made the realize this isn't what the people want and bring back the classic Star Fox action and NO MORE FOOT MISSIONS.

OVERALL: 4/10

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 04/14/05, Updated 03/03/08

Game Release: Star Fox: Assault (US, 02/14/05)