"Star Fox: Command is more than expected"

I had been looking at the commercials for this game, and it looked great! Every time I saw it, it looked like there was going to be an old-school Star Fox game, just like the N64 Star Fox I loved. Well, it turns out, it was completely different.

I looked Nintendo Power, and was shocked at what I saw. It looked like an Real-Time Strategy or some game like Advanced Wars. I immediately thought, why? I looked into it, and wondered where all the action was. I almost did not by this game, thinking I could just get Advanced Wars if I wanted an RST.

But I did buy it, and I am glad I did. It was not the classic Star Fox 64 I had been hoping for, but instead, it was somewhat like Advanced Wars, with a twist. I was pleasantly surprised as I played through it. At first, I was frustrated that Nintendo did not put in a sensitivity modifier, but I soon got used to it and got used to the completely Stylus-based game. Not only was it different from Advanced Wars, it surpassed it in my opinion. In fact, if you are looking for a new kind of gaming genre, this is a game I would recommend.

Now for the ratings:

Game-Play(Single Player)- I quite enjoyed this. There is great replay value as there are eight different endings and more different paths than you can shake a stick at! Some of the endings are good, some of them could have been better, and some of them are depressing, while still good. In fact, I enjoyed almost all the endings.

Single Player also offers you training mode, a gallery in which you can view all the characters you have unlocked, and a list of all the endings you have unlocked along with the credits.

Krystal makes a reappearance in this game, along with a few other new faces, such as Lucy. One really nice thing about the single player is the diversity of the characters, each character really plays differently. Although I do prefer some characters to others, I find all the characters fun to use.

Now, I would have given this a 10/10, but I couldn't. Unfortunately, the game got boring due to being so repetitive in Single player. Although killing enemies and missiles never gets boring, chasing after them in the same levels over and over again gets rather frustrating and one mess-up means you have to do it all over again.

Overall, single player was great, but repetitive. So I give single player an 9/10.

Controls: This category has been the downfall of many a game, but not this one. This one, although a lack of sensitivity modifier is frustrating, is well done. I, however, do like like using the stylus all the time, as do many people. Occasionally, there is the problem with trying to turn and accidentally picking up a bomb and wasting it, but other than that, the stylus is pretty sound. Nintendo really used the touch screen to its full potential, while unfortunately completely forgetting to do anything else but touch screen.

A button fires, B button fires, R fires, L fires, and start pauses. Not what I would call using the buttons well. This really hurts the game in my opinion.

Overall, the controls are very sound, but lacking as only the touch screen is really used like it should be. For this, I give controls a 7/10.

Multi-Player: A WiFi game... It better have good multiplayer. That was my thought as I went to the store to buy this game. And I wasn't let down! Although it does have the feeling of getting a bit repetitive, it is definetely much better than Star Fox 64. I particularly like the power-ups.
This is my rating for WiFi:

Pluses:
1. Good controls.
2. !!NO ERROR MESSAGES!!
3. There is nothing to exploit in this game, such as snaking in MKDS.
4. Almost always someone to play.

Minuses:
1. You have to have 4 people to play for rank.
2. If one person disconnects, the match ends and you get nothing.
3. Once again, Nintendo does not realize that D/cing is not hurting people that do it enough.
4. Everyone can get to the top rank if they don't disconnect.

Well, there are pros and cons for WiFi. It really is fun, it just tends to get frustrating on the path to Rank A when people disconnect or you can not find four people.

So, in my opinion, this is WiFi's score: 8/10.

As for Wireless, it does not exist. It is downloadable, but they didn't put in Wireless! I did not believe Nintendo could do something so illogical. Now it takes about five minutes to play against someone because they have to download it (which takes forever). On the plus side, however, is the fact that it is exactly the same as online. You can even adjust how much shield you start the match with, making it great for training with friends. Up to six players can play download mode, but this means all five of the others have to download it. Other than the download time, it is really fun.

For this, I give it 8/10.

So, the average of these scores is 8.0/10, exactly what it deserves.

This game went beyond my expectations in everything, but a few hidden traps really lower the score of the game. But, even though I only gave this game 8/10, I would still recommend it to anyone who has ever played Star Fox, or wants to play it.

Happy Flying!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/11/06