"Fox's Tactical Warfare"

Ever since Starfox 64, the bar has been set very high for other titles in the series. Both Adventures and Assault failed to live up to everyone's expectations as neither of the titles had branching paths that altered your gameplay experience adding to the replay value. Now it's Starfox Command that has decided to enter the cockpit and try its luck to win back the fans the other titles may have left behind. Does it do its job? Well...yes and no.

Some time has passed since the Aparoid invasion and Starfox has once again disbanded in this time of peace. When a new threat suddenly emerges from the dark depths of Venom, the entire Lylat system is once again jeopardized. Without the good guys to save the day, will this hostile takeover succeed? Not so fast my friends, Starfox may be gone but Fox McCloud isn't about to let the amphibian army of Emperor Anglar win just yet! Yes, Fox breaks out into action and the journey begins.

It's a nice premise as this game starts you off on the familiar planet of Corneria. Quickly, you find that this game will not be the intense space shooter that previous titles have been like...well, not entirely anyway. For when you first start playing the game after the training mode, you see Fox's arwing on an overhead map near the Great Fox with numerous points on the map to go and in a short time to get there. Yes, strategy is the new flavor of the series as Fox must now take out all the enemies on a given map within a number of turns before the Great Fox is given the old missile in the hull treatment.

During your time plotting out your routes (which you will be doing yourself with the stylus) in the strategy part of the game, you'll find numerous obstacles, whether friendly or fearsome in your way. Blue pyramids represent friendly bases which can give you a much needed boost in fuel to allow Fox to move farther across the map while other objects such as missile silos and enemy bases must be taken out. The sooner you can to them the better as you don't want them to launch a missile at the Great Fox or bring more foes into the fray. Basically, the Great Fox is more like a sitting duck, although one that can carry up to three missiles which can be launched on your adversaries. All in all, it's not what you may be expecting, but it's not awful...for now at least. More on that later.

When you do run into a squadron of fighters or reach an enemy base, the game will switch into an action game, similar to the all-range mode seen in SF64. However, unlike in the aforementioned title, you will be using your stylus to fly. Even directional control is used via the stylus. It sounds rather complicated, but I have to say that it was pretty well done whether you find yourself spinning the stylus to do a barrel roll, double tap a half of the screen to boost or break, or drag a bomb into position to lay waste to some bogeys. You will be timed, but the destruction of enemies and a special item that you can pick up will be increase the time left. Should you run out of time, you not only fail it but you lose a life, not to mention essentially wasting a character's turn as the enemy will advance toward the Great Fox after a blunder. It is vital that you finish certain points of the map off as soon as possible and this leaves me with a few problems.

The element of strategy for example is rendered useless when playing during a fog of war mission. Instead, it becomes a guessing game as to where the enemy is and where they will be coming from. I feel as if this is a cheap attempt to lengthen the game by making you go through many trial and error maps. The fact is that you will not be able to make more than one mistake in either planning a route or fighting an enemy. While I applaud the challenge of some of the action fights, the strategy section is most definitely lacking in just that. Had the player have been able to see where the enemy is at all times instead of using this cop-out method, I believe the game would've been all the more enjoyable, but it wasn't to be.

What the game does to redeem itself is bring branching paths back into the fold. This means that you will not be seeing the entire game in one playthrough as Command brings nine endings to the table. A couple are funny, others are more "What if ?" scenarios, but a couple give rise to possibilities as to what the next game in the series will be like. Whether or not that will be the case remains to be seen. Also, Wi-Fi is back bringing you and some of your fellow DS gamers once step closer to challenging each other in a six-way battle in the not-so friendly skies.

So, how does this game shape up overall? What you're left with is a game that is without a true identity. It tries to be a strategy game while also trying to deliver on action. In all honesty though, the game fails to meet those expectations...the former much more so than the latter. Even with all the different endings, I have a feeling Starfox fans are still going to be wishing for a return to its old ways that the first two games in the series provided. The branching paths are there, but this time Nintendo has left some of the hectic fun behind. The branching paths, multiple endings, and Wi-Fi play save it from being a game you can pass up on, but you'll still be wishing for what isn't there more than you will. In the end, it's a nice game that once again fails to live up to the standards set by a game that is now going on a decade old. If you come in for a good time, then this game should be right up your alley, but if you're expecting a return to the classic style of Starfox, you'll be disappointed. Tread these skies carefully.

Gameplay- 8
Graphics- 8
Sound- 6
Entertainment- 6
Overall- 7 (28/40)

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/15/06