"A year of good intentions"

Now I may or may not get some flack for this but who says you always have to be nice?. Let me start by saying that I am not happy with the overall game. It just didn't grab and hold me like the original. You spend way to much time wandering and killing random looking enemies in random looking levels. I spend my time wondering why this was sold at full price and not a budget title. I expect more from this franchise then this thrown together mess that it has become. This is my review of Star fox Command.

Graphics: Well lets start with one of it's redeeming factors, how the game looks. Now I'm not a graphics whore or anything but I was very happy with the overall look of the game. You will run into some muddy textures and some "jaggy" enemies but when a game runs as smooth as this one does that can be forgiven. The frame rate is top notch, no drooping here. Am I happy with how it looks?. Yes, it's somewhere between the snes and the 64 and for what you get it's not too bad. Even though we all know the system is capable of much more. Look at Metriod Prime Hunters. In my opinion That should be the standard for All DS games. But who am I to say anything. All they want to do is put out a sub par game and make a lot of cash.
8/10

Story: Now going into the game I must say that I wasn't expecting a final fantasy type story here and well I didn't get one either. Some may argue that it may be deep because you have many different options for you to choose from. Now that may be true but that doesn't mean that the other choices are any good. The extent of your choice is "go to slippy or go to krystal first?". That's not deep enough. If you are willing to give choice then make them good. I want variety. One redeeming quality is the ending's I suppose. There are nine or so but even then I didn't have any need to play it more than twice to see all that this game has to offer. I could argue that that is also a little too much. I spent most of mine time doing something over and over again just to be disappointed With the result.
3/10

Sound: What Can I say...I sounds like star fox. At least they got that right...until you sub your own voice over the characters in the game. Take about one creepy sound. You well find yourself asking why?. Not a game breaker, far from it infact. At least they tried something unique. They have all the star fox sounds in there for you history nuts out there. You wont be disappointed with how it sounds. However I would have liked to be able to use the microphone when I was in a dog fight. There's nothing like bad mouthing your enemy while you shoot his arse down.
7/10

Game play: Now the only real thing that matters the game play. Is it bad?, hell no. Until I started playing it. The game has me feeling funny inside. How could they have made such a good multi-player and yet still manage to butcher the 1 player game?. The set up Wi-fi Which works really well for online dog fighting for up to four players. They main player game on the other hand feels like it's randomly generated. There is a board like a board game. You move your characters around in a set amount of turns and try and take out your enemy/enemies. Now this may sound neat, being able to use some strategy in the mix in order to change the outcome. But the control's aren't as responsive as they once where even on start fox for the snes they where better. The reason being that you can only use the stylus. Sure you can invert your aim but they have no other redeeming features at all. And if your baddies end up getting to the great fox...game over.
4/10

Control: Oh now it comes to the control.....aside from the hand cramps and tremors from holding the system in one hand and controlling with the stylus. All is well except that it's not really. From the pain you may receive while playing in extended game sessions. That's why it is ideal for short playtime only. Nothing more then 20 minutes at a time are needed or you well find the cramps creeping up your fingers. It's just not worth it in my opinion. Too much time shaking it all off and not enough playing. Now onto the good and yes there is some. Because of the stylus you end up with near pixel perfect control. If you miss your target it's you and not the game or the system. You get enough control otherwise to more then get by. Now if only it where comfortable.
5/10

To sum it all up. the game just isn't really worth the money I put into it. I played it had some fun and now I wont ever touch it again. I was looking for something a little more like Starfox64 and maybe I was aiming too high. After armada came and went I was looking forward to something more along the lines of the original or the 64 version. Sadly no go, What we got was a mildly entertaining semi strategy crap shoot. The end

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/13/06