"I never thought this could work with Star Fox so well, but..."

Some time ago, I heard that Star Fox would be coming to the DS. Being a Star Fox fan, I was quite excited. Then, I heard you could only control flight with the stylus. I was frightened. I bought this game the moment it hit store shelves, of course. I found myself planning flight paths, which seemed awkward. In fact, after the simple introductory missions, I found that I sucked quite badly. I shelved the game, and ignored it for a week or two. Finally, I took it out of it's package, and I played it. I found, after I picked up on the general idea of the game, that it was very fun and satisfying.

Graphics: 9/10

Let's begin with the graphical presentation. It looks fantastic. Most of the textures are quite good. The cut-scenes of the game employ mostly static sprites with blinking eyes and moving mouths. These sprites are nicely done, colorful, and pleasing to the eye. However, the character models, as they seem to in every Star Fox iteration, have changed, and big heads are in!

The only thing that looks underwhelming is your play field map. This looks very flat. Your characters, the enemies, the bases, the missiles, and the Great Fox are all small sprites. Thankfully, your characters have different-colored sprites, so you can know who's who without touching them for details. (Fox is yellow, Slippy is green, etcetera.) But the map itself is simplistic in design. However, it works well enough. This is what keeps the graphics from achieving a perfect ten.

Music: 9/10

There's some very good, very Star Foxy tunes here. For the most part, the quality is very good (I recommend headphones!), and it fits all of the maps. As you begin to run out of turns (More on that later...), the play field music gets more and more dire. All of the characters have their own music for when you're flying around in battle, some of which are classic remixes. These will certainly put a smile on a Star Fox fan's face.

Overall, the music is very pleasing, and I, personally, hope to see a soundtrack CD.

Sound Effects: 8/10

Star Fox Command's sound effects work well. They're mostly crisp and clean-sounding, and everything sounds like it should, such as explosions or your lasers. (Which you'll hear a lot, believe me.)

The characters speak in a cute gibberish, akin to the first Star Fox game, or, if you've never played that, the Animalese from Animal Crossing. In fact, it sounds exactly like Animalese. I suppose this was because of space constrictions in the DS game cards, not being able to have full voices, I mean. The gibberish works well, but if there had been full voices, you wouldn't have to read it when someone says "DO A BARREL ROLL!"

You can record your own voice in a small spoken survey (IE; favorite food, favorite animal, etcetera...), and then the game remixes it into the gibberish for the characters. It seems to use the higher samples of your voice for characters with higher voices, and lower samples for the deeper-voiced characters. Cute, but utterly, quite useless to me.

Control: 9/10

The controls sound horrifying on paper. You hold the DS in your left hand (If you're left handed, swap this), and use the stylus in your right. You use the stylus to control your flight. Double-tap the top of the screen to boost, double-tap the bottom to brake. You can drag a bomb from the "B" icon on the upper-right onto the radar, which is also where you control your ship, and drop it where you want, preferably on a cluster of enemies. Drawing a quick circle causes a barrel roll. Then, you use any button on the DS (Except for the power, start, and select buttons...) to fire your lasers. Wait, come back! It works very well. At least, for me. It may work horribly for you, but have an open mind. I thought I might keep running out of screen room to move, but I only did once or twice, honestly. It does work really well.

When you're on your planning map, you can rub at the "Fog Of War" (More on that in the next section.) to remove it so you can see. You touch a character's ship and their details come up on the top screen, but the main reason is that you can draw them a flight plan for that turn. It's simple as can be. You just draw a path where you want with the stylus, the limit being your fuel for that turn, of course.

Gameplay: 9/10

Here it is, the most important area. This strays a bit from classic Star Fox. There are no on-rails sections, except for when you're trying to destroy a missile, which only lasts a few seconds. (Whether you succeed or not.) The majority of the fighting is akin to Star Fox 64's "All Range Mode", in that you have full 3D access to the entire map at your leisure.

However, there's a cap on your free-flying; the fuel. That's right. 100 units of fuel is 100 seconds of flight time, and all characters use the same fuel reservoir. (Please don't ask, I don't know either.) However, when you pass through a bonus ring, you might get 25 fuel, health, or a bomb. Every five enemies you kill, you get a bonus of the same sort. And, lastly, on the planning map, you can guide your characters into fuel, missiles, or full shield rings. Rolling attracts all nearby items or enemy cores (Read on for that.), as well. Since I really just cleared up item pickups, let's move on.

When you're on the planning map, any enemies that cross with your flight path for that particular turn (They move when you do.) will automatically divert their attention from the Great Fox to follow you. If a character flies into a cruise missile, their path is cut short so they can take it on. Flying over a cleared base will allow that character to fly farther. Using these bases effectively allows you to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. ROB can fire missiles from the Great Fox, which will destroy any enemy cluster and automatically retrieve the enemy cores from it, though he can only hold three missiles at a time. If a cruise missile or an enemy group reaches the Great Fox (which is immobile...), it's game over.

An interesting aspect of the planning map is the "Fog Of War". This is a reddish, well, fog that covers a portion of the map, excluding areas around your characters (Enemies, enemy bases, and items can be hidden inside), a small circle around any friendly bases, and the Great Fox. Enemy cruise missiles seem to glide above it, as you can see them. You can use the stylus to rub away a small amount of the fog in any spots you like, to expose whatever hides inside.

In battle against enemies or an enemy base and mother ship, you're in all-range mode. You have to down specific enemies, collect the cores from them, and then, if you're in that kind of level, destroy the mother ship.

To complete a mission, the Great Fox must be protected, and in the available turns, you must destroy all enemy bases and collect all the enemy cores. You're given a running tally of the cores remaining. When all the cores are collected, the mission is won, and you either fight that mission's boss if it has one, or you advance to post-mission cut-scene.

Although the number of turns you're given at a mission's start might seem unreasonably restrictive, it's not. Clearing an enemy base grants two extra turns, (You can have a maximum of five.) and the bases are generally placed in a way that is fair, yet challenging.

Story: 7/10

The story is a rather basic. The "Anglar Empire" has taken over the caustic Venom Sea, using their corrosion-resistant aluminum ships. The sea gives them a safe base of operations, and it's up to the now-disbanded Star Fox Team to put an end to this threat.

Though you're initially shoved down a linear, non-branching story path which ends with a rather bad ending, you're given the "Key Of Destiny" after beating the game this way. This allows you to unlock more story paths, all of which I have cleared, myself. I won't spoil any of the endings, but some are mega-happy, some are very sad, and some are just plain WEIRD. See for yourself.

Multiplayer: 3/10

Though I haven't played this online or locally with other people, I've heard from friends that the multiplayer is pretty poor. It's all simplistic dogfights. And, online, if just one person disconnects in a four-person battle, it's game-over for everyone. Yes, one bad apple, and it's all spoiled. At least Mario Kart DS let you keep racing with the remaining competitors...

Replayability: 9/10

It's very fun to play through this game to see what endings you can get, but after that, it's just boring, and you'll probably put this game on the shelf or sell it, considering it's poor multiplayer options.

Overall: 9/10

Star Fox Command. The first portable Star Fox game. It's a blast while it lasts, and holds mostly true to the Star Fox roots. Perhaps if the Wii Star Fox turns out anything like this, it will be more polished. I feel that this formula works well, and with a bit of work, could be very impressive.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/02/07