Once you look past the fact that it's not Star fox 64, then you'll find a great gamecube game
So I found this game for about 10 bucks at Gamestop, and I remember loving this game when it first came out(which was about 4 or 5 years ago). I decided to give it a try. What I found was an addicting and memorable experience. The game stars obviously Fox, a space mercenary traveling the Lylat system with his crew of Slippy Toad, Peppy Hare and ROB the robot. They get a call from Colonel Pepper from the military asking the Star Fox team to go save Dinosaur Planet, a planet that is literally bursting at the seams. Parts of the planet have broken of from the planet. This is all due to the dictator General Scales, which we'll get into later. So you have to save the planet and defeat Scales.
One part that Star Fox Adventures excells in is its graphics and sound. Back when it first came out I thought it looked amazing and even now it still holds up. One thing I noticed (and everyone else noticed) is Fox and his fur. Fox looks so great, it looks like you can reach out and touch him. The environments look pretty good too, almost lifelike. There's quite a bit of backtracking in SFA, but the environments really make so you won't mind it at all. Sometimes the framerate will slip but its not that bad. It's sound is also awesome. The sounds that you will hear are very real sounding. From the sound of water splashing to the grunts and screams of the dinosaurs, it all looks amazing. The music is also top-notch. It complements to the scenery wery well and gives more the feeling that the game is trying to convey. One thing I didn't liek though was some of the voice acting. Most of the characters had good voices and it reflected thier personality very well, but some of the voices that got annoying realy stuck out(Tricky's parents). For the most part, I liked the voices though.
The story in SFA is something that people either liked or hated(I liked it). The story kinda reminded me of Zelda. The story revolves around you trying to bring the planet back together with these things called Spellstones, putting these in a certain place will bring the planet back together. You will be on another mission, to save this female fox named Krystal. To do this you must collect these ghostlike things called Krazoa spirits. There's alot more to it but that's it. What I did not like about the story was the ending, or the game's finale. The game tried to tie in Andross at the very end of the game. This felt really tacked on and just confused me. Seems extremely last minute, as if someone came in right before the game was about to release and just said, "Hey, lets put in Andross!" You don't even fight Scales, the guy you've been chasing for the entire game. Fox also fights Andross in his arwing, it makes sense but it doesn't seem right, you just did the entire game on foot and now you have to fight the final boss in your Arwing. I felt very dissapointed at the end. It was almost a kick in the face, since the game was so great and the end almsot ruined it. I guess they wanted a big twist at the end, but it really didn't seem to turn out so well.
The gameplay is good in SFA, but not great. It almost tries to be a Zelda game, the game's combat system is almost identical to that. that's not a bad thing, Zelda's combat system is definately revolutionary. The combat is fun but it's a little repetive and easy. Most of the enemies are pushovers. You just find an opening and then mash the A button as much as you can. The game's boss battles aren't too original, but nonetheless they are very fun and one of the game's few challenges. You will use a magic staff as your main weapon. You will get many abilities for it, you mainly use the fire and ice attacks though, the other are used more for some of the puzzles. You alos have a sidekick, Tricky the prince earthwalker(triceratops). It seems a little wierd to have a little pet sidekick by your side, due to Fox's solo personality. Tricky grows on you and it's kinda cool to have him runnign around. You will only have him around for about 2/3rds of the game though.
The game as a whole is fun and solid. I said it was old school because of the game's package. It doesn't really have any replay value at all. The game doesn't have any multiplayer at all. It just delivers a single player campaign, and it works from start to finish. It's very linear, even though you can go almost anywhere you want at anytime, there's really not much to do outside the main story. The main story is actually very varied with many little minigames. These pop up alot and keep the game fresh. One problem is collecting stuff for the random dinos across the planet. You will do that quite a bit, it's never that bad, since you probably have an idea where to get it but it's kinda there to slow you down. The puzzles are also easy, they probably won't take you long to do, and seem also like they're just there to slow you down.
Overall Star Fox Adventures delivers an awesome action adventure experience that you will remember for a long time. I loved this game 5 years ago and I still love it today. It's not Star Fox 64...at all, but nonetheless, if you like Star Fox at all, or action adventure games like Zelda, then you probably should pick up Star Fox Adventures, it's proabably only 10 bucks at Gamestop.