Star Fox hops out of the Pilot's seat and steps into a decent adventure game.
Star Fox and his crew are mercenaries, soldiers who fight for rewards. The crew was recruited by General Pepper to save a prehistoric planet; Dinosaur Planet. It's a delicate planet and in bad shape, pieces of the planet are now floating in the planet's orbit rather than attached to the earth. Fox has been instructed to abandon both his Arwing and his blaster. He obviously isn't happy with his but he continues on either way. He finds a retractable staff that is seemingly abandoned nearby and decides to use it as a weapon. He finds the queen Earthwalker; one of the rulers on Dinosaur Planet and is tasked with finding her son, Prince Tricky. He finds the Prince Earthwalker and is then tasked with taking him to several temples across the scattered pieces of the planet in order to piece the planet back together.
It's not a terrible story and is pretty cool for Star Fox which usually has simple stories. It's very much like The Legend of Zelda, seeing as it's inspired by it from a gameplay point of view and Rare is good at taking an idea and turning into their own, this is not surprising. Overall, it's a fun ride to see what happens.
The gameplay is a little less polished than most of Rare's titles but is still solid. It plays a lot like The Legend of Zelda, you target enemies and fight them with your staff, which Fox seems to be very skilled with. The combat is as simple but looks more flashy. You run around and collect items, maps and keys to progress. Instead of items in each dungeon you get different powers that are mostly used for progression. The dungeons are designed in a similar way to Zelda's as well. There are large puzzles and enemy gauntlets that end in a boss fight.
If you played Zelda, then you know how this plays, the main difference is the overall lack of polish. Fox's jumps are slow and floaty, his running can feel strange and the world is very strangely designed. You can't move while defending in combat either, making defense less of a factor. The game is quite long, even though there about half the dungeons in Ocarina of Time. You can find items that raise your life, similar to Zelda, and there are plenty of secrets to find in the world, many of which require Tricky to reach. Tricky can various things, such as digging or blowing fire, that allows you to reach areas you couldn't before.
There are also challenges required to complete the story, the Krazoa Spirits. You find these scattered around the world and a challenge needs to be completed to obtain them. When they are obtained, you need to take them back to the Krazoa Palace. This area, and the Krazoa in general, give off a very Metroid feel. Similar to the Chozo Artifacts in Metroid Prime. Overall, even though it is very unpolished, it's still an enjoyable game. If you like Zelda, you should enjoy this.
The audio is a little mixed. The music doesn't really leave an impression but the voice work is good. It's similar to Conker's Bad Fur Day, in that the Rare employees voiced the characters themselves. It can sound a little goofy and the Dinosaur language can sound a little cheesy, but Rare did a good job voicing Fox at the very least.
The visuals stand out from the rest of the game. They are fantastic. Fox's character model has fur tech and the environments and other characters are really detailed. The animations are a little rigid, which seems to be pretty common in this time, but Fox's animations are great. The environments are nice and varied, detailed a full of items to break and enemies to fight. Some areas are so large and detailed that it's surprising there are no forced loading screens. Rare definitely knows how to get the most out of whatever console they are working on.
Time for a little history lesson about this game. This was not meant to be a Star Fox game, it started as a new game simply called Dinosaur Planet and was meant to have multiple playable characters. One of these characters was named Krystal and she was shown with a staff, much like how Fox fights in Star Fox Adventures. If you look at some of Fox's animations, they look very feminine, which would mean the game's changes were brought on late in development and Rare left Krystal's animations in the game used by Fox. Krystal actually appears in the game and is playable in the beginning, using the same animations as Fox. It means nothing really, just something I noticed while playing.
PROs:
- Zelda-like gameplay that's still fun
- Impressive visuals
- Environments are varied and full of detail
- Story is interesting
- Voice work is good
- Lengthy quest
CONs:
- Gameplay feels unpolished
- Music isn't memorable
- Animations can be a little awkward
- A little too close to Zelda
- A lot of tedious moments
Overall, if you like Zelda (who doesn't really) then you should take a look at Star Fox Adventures. It's nothing other than a Zelda game developed by Rare. It's not as polished as any 3D Zelda game, but it's still a fun and great looking game with an interesting story. Sure, some of the voice acting is a little cheesy sometimes and the music doesn't really stand out, but the Zelda formula works even with Star Fox. Fans might dislike Fox outside of the Arwing but no one can deny that the game is actually good, regardless of this fact.
Story: 8.0/10
Gameplay: 7.5/10
Audio: 7.0/10
Presentation: 9.0/10