Star Fox Assault? More like Star Fox Assault On This Game's Reputation. Seriously everyone was way too harsh on this game when it was first released.
The foundations for a great Star Fox game are here. With just a bit more tweaking this could have honestly been as good as 64.
I'll go through what this game is, and what it was criticized for. At heart, Star Fox Assault is intended to be a successor to Star Fox 64, an evolution of that game. It's a short arcadey score based shooter that is about blasting down enemies while protecting your friends. You can easily get through it in one playthrough.
Having said that, this sounds like what every fan wanted after Star Fox assault, so what went wrong?
Let's start with the good. The music is fucking phenomenal and uses an orchestral soundtrack that remakes a lot of 64's tracks.
The story and writing is actually not bad. This is surprising considering that Star Fox Adventures had Sonic Adventure 2 tier writing (I mean that as an insult to both SFA and SA2).
The on-rails Arwing sections are back, and they're really good. Like almost Star Fox 64 good, but if Star Fox 64's on rail Arwing sections are 10/10, Assault's is 9/10. The reason for this being that stages aren't as depthful as 64 as they lack secondary objectives that lead you to alternate paths, but everything else plays exactly like 64 if not better. So what's the problem here? 3 of the 10 stages are Arwing only.
Now, 64 wasn't only on-rails. You had plenty "All-range" levels that let you fly around freely on the map. People also liked these levels in 64 and this is what the other 7 of the 10 stages are here. So what is the issue here if people also like All-range mode? What would be the gripe if a Star Fox game was more All-range focused? Well, the on-foot sections is what everyone had a problem with.
I'm going to get into more detail about the on-foot levels, and how it was unfairly criticized, because the boos this game got when it was first revealed killed any momentum this franchise had going for it (before Star Fox Zero killed it again). People were so scarred from Star Fox Adventures being so different from the standard formula, it triggered a fight or flight response if they saw Fox on foot again.
As mentioned, the on-foot sections is an expanded All-range mode from Star Fox 64. You are given an open level with objectives to complete.
On-foot doesn't only just mean on-foot though, as you are given access to your Landmaster (Tank) and Arwing at any time. You can go from land to air in seconds and it is very impressive for the Gamecube era. When you are in the Arwing, it feels no different from Star Fox 64's All-Range levels.
The on-foot gameplay was the most criticized aspect of Assault. And I will go ahead and say, the gameplay is fine. It plays exactly like Megaman legends, and there is no issue with that. Are there smaller issues that could have been ironed out to make the on-foot gameplay even better? Abosultley. You are given a couple of weapons to cycle through in your arsenal, but there is only 1 cycle button meaning if you want to switch back and forth between weapons, which you will need to do in order to kill enemies that are unaffected by some of the weapons, then it is a frustrating time. Other than that, the on-foot is fast-paced, controls well, and is satisfying to run and mow down enemies. My point here being that people just dismissed the on-foot sections because Star Fox Adventures existed.
The other big part of these on-foot sections is the use of the Landmaster. I love using the landmaster as I feel like a beast blasting groups of enemies on the ground, or locking on and shooting things down from the air. However the landmaster has one of the biggest issues I believe to be in the game. The controls. Driving and turning this tank is not the same as every other tank controlling game. You CAN adjust the settings so that the tank does control like a tank, but then you are also forced to have the on-foot sections use tank controls. You can't have one or the other. You will need to compromise.
I won't go into detail about the All-Range Arwing sections as they pretty much are the same as the 64 ones. Except the fact that you can jump out of your Arwing at any time. There is one glaring problem with using the Arwing in All-Range mode and that is performance related. Sometimes when you are flying in the air, enemies won't appear on screen till you're really close with them. That can kind kill some runs as dogfighting with aircraft kinda requires you to know where all enemies are. It doesn't outright ruin the game, but it can sour some parts.
The other minor gripe I have is that the on-rails play at 60fps and on-foot is 30fps. But this doesn't bother me too much since a certain Dolphin can help you fix that issue.
I really liked Assault. At first, I was liking this as much as Star Fox 64 but as I went further into the game, the jankiness mentioned before started to sour some parts for me. But overall I'm still salty that we effectively killed a potentially great future for Star Fox considering if the next game just followed what Star Fox Assault did and refined a few things like controls, performance and maybe a few branching paths or levels, we could have gotten the next big great Star Fox we have been waiting for. But now Nintendo have listened to your unjustified cries, and now you will get nothing but Star Fox 64. Star Fox Zero? Nope it's just Star Fox 64 gyro edition.
The foundations for a great Star Fox game are here. With just a bit more tweaking this could have honestly been as good as 64.
I'll go through what this game is, and what it was criticized for. At heart, Star Fox Assault is intended to be a successor to Star Fox 64, an evolution of that game. It's a short arcadey score based shooter that is about blasting down enemies while protecting your friends. You can easily get through it in one playthrough.
Having said that, this sounds like what every fan wanted after Star Fox assault, so what went wrong?
Let's start with the good. The music is fucking phenomenal and uses an orchestral soundtrack that remakes a lot of 64's tracks.
The story and writing is actually not bad. This is surprising considering that Star Fox Adventures had Sonic Adventure 2 tier writing (I mean that as an insult to both SFA and SA2).
The on-rails Arwing sections are back, and they're really good. Like almost Star Fox 64 good, but if Star Fox 64's on rail Arwing sections are 10/10, Assault's is 9/10. The reason for this being that stages aren't as depthful as 64 as they lack secondary objectives that lead you to alternate paths, but everything else plays exactly like 64 if not better. So what's the problem here? 3 of the 10 stages are Arwing only.
Now, 64 wasn't only on-rails. You had plenty "All-range" levels that let you fly around freely on the map. People also liked these levels in 64 and this is what the other 7 of the 10 stages are here. So what is the issue here if people also like All-range mode? What would be the gripe if a Star Fox game was more All-range focused? Well, the on-foot sections is what everyone had a problem with.
I'm going to get into more detail about the on-foot levels, and how it was unfairly criticized, because the boos this game got when it was first revealed killed any momentum this franchise had going for it (before Star Fox Zero killed it again). People were so scarred from Star Fox Adventures being so different from the standard formula, it triggered a fight or flight response if they saw Fox on foot again.
As mentioned, the on-foot sections is an expanded All-range mode from Star Fox 64. You are given an open level with objectives to complete.
On-foot doesn't only just mean on-foot though, as you are given access to your Landmaster (Tank) and Arwing at any time. You can go from land to air in seconds and it is very impressive for the Gamecube era. When you are in the Arwing, it feels no different from Star Fox 64's All-Range levels.
The on-foot gameplay was the most criticized aspect of Assault. And I will go ahead and say, the gameplay is fine. It plays exactly like Megaman legends, and there is no issue with that. Are there smaller issues that could have been ironed out to make the on-foot gameplay even better? Abosultley. You are given a couple of weapons to cycle through in your arsenal, but there is only 1 cycle button meaning if you want to switch back and forth between weapons, which you will need to do in order to kill enemies that are unaffected by some of the weapons, then it is a frustrating time. Other than that, the on-foot is fast-paced, controls well, and is satisfying to run and mow down enemies. My point here being that people just dismissed the on-foot sections because Star Fox Adventures existed.
The other big part of these on-foot sections is the use of the Landmaster. I love using the landmaster as I feel like a beast blasting groups of enemies on the ground, or locking on and shooting things down from the air. However the landmaster has one of the biggest issues I believe to be in the game. The controls. Driving and turning this tank is not the same as every other tank controlling game. You CAN adjust the settings so that the tank does control like a tank, but then you are also forced to have the on-foot sections use tank controls. You can't have one or the other. You will need to compromise.
I won't go into detail about the All-Range Arwing sections as they pretty much are the same as the 64 ones. Except the fact that you can jump out of your Arwing at any time. There is one glaring problem with using the Arwing in All-Range mode and that is performance related. Sometimes when you are flying in the air, enemies won't appear on screen till you're really close with them. That can kind kill some runs as dogfighting with aircraft kinda requires you to know where all enemies are. It doesn't outright ruin the game, but it can sour some parts.
The other minor gripe I have is that the on-rails play at 60fps and on-foot is 30fps. But this doesn't bother me too much since a certain Dolphin can help you fix that issue.
I really liked Assault. At first, I was liking this as much as Star Fox 64 but as I went further into the game, the jankiness mentioned before started to sour some parts for me. But overall I'm still salty that we effectively killed a potentially great future for Star Fox considering if the next game just followed what Star Fox Assault did and refined a few things like controls, performance and maybe a few branching paths or levels, we could have gotten the next big great Star Fox we have been waiting for. But now Nintendo have listened to your unjustified cries, and now you will get nothing but Star Fox 64. Star Fox Zero? Nope it's just Star Fox 64 gyro edition.
2 Comments
My enjoyment of Assault is crippled by the existence of the Turret Sections. There's no redeeming those.
@FallenGrace
It's definitely worth at least once through. It was one of the few titles I felt compelled to revisit from the Cube in the last few years tbh. While mediocre as an overall package, the arwing missions ARE excellent.
@FallenGrace
It's definitely worth at least once through. It was one of the few titles I felt compelled to revisit from the Cube in the last few years tbh. While mediocre as an overall package, the arwing missions ARE excellent.
FallenGrace
25 days ago