DoctorIssa
BACKER
I don't think I've ever instantly fallen in love with a video game faster than I did with Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom.
With the resurgance of 3D platformers in the indie scene, this game is most definetly something you can add to the list of greatest 3D platformers of all time.
A platformer where there is no jump button? That is right... sort of. In this game you are taking advantatge of slopes and ramps with the dash abiity your taxi has in order to "Jump" and get to high places. As you play the game you will eventually learn more and more tricks where you will be moving around the map like an abosolute master, the same way you would be moving in Mario Sunshine or A Hat in Time. The skill ceiling here is TALL, and once you really get good with the mechanics, you will be jumping and zipping all around easily getting to out of bounds places. The game controls like an absolute dream and you'll have no problem getting used to the mechanics.
The game is structured like a 3D Mario game and Banjo-Kazzoie where you're given open zones to explore and collect gears (this games version of Stars or Jiggies). Some are out in the open for you to platform to and collect, and others require you to complete some sort of challenge. The standard fare, but not a single gear was ever frustrating to get. Going for the 100% is immensly fun.
With it being a Taxi game, there are also some Crazy Taxi moments where you gotta pick up and drop of passangers during some of the levels, which bring another unique twist to this platformer. Think Crazy Taxi but you're platforming as well as driving to your destination.
The visuals are super charming, it's a like a cross between Megaman Ledgends and a beautiful Sega Saturn game. It is absolutley charming and shines with every level theme the game has from the beach, to the bustling city, to haunted mansions. It's got all the themes you'd expect a platformer to have.
It takes about 8 - 10 hours to finish this, something expected from the genere, however when you beat the game there is a huge post-game that is about the same size as the main game, and in completly new levels too. There is so much content here with some of the postgame being real challenging if you want to exhaust everything you can from this game.
With this being the studio's first game, I am very shocked at the result here. I have no idea who the individual devs are, but this game feels like it was made by very experienced people in the industry. Something you'd expect nowadays from Toys for Bob or Insomniac. This is definetly my favorite platfomer so far from 2024, and expected sleeper hit.
With the resurgance of 3D platformers in the indie scene, this game is most definetly something you can add to the list of greatest 3D platformers of all time.
A platformer where there is no jump button? That is right... sort of. In this game you are taking advantatge of slopes and ramps with the dash abiity your taxi has in order to "Jump" and get to high places. As you play the game you will eventually learn more and more tricks where you will be moving around the map like an abosolute master, the same way you would be moving in Mario Sunshine or A Hat in Time. The skill ceiling here is TALL, and once you really get good with the mechanics, you will be jumping and zipping all around easily getting to out of bounds places. The game controls like an absolute dream and you'll have no problem getting used to the mechanics.
The game is structured like a 3D Mario game and Banjo-Kazzoie where you're given open zones to explore and collect gears (this games version of Stars or Jiggies). Some are out in the open for you to platform to and collect, and others require you to complete some sort of challenge. The standard fare, but not a single gear was ever frustrating to get. Going for the 100% is immensly fun.
With it being a Taxi game, there are also some Crazy Taxi moments where you gotta pick up and drop of passangers during some of the levels, which bring another unique twist to this platformer. Think Crazy Taxi but you're platforming as well as driving to your destination.
The visuals are super charming, it's a like a cross between Megaman Ledgends and a beautiful Sega Saturn game. It is absolutley charming and shines with every level theme the game has from the beach, to the bustling city, to haunted mansions. It's got all the themes you'd expect a platformer to have.
It takes about 8 - 10 hours to finish this, something expected from the genere, however when you beat the game there is a huge post-game that is about the same size as the main game, and in completly new levels too. There is so much content here with some of the postgame being real challenging if you want to exhaust everything you can from this game.
With this being the studio's first game, I am very shocked at the result here. I have no idea who the individual devs are, but this game feels like it was made by very experienced people in the industry. Something you'd expect nowadays from Toys for Bob or Insomniac. This is definetly my favorite platfomer so far from 2024, and expected sleeper hit.
There are a lot of good ideas presented here that seemed to improve an idea of the sequel to the first game, but the execution brings it down a bit to the point where I couldn't enjoy this as much as Bomberman 64. I still enjoyed and appreciated some aspects to it.
I really liked the original Bomberman 64. It had a few flaws in a couple of areas, but I was more forgiving to it considering it was the first 3D adventure-style Bomberman. The main issue I had with Bomberman 64 was that the level design was okay if you weren't fully exploring the level for the 100%. You could beeline it to the end of a level without much challenge. In Bomberman 64: The Second Attack, this is the main thing they addressed, but not to the degree I like.
As opposed to the open-ended nature of levels in the original, levels are now structured like Zelda dungeons. I like this idea for a 3D Bomberman game that is based around exploring and puzzle solving. The more intricate level design actually puts you to the test without the need to go for 100%
While the "Dungeon puzzle" designs are fine and clever. The execution is not. The game has a lot of backtracking, which is fine for a game like this, but the problem is there are a lot of rooms that are locked and won't open until you beat all the enemies in that room. That is also a fine concept, it is done in Zelda too. The problem is that every time you leave and re-enter a room (which you will be doing a lot) the enemies are reset and the doors are locked again. And this happens so much, I can tell you it probably adds an unnecessary extra 2 hours to your playthrough.
For every level, if you die you start all the way back at the beginning. Sometimes with some of the puzzles already solved, but you have to track all the way to the point where you previously were. It is real easy to die with the fact that there are bottomless pits everywhere (insta-kill), so this also heavily takes momentum out of the game.
The original Bomberman 64 let you move the camera around which was a godsend in a game where you need to properly see all your enemies and aim your bombs carefully. This game does the genius idea of removing all camera control, so now you're stuck with a fixed camera and worse bomb aiming because of that, with the prone-ness to easily die now due to falling off things because of the bad fixed camera. The fixed camera also makes the game feel much less grandiose.
In regards to the gameplay itself, everything here feels slightly worse than it did than the original. Movement, charging bombs, throwing bombs, kicking etc. Everything feels more sluggish and less accurate. They really messed up what was fine to begin with controls. The biggest sin is how bombs are charged. Originally, you had to pump them up by mashing the A button, which would give you a satisfactory pumping animation. The faster you mash the faster it would pump. Now for this game, you have to hold the B button and it will slow grow. Keep in mind if you are next to a well, or your companion, the bomb won't grow at all for some reason. This makes charging infinitely less satisfying and made me want to avoid doing it.
The act of boming itself is much worse too. In the original 2D Bomberman games, you bomb would blow up in a '+' shape. This made sense for how the game is presented. For a 3D game, the + shape does not cut it. Good thing this was addressed immediately in the OG Bomberman 64 with the fact that the explosion is circular, but in this game it has been reverted back to the + shape. This is a bad idea with the fact that enemies move in a free 360 degree motion, as opposed to just a vertical or horizontal direction. Because of this, your bombs will now miss like 60% of the time.
You are given different bomb types this time around which act like new Zelda dungeon items. Each bomb fulfills a different purpose for solving puzzles, and enemies are weak to some more than others, but you will be using your Ice bombs 90% of the time as that is the only bomb that will blow up in a circular shape without charging it.
On top of all the annoying gameplay quirks that heavily bring the game down. There is a lot of unskippable dialogue, which I'm normally fine with in RPGs, but this is a Bomberman game. Like I don't wanna spend 5 minutes reading dialogue about "deep" Bomberman lore, c'mon.
This game on paper sounds like my ideal kind of Bomberman game, but it shows how even with the best ideas, bad execution can ruin something good. I still enjoyed the game for a single playthrough, and the best parts were going through these dungeon like levels, and figuring out the puzzles as you go along, but with everything else bringing the vibes down I just wanted this game to end.
If you want a REALLY good Bomberman Zelda-like though, go play Bomberman Quest on the Gameboy. That shit is as good as Link's Awakening let me tell ya.
I really liked the original Bomberman 64. It had a few flaws in a couple of areas, but I was more forgiving to it considering it was the first 3D adventure-style Bomberman. The main issue I had with Bomberman 64 was that the level design was okay if you weren't fully exploring the level for the 100%. You could beeline it to the end of a level without much challenge. In Bomberman 64: The Second Attack, this is the main thing they addressed, but not to the degree I like.
As opposed to the open-ended nature of levels in the original, levels are now structured like Zelda dungeons. I like this idea for a 3D Bomberman game that is based around exploring and puzzle solving. The more intricate level design actually puts you to the test without the need to go for 100%
While the "Dungeon puzzle" designs are fine and clever. The execution is not. The game has a lot of backtracking, which is fine for a game like this, but the problem is there are a lot of rooms that are locked and won't open until you beat all the enemies in that room. That is also a fine concept, it is done in Zelda too. The problem is that every time you leave and re-enter a room (which you will be doing a lot) the enemies are reset and the doors are locked again. And this happens so much, I can tell you it probably adds an unnecessary extra 2 hours to your playthrough.
For every level, if you die you start all the way back at the beginning. Sometimes with some of the puzzles already solved, but you have to track all the way to the point where you previously were. It is real easy to die with the fact that there are bottomless pits everywhere (insta-kill), so this also heavily takes momentum out of the game.
The original Bomberman 64 let you move the camera around which was a godsend in a game where you need to properly see all your enemies and aim your bombs carefully. This game does the genius idea of removing all camera control, so now you're stuck with a fixed camera and worse bomb aiming because of that, with the prone-ness to easily die now due to falling off things because of the bad fixed camera. The fixed camera also makes the game feel much less grandiose.
In regards to the gameplay itself, everything here feels slightly worse than it did than the original. Movement, charging bombs, throwing bombs, kicking etc. Everything feels more sluggish and less accurate. They really messed up what was fine to begin with controls. The biggest sin is how bombs are charged. Originally, you had to pump them up by mashing the A button, which would give you a satisfactory pumping animation. The faster you mash the faster it would pump. Now for this game, you have to hold the B button and it will slow grow. Keep in mind if you are next to a well, or your companion, the bomb won't grow at all for some reason. This makes charging infinitely less satisfying and made me want to avoid doing it.
The act of boming itself is much worse too. In the original 2D Bomberman games, you bomb would blow up in a '+' shape. This made sense for how the game is presented. For a 3D game, the + shape does not cut it. Good thing this was addressed immediately in the OG Bomberman 64 with the fact that the explosion is circular, but in this game it has been reverted back to the + shape. This is a bad idea with the fact that enemies move in a free 360 degree motion, as opposed to just a vertical or horizontal direction. Because of this, your bombs will now miss like 60% of the time.
You are given different bomb types this time around which act like new Zelda dungeon items. Each bomb fulfills a different purpose for solving puzzles, and enemies are weak to some more than others, but you will be using your Ice bombs 90% of the time as that is the only bomb that will blow up in a circular shape without charging it.
On top of all the annoying gameplay quirks that heavily bring the game down. There is a lot of unskippable dialogue, which I'm normally fine with in RPGs, but this is a Bomberman game. Like I don't wanna spend 5 minutes reading dialogue about "deep" Bomberman lore, c'mon.
This game on paper sounds like my ideal kind of Bomberman game, but it shows how even with the best ideas, bad execution can ruin something good. I still enjoyed the game for a single playthrough, and the best parts were going through these dungeon like levels, and figuring out the puzzles as you go along, but with everything else bringing the vibes down I just wanted this game to end.
If you want a REALLY good Bomberman Zelda-like though, go play Bomberman Quest on the Gameboy. That shit is as good as Link's Awakening let me tell ya.
2022
EARLY ACCESS REVIEW:
I generally don't play early access games and usually wait out until 1.0 is finished, however this was just sitting in my library looking like a juicy steak that I couldn't resist.
Obviously a homage to Star Fox, Ex Zodiac is looking to be one of the best Star Fox-like games that is not Star Fox or Star Fox 64. This definitely scratches that itch as the gameplay itself feels like a 1:1 creation of Star Fox 64.
Each level is vibrant and deep, each containing smaller secrets you can find to acquire more power-ups. The charm of the original Star Fox is here and you can tell the dev is a big fan.
Besides the "arwing" gameplay, you also get a bike that controls similar to the landmaster and also bonus levels, that plays like a homage to Space Harrier.
Ex Zodic feels like it's made by a mega fan of the rail shooter genre and wants nothing but to do it justice. At the moment there are about 9 stages that can be completed in about hour, but the devs says there's plans for 13 stages.
As the game is unfinished, my feedback would be to incorporate ways to make the game more replayable (e.g. Branching paths with different difficulties, challenges etc) and the moment it's a straight forward level by level game with not much reason to go back unless you want a higher score. Also a slight nitpick more than a complaint, similar to the OG Star Fox, it's hard to read the dialogue while concentrating on the action, so hoping for voice acting in the finished version. Since this is an indie game, maybe the Dev could also follow the trend of indie games and incorporate some kind of endless/roguelike mode as an unlockable after beating the main game.
I generally don't play early access games and usually wait out until 1.0 is finished, however this was just sitting in my library looking like a juicy steak that I couldn't resist.
Obviously a homage to Star Fox, Ex Zodiac is looking to be one of the best Star Fox-like games that is not Star Fox or Star Fox 64. This definitely scratches that itch as the gameplay itself feels like a 1:1 creation of Star Fox 64.
Each level is vibrant and deep, each containing smaller secrets you can find to acquire more power-ups. The charm of the original Star Fox is here and you can tell the dev is a big fan.
Besides the "arwing" gameplay, you also get a bike that controls similar to the landmaster and also bonus levels, that plays like a homage to Space Harrier.
Ex Zodic feels like it's made by a mega fan of the rail shooter genre and wants nothing but to do it justice. At the moment there are about 9 stages that can be completed in about hour, but the devs says there's plans for 13 stages.
As the game is unfinished, my feedback would be to incorporate ways to make the game more replayable (e.g. Branching paths with different difficulties, challenges etc) and the moment it's a straight forward level by level game with not much reason to go back unless you want a higher score. Also a slight nitpick more than a complaint, similar to the OG Star Fox, it's hard to read the dialogue while concentrating on the action, so hoping for voice acting in the finished version. Since this is an indie game, maybe the Dev could also follow the trend of indie games and incorporate some kind of endless/roguelike mode as an unlockable after beating the main game.
1997
I used to see my cousins play this game a lot as a kid, but it looked fairly generic to me. All I remember is it had some funny sound effects for some reason.
Years later I find that this was made by Rare, so I wanted to give it a shot considering their reputation on the N64.
Blast Corps is a 'turn your brain off and wreck shit' kinda game. You're given levels each with a time limit to complete the objective, the objective mostly being wreck all the required shit before time runs out. The variety comes in the type of vehicles you are given each mission. Sometimes you are given a bulldozer and other times you are given a giant mech amongst other things. Something it will switch up and you will need to use multiple vehicles in a sigle level.
The gameplay is satisfying and easy to pick up. But once you've completed the first couple of levels, you've basically seen everything the game has to offer and the rest of the game provides similar challenges, just much harder. If you wanna complete this game you will be retrying a lot of the later levels over and over again.
Blast Corps is a fine time waster if you wanna just crumble the fuck outta some 1990 lookin-ass buildings with some big machinery, but once your fun runs out the game does not have much else to offer.
Years later I find that this was made by Rare, so I wanted to give it a shot considering their reputation on the N64.
Blast Corps is a 'turn your brain off and wreck shit' kinda game. You're given levels each with a time limit to complete the objective, the objective mostly being wreck all the required shit before time runs out. The variety comes in the type of vehicles you are given each mission. Sometimes you are given a bulldozer and other times you are given a giant mech amongst other things. Something it will switch up and you will need to use multiple vehicles in a sigle level.
The gameplay is satisfying and easy to pick up. But once you've completed the first couple of levels, you've basically seen everything the game has to offer and the rest of the game provides similar challenges, just much harder. If you wanna complete this game you will be retrying a lot of the later levels over and over again.
Blast Corps is a fine time waster if you wanna just crumble the fuck outta some 1990 lookin-ass buildings with some big machinery, but once your fun runs out the game does not have much else to offer.
1997
This probably has one of the funniest bad endings I've seen in a video game.
I'm glad Bomberman 64 is a game that exists. I always loved the premise of Bomberman, being a little marshmallow man that can conjure bombs from thin air, and everything you kill in this world is cute. However, I always found the regular Bomberman gameplay kind of repetitive considering there's like 50 versions of Bomberman with similar gameplay.
Bomberman 64 breaks that cycle and provides an action adventure game where you are given levels to explore and solve puzzles while bombing the living daylights out of cute things.
The gameplay is pretty simple, it's a fully 3D Bomberman where you can conjure bombs, but also kick and throw them. With these skills you can explore each level to complete the objective and reach the end. You either have the choice of just finishing the level objective to get the bad ending, or going out of your way to fully explore each level and find all the collectables by completing some sort of puzzle or defeating some big enemy in order to get the good ending. Regardless it's a fun time with a lot of cheap kills by dying to your own bombs (this will happen a lot).
It's fairly short if you only focus on the objects and can beat the game in about an hour. It can be quite challenging if you aren't familiar with the tricks, so it's fairly replayable and you can get better and better with each run.
This is an absolutely charming little game that I recommend you play once if you're for some good N64 nostalgia.
I'm glad Bomberman 64 is a game that exists. I always loved the premise of Bomberman, being a little marshmallow man that can conjure bombs from thin air, and everything you kill in this world is cute. However, I always found the regular Bomberman gameplay kind of repetitive considering there's like 50 versions of Bomberman with similar gameplay.
Bomberman 64 breaks that cycle and provides an action adventure game where you are given levels to explore and solve puzzles while bombing the living daylights out of cute things.
The gameplay is pretty simple, it's a fully 3D Bomberman where you can conjure bombs, but also kick and throw them. With these skills you can explore each level to complete the objective and reach the end. You either have the choice of just finishing the level objective to get the bad ending, or going out of your way to fully explore each level and find all the collectables by completing some sort of puzzle or defeating some big enemy in order to get the good ending. Regardless it's a fun time with a lot of cheap kills by dying to your own bombs (this will happen a lot).
It's fairly short if you only focus on the objects and can beat the game in about an hour. It can be quite challenging if you aren't familiar with the tricks, so it's fairly replayable and you can get better and better with each run.
This is an absolutely charming little game that I recommend you play once if you're for some good N64 nostalgia.
2022
One of the best FPS Roguelites I've played. Roboquest has the feeling of a Halo game, with the aesthetics of Borderlands/Hi-Fi Rush with a neat little Mega Man premise. A great recipe that is kind of held back by being a rogue-lite.
I love Robots, I love this artsyle, I love great movement , upgrades, choices of classes. This game has it all. It's what you expect from roguelites; Random weapon drops, procedural levels and permadeath with small incremental upgrades.
The gameplay is very good, and if it weren't for the satisfying gunplay, sexy doom-like movement, great aesthetics, this would be just another FPS roguelike in a sea of roguelite indies.
I had my fun with it but I don't have the patience to finish roguelites these days unless you are Shovel Knight Dig or Enter the Gungeon. I may pick it up again one day to complete it as I did really like this one.
I love Robots, I love this artsyle, I love great movement , upgrades, choices of classes. This game has it all. It's what you expect from roguelites; Random weapon drops, procedural levels and permadeath with small incremental upgrades.
The gameplay is very good, and if it weren't for the satisfying gunplay, sexy doom-like movement, great aesthetics, this would be just another FPS roguelike in a sea of roguelite indies.
I had my fun with it but I don't have the patience to finish roguelites these days unless you are Shovel Knight Dig or Enter the Gungeon. I may pick it up again one day to complete it as I did really like this one.
2023
Pseudoregalia has the bones and structure of so many things I like in video games. The game is a 3D Platoforming Metroidvania akin to Blue Fire or like a 3D Ori and the Blind Forest a.k.a Good Shit.
The game has some of the smoothest best feeling controls in a 3D platformer I have ever felt. All you start off with is a basic jump, but as you explore, progress, doing metroidvania things, you unlock more and more of your movement options. By the middle of the game you will be zipping zooming and bouncing all around the levels. Rooms that took you minutes to get through at the beginning will take you seconds by the end. As a Metroidvania it is expected you need to unlock things to access new places. So naturally the things you unlock are new platforming moves, meaning you still need to earn access to the new place by using your new platformer moves, whether it's a wall kick, wall run, long jump etc.
The gameplay here is nothing but a pure 5/5 and I would change nothing about it.
The level design is really good here as you unlock more moves, you given more than one way to access a location. There is a bit of backtracking here, but once you get used to the map you can figure out where to go. No problem there.
I love the homage to N64 graphics. I was a N64 kid so it brought back a nice familiar feeling.
My major gripe with the game is all the aesthetics of the levels. You are in one big castle, but everything is just so bland. No matter which section you are in, all the visuals feel like the equivalent of stale bread. This does have a huge hinderance on enjoying considering all you are doing here is platforming. There is essentially no story, and the music is very bland. If the platforming wasn't really really good, I would be bored out of my mind. It was apparent when I had to backtrack through the same locations like 10 times because I needed to find out where I needed to go next, but I had to cross the bland castle over and over again.
I hope the dev takes this game to the next level with a sequel that keeps the same concept, but just has better production overall. I can see a game like this being of my favorites of all time.
The game has some of the smoothest best feeling controls in a 3D platformer I have ever felt. All you start off with is a basic jump, but as you explore, progress, doing metroidvania things, you unlock more and more of your movement options. By the middle of the game you will be zipping zooming and bouncing all around the levels. Rooms that took you minutes to get through at the beginning will take you seconds by the end. As a Metroidvania it is expected you need to unlock things to access new places. So naturally the things you unlock are new platforming moves, meaning you still need to earn access to the new place by using your new platformer moves, whether it's a wall kick, wall run, long jump etc.
The gameplay here is nothing but a pure 5/5 and I would change nothing about it.
The level design is really good here as you unlock more moves, you given more than one way to access a location. There is a bit of backtracking here, but once you get used to the map you can figure out where to go. No problem there.
I love the homage to N64 graphics. I was a N64 kid so it brought back a nice familiar feeling.
My major gripe with the game is all the aesthetics of the levels. You are in one big castle, but everything is just so bland. No matter which section you are in, all the visuals feel like the equivalent of stale bread. This does have a huge hinderance on enjoying considering all you are doing here is platforming. There is essentially no story, and the music is very bland. If the platforming wasn't really really good, I would be bored out of my mind. It was apparent when I had to backtrack through the same locations like 10 times because I needed to find out where I needed to go next, but I had to cross the bland castle over and over again.
I hope the dev takes this game to the next level with a sequel that keeps the same concept, but just has better production overall. I can see a game like this being of my favorites of all time.
2024
A new entry in the fun with-friends flavor of the week genre (e.g. Lethal Company). So far I love the concept of this game, where you get to roleplay being Logan Paul in a suicide forest.
It's basically an excuse to act stupid with mates and have laugh at the playback at the end.
Although you will quickly see all the game has to offer in a few hours so the novelty wears off fast.
It was a smart idea giving this for free for 24 hours because I don't think it's something I would buy or convince my friends to play if it wasn't free. Still had a good couple of laughs with it.
It's basically an excuse to act stupid with mates and have laugh at the playback at the end.
Although you will quickly see all the game has to offer in a few hours so the novelty wears off fast.
It was a smart idea giving this for free for 24 hours because I don't think it's something I would buy or convince my friends to play if it wasn't free. Still had a good couple of laughs with it.
2005
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.
This feels like an overall improvement over the original with tighter controls, branching paths (not to be confused with branching stages), better visuals and just better balance.
I still have no idea what's going on in the story besides good dragon shoot down bad dragon, but the world has such a cool otherworldly design that I didn't really care. This also features much cooler setpieces than the first game.
The shooting is easier on the hands to fire rapid shots which my thumb is grateful for. Shooting things down is much more satisfying with better feedback and good visuals.
My only complaints are similar to the first where it is really short for an on-rails shooter. At least there is more replayability here with branching paths in levels. My other issue is the fact that the dodge button is tied to hitting the movement pad twice, which is not convenient and screw the flow gameplay up, as opposed to pressing a single button to dodge (seriously there are so many unused buttons here).
This is a very good on-rails shooter with some great atmosphere and music. Worth a play for rail shooter fans. I look forward to delving further into this world as an RPG with Panzer Dragoon Saga.
I still have no idea what's going on in the story besides good dragon shoot down bad dragon, but the world has such a cool otherworldly design that I didn't really care. This also features much cooler setpieces than the first game.
The shooting is easier on the hands to fire rapid shots which my thumb is grateful for. Shooting things down is much more satisfying with better feedback and good visuals.
My only complaints are similar to the first where it is really short for an on-rails shooter. At least there is more replayability here with branching paths in levels. My other issue is the fact that the dodge button is tied to hitting the movement pad twice, which is not convenient and screw the flow gameplay up, as opposed to pressing a single button to dodge (seriously there are so many unused buttons here).
This is a very good on-rails shooter with some great atmosphere and music. Worth a play for rail shooter fans. I look forward to delving further into this world as an RPG with Panzer Dragoon Saga.
1995
I've been meaning to play Panzer Dragoon ever since I beat Star Fox 64 and have been wanting more. While Panzer Dragoon does sort of scratch that itch, the game is not as replayable or deep as Star Fox and other on rails shooters such as Sin and Punishment.
What differentiates Panzer Dragoon from other rail shooters is the fact that it's 360 shooter meaning you can fully turn your camera to the back or the sides giving more depth to the level. It can be pretty satisfying when you get the hang of it and start taking down enemies left and right in such a snappy manner.
Unfortunately the game is over before you can even fully get into it. I literally started playing this and finished it just on my lunch break. I was expecting a short game as rail shooters are quite short in general but was astonished at how quick this one is too.
With the shorter length, you'd expect different paths or secrets in levels, but this doesn't have that. This is more of a one and done kind of game and the replayability factor is there if you want to get a better rating at the end of the game, but nothing really changes through each playthrough.
The music was amazing and probably one of the strongest aspects of Panzer Dragoon. So are the graphics, which is very charming for the Sega Saturn era.
If you are a fan of rail shooters, I'd say Panzer Dragoon as worth at least a playthrough. Who knows, you might enjoy this even more and join the cult following crowd.
What differentiates Panzer Dragoon from other rail shooters is the fact that it's 360 shooter meaning you can fully turn your camera to the back or the sides giving more depth to the level. It can be pretty satisfying when you get the hang of it and start taking down enemies left and right in such a snappy manner.
Unfortunately the game is over before you can even fully get into it. I literally started playing this and finished it just on my lunch break. I was expecting a short game as rail shooters are quite short in general but was astonished at how quick this one is too.
With the shorter length, you'd expect different paths or secrets in levels, but this doesn't have that. This is more of a one and done kind of game and the replayability factor is there if you want to get a better rating at the end of the game, but nothing really changes through each playthrough.
The music was amazing and probably one of the strongest aspects of Panzer Dragoon. So are the graphics, which is very charming for the Sega Saturn era.
If you are a fan of rail shooters, I'd say Panzer Dragoon as worth at least a playthrough. Who knows, you might enjoy this even more and join the cult following crowd.
2022
Rollerdrome is a game that would fit in perfectly with the PS2 library, meant as a good thing. It harkens to back to that generation where all you needed for a videogame was a cool idea and some good gameplay.
Taking a lot of inspiration from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Rollerdrome is best described as a Tony Hawk game with guns. The concept is very similar; you're given stages and in order to unlock new stages you need to complete some of the listed challenges e.g. Get a score of X, Do this trick on this grind rail etc etc.
As opposed to playing against the timer, you are rather playing against enemies. This is where the guns come in. In order to complete a level, you simply have to kill all the players on a stage using your 4 different weapons. You have controls that are very similar to THPS except not as complex. The question is why would you focus on doing tricks when this is mainly a shooter then? Well, in order to get back some ammo for your guns, you need to perform tricks. This is where the cool gameplay idea comes where you will constantly shooting and flipping, grabbing, grinding and spinning which results in very stylish gameplay once you master it.
The first 2 hours of the game is extremely fun, however the novelty quickly wears off once you realise you've seen all that the game can show you in those first 2 hours. The game itself is about 5-6 hours so it's not too long, but in those last 3 hours you will just be basically doing the same thing by facing the same enemy types you have been facing in the first 2 hours and the repetitiveness kicks in.
The idea of Rollerdrome is so good, the gameplay is great, it's just the content itself leaves so much to be desired. There are a couple of stages, but you are getting the same 3 biomes which quickly wear out. There is so much potential with Rollerdrome to reach high highs, which it does at the beginning, but everything quickly wears off hoping you'd see much more variety.
It's still a very good game and I would like to see a sequel with the same concept but with much more variety and ideas.
Taking a lot of inspiration from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Rollerdrome is best described as a Tony Hawk game with guns. The concept is very similar; you're given stages and in order to unlock new stages you need to complete some of the listed challenges e.g. Get a score of X, Do this trick on this grind rail etc etc.
As opposed to playing against the timer, you are rather playing against enemies. This is where the guns come in. In order to complete a level, you simply have to kill all the players on a stage using your 4 different weapons. You have controls that are very similar to THPS except not as complex. The question is why would you focus on doing tricks when this is mainly a shooter then? Well, in order to get back some ammo for your guns, you need to perform tricks. This is where the cool gameplay idea comes where you will constantly shooting and flipping, grabbing, grinding and spinning which results in very stylish gameplay once you master it.
The first 2 hours of the game is extremely fun, however the novelty quickly wears off once you realise you've seen all that the game can show you in those first 2 hours. The game itself is about 5-6 hours so it's not too long, but in those last 3 hours you will just be basically doing the same thing by facing the same enemy types you have been facing in the first 2 hours and the repetitiveness kicks in.
The idea of Rollerdrome is so good, the gameplay is great, it's just the content itself leaves so much to be desired. There are a couple of stages, but you are getting the same 3 biomes which quickly wear out. There is so much potential with Rollerdrome to reach high highs, which it does at the beginning, but everything quickly wears off hoping you'd see much more variety.
It's still a very good game and I would like to see a sequel with the same concept but with much more variety and ideas.
Outcast is a game that I had my eye on for a very long time as it features one my favourite settings in video games; a foreign planet with aliens and a good story.
Knowing this is a remake of a fairly old voxel PC game, I went into this with an open mind. Unfortunately while the unfolding story was intriguing, everything else from the gameplay to exploration is subpar.
This is one of the very first open world action adventure games, and it shows. The world itself while looking cool and otherworldish, is just really a maze of boring design. It's a huge world too but mostly empty and filled with same-y locations.
The best part of Outcast is the questing system. It's kind of similar to Morrowind where you need to talk to individuals to uncover more information about the quest at hand, rather than just following a marker. The writing can be quite funny and charming and I enjoy some of the conversations you have here. This is where the positives end.
A lot of what you'll be doing in Outcast is shooting enemy soldiers, and unfortunately here it is just not fun. Enemies are really bad bullet spunges that are not fun to shoot at all. It can take a good while to kill 1 enemy in the beginning, and with this being an action adventure game, the action not being fun is a killer.
Exploration is also not too great as you'll be exploring one section that feels similar no matter where you are on the map. Back then, this game would have been revolutionary but today it is not so great.
I have shelved this, but I may come back to it one day to give it another chance if I ever want to play the sequel.
Knowing this is a remake of a fairly old voxel PC game, I went into this with an open mind. Unfortunately while the unfolding story was intriguing, everything else from the gameplay to exploration is subpar.
This is one of the very first open world action adventure games, and it shows. The world itself while looking cool and otherworldish, is just really a maze of boring design. It's a huge world too but mostly empty and filled with same-y locations.
The best part of Outcast is the questing system. It's kind of similar to Morrowind where you need to talk to individuals to uncover more information about the quest at hand, rather than just following a marker. The writing can be quite funny and charming and I enjoy some of the conversations you have here. This is where the positives end.
A lot of what you'll be doing in Outcast is shooting enemy soldiers, and unfortunately here it is just not fun. Enemies are really bad bullet spunges that are not fun to shoot at all. It can take a good while to kill 1 enemy in the beginning, and with this being an action adventure game, the action not being fun is a killer.
Exploration is also not too great as you'll be exploring one section that feels similar no matter where you are on the map. Back then, this game would have been revolutionary but today it is not so great.
I have shelved this, but I may come back to it one day to give it another chance if I ever want to play the sequel.
2023
After years of fans yearning for another game in the Jet Set Radio series Team Reptile are finally here with a spiritual successor to the franchise, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk
To get straight to the point, if you are a fan of Jet Set Radio, go and play this game. It is pretty much everything that Jet Set Radio and future is, and more.
Where Jet Set Radio Future fine tunes the controls of the original Jet set radio, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk takes the controls to the next level by giving the characters a jetpack that allows them to Double Jump and do all other kinds of tricks including boosting. The even gave you the ability to do a manual which allows for endless combos and just makes comboing much more addicting than it was in the original Jet set radio series. This allows a game to feel more like a Tony Hawk style of game in terms of comboing rather than a more simplistic controlling JSR.
With the game controlling like an absolute dream due to the double jump and the one-button manual, unfortunately there is a caveat of the control difficulty being too easy and not prone to mistakes, but if you aren't bothered by the easiness of the gameplay then you'll have the time of your life here, feeling like a skating God.
The structure of this game is actually very similar to Jet Set Radio Future where you're given a bunch of open hubs and you can fulfill multiple objectives such as tagging or collecting items. The structure isn't bad but I do prefer the arcade Style of levels the way the original Jet Set Radio was presented. With the game being more of a open world skate-at-your-own-pace type of game, it suffers the same issues Jet Set Radio Future did when it came to the soundtrack of the game, where you would hear the same couple of songs looping over and over to the point where you would get tired from it. The replayability also dies with this structure because of the fact that you can't simply just jump in and replay arcadey stages aiming for the highest score. The game is way more story driven this time around so if you did like the original Jet Set Radio for the arcadiness, this choice may be a negative for you.
A big part of what made Jet Set Radio so so good was its style and music. The Music definitely hits as good as Jet Set Radio bringing back some of the composers of those games. And the artstyle, while not as vibrant as the original Jet Set Radio, is still really stylish and probably a little better than it was in Jet Set Radio future.
Although without comparing it to JSR, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is still an amazing game and it is definitely worth your time and money especially if you like action sports games like Tony Hawk. The game isn't just limited to skates as well you can even get a skateboard or even a bike so there's three preferences to choose from depending on what your favorite modd of transport is. I personally love the bike.
I hope in the future they release an update with some kind of arcade/replayable mode or include that in the sequel because I can't really see myself replaying this game for only the story aspect.
Team reptile have still accomplished something really good here and made one of the very best games of 2023, and I look forward to what they put out in the future.
To get straight to the point, if you are a fan of Jet Set Radio, go and play this game. It is pretty much everything that Jet Set Radio and future is, and more.
Where Jet Set Radio Future fine tunes the controls of the original Jet set radio, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk takes the controls to the next level by giving the characters a jetpack that allows them to Double Jump and do all other kinds of tricks including boosting. The even gave you the ability to do a manual which allows for endless combos and just makes comboing much more addicting than it was in the original Jet set radio series. This allows a game to feel more like a Tony Hawk style of game in terms of comboing rather than a more simplistic controlling JSR.
With the game controlling like an absolute dream due to the double jump and the one-button manual, unfortunately there is a caveat of the control difficulty being too easy and not prone to mistakes, but if you aren't bothered by the easiness of the gameplay then you'll have the time of your life here, feeling like a skating God.
The structure of this game is actually very similar to Jet Set Radio Future where you're given a bunch of open hubs and you can fulfill multiple objectives such as tagging or collecting items. The structure isn't bad but I do prefer the arcade Style of levels the way the original Jet Set Radio was presented. With the game being more of a open world skate-at-your-own-pace type of game, it suffers the same issues Jet Set Radio Future did when it came to the soundtrack of the game, where you would hear the same couple of songs looping over and over to the point where you would get tired from it. The replayability also dies with this structure because of the fact that you can't simply just jump in and replay arcadey stages aiming for the highest score. The game is way more story driven this time around so if you did like the original Jet Set Radio for the arcadiness, this choice may be a negative for you.
A big part of what made Jet Set Radio so so good was its style and music. The Music definitely hits as good as Jet Set Radio bringing back some of the composers of those games. And the artstyle, while not as vibrant as the original Jet Set Radio, is still really stylish and probably a little better than it was in Jet Set Radio future.
Although without comparing it to JSR, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is still an amazing game and it is definitely worth your time and money especially if you like action sports games like Tony Hawk. The game isn't just limited to skates as well you can even get a skateboard or even a bike so there's three preferences to choose from depending on what your favorite modd of transport is. I personally love the bike.
I hope in the future they release an update with some kind of arcade/replayable mode or include that in the sequel because I can't really see myself replaying this game for only the story aspect.
Team reptile have still accomplished something really good here and made one of the very best games of 2023, and I look forward to what they put out in the future.
2002
To the people who played Zelda: Breath of the Wild and thought "I really wish this had traditional dungeons", go and play this game. That is right, Star Fox Adventures is just a Zelda game with a Star Fox skin, but this time almost every level is designed like a Zelda dungeon. Too much Zelda dungeon if I may.
I picked this game up back in the day at full price fully excited to give this a try. I was kinda expecting an action game where you get to play Fox on foot as I always wanted to do that in Star Fox 64's singleplayer. I played through the first hour and never touched it again as it was not at all what I was expecting. Fox only has a staff? It's more of an adventure game than action? Damn, I just wanted to run around a dinosaur planet as Fox and shoot things. And it went up there with one of the most disappointing purchases I had saved up for with my allowance.
20 years later, I gave Star Fox 64 another try and found it to be one of my favorite games of all time. With that, and playing pretty much all of the Zelda games during the pandemic, I became both a massive Zelda and Star Fox fan. Having remembered Star Fox Adventures was just a marriage of those two franchises, I was more than willing to revisit this one.
Now I won't get into the Dinosaur Planet details, because it's pretty much a known fact by everyone that Star Fox Adventures was meant to be another IP, but Nintendo forced Rare to slap the Star Fox IP on this. With playing this game you could clearly see that.
The story here is really basic and not at all intriguing like a Zelda game, you're just saving a planet from an evil general. Collect X amount of thingamaobs and defeat the final boss. Pretty straightforward. You can tell all the "Star Fox" aspects of the story were stiched on. All the important characters you'd expect to see from a Star Fox game is either put to the sidelines as an excuse for the UI, or they are left out until the end of the game. Most of the characters that are in the limelight are fox himself and the uninteresting dinosaur races you meet.
Considering Star Fox was a shooter prior to this, you'd expect this game to have some decent action. This cannot be further from the truth as somehow the combat is so barebones, it makes Ocarina of Time's combat look like Dark Souls. There will only be 2 or 3 enemy types you will be facing in the whole game and they all die with the same strategy, going up to them and mashing the A button. With that said, there's only like 3 bossfights here too, which aren't even that good. That's 2 for 2 so far where Zelda mogs this game in both Combat and Bosses.
Where the game's main strength is the level design and puzzles. As previously mentioned, the best way to describe the structure of this game is that you're playing dungeon after dungeon with sometimes having an on-rails shooter in between. But there is too much dungeon here. The good thing is that the puzzle design is great and not once did I have to ever look up a guide. At the same time, nothing was too simple that it felt like it was easy.
One of the really sinful things this game does is the amount of backtracking. Now I know backtracking is a thing in these type of adventure games, but I never thought about how painful the backtracking once when playing a Zelda or Metroid game for example. Here, you are forced to go through every section you've already been through twice, sometimes even 3 times. This is including some dungeons you need to backtrack to. This singlehandedly kills so much of the pacing and enjoyment of this game, it is probably my biggest gripe that prevents me from calling this a great game.
There are also little nitpicky things like the aiming segments not controlling well. The on-rails shooter segments not being as nearly as good as Star Fox 64. The annoying little dinosaur companion that you need to keep finding mushrooms to feed it. A lot of tiny aspects hold this game from being the great singleplayer adventure it could've been.
It's still a good game and worth playing through once if you enjoy Zelda dungeon design. But if you had a GameCube and had to decide between this or Wind Waker, I would play the Wind Waker a hundred times over.
I picked this game up back in the day at full price fully excited to give this a try. I was kinda expecting an action game where you get to play Fox on foot as I always wanted to do that in Star Fox 64's singleplayer. I played through the first hour and never touched it again as it was not at all what I was expecting. Fox only has a staff? It's more of an adventure game than action? Damn, I just wanted to run around a dinosaur planet as Fox and shoot things. And it went up there with one of the most disappointing purchases I had saved up for with my allowance.
20 years later, I gave Star Fox 64 another try and found it to be one of my favorite games of all time. With that, and playing pretty much all of the Zelda games during the pandemic, I became both a massive Zelda and Star Fox fan. Having remembered Star Fox Adventures was just a marriage of those two franchises, I was more than willing to revisit this one.
Now I won't get into the Dinosaur Planet details, because it's pretty much a known fact by everyone that Star Fox Adventures was meant to be another IP, but Nintendo forced Rare to slap the Star Fox IP on this. With playing this game you could clearly see that.
The story here is really basic and not at all intriguing like a Zelda game, you're just saving a planet from an evil general. Collect X amount of thingamaobs and defeat the final boss. Pretty straightforward. You can tell all the "Star Fox" aspects of the story were stiched on. All the important characters you'd expect to see from a Star Fox game is either put to the sidelines as an excuse for the UI, or they are left out until the end of the game. Most of the characters that are in the limelight are fox himself and the uninteresting dinosaur races you meet.
Considering Star Fox was a shooter prior to this, you'd expect this game to have some decent action. This cannot be further from the truth as somehow the combat is so barebones, it makes Ocarina of Time's combat look like Dark Souls. There will only be 2 or 3 enemy types you will be facing in the whole game and they all die with the same strategy, going up to them and mashing the A button. With that said, there's only like 3 bossfights here too, which aren't even that good. That's 2 for 2 so far where Zelda mogs this game in both Combat and Bosses.
Where the game's main strength is the level design and puzzles. As previously mentioned, the best way to describe the structure of this game is that you're playing dungeon after dungeon with sometimes having an on-rails shooter in between. But there is too much dungeon here. The good thing is that the puzzle design is great and not once did I have to ever look up a guide. At the same time, nothing was too simple that it felt like it was easy.
One of the really sinful things this game does is the amount of backtracking. Now I know backtracking is a thing in these type of adventure games, but I never thought about how painful the backtracking once when playing a Zelda or Metroid game for example. Here, you are forced to go through every section you've already been through twice, sometimes even 3 times. This is including some dungeons you need to backtrack to. This singlehandedly kills so much of the pacing and enjoyment of this game, it is probably my biggest gripe that prevents me from calling this a great game.
There are also little nitpicky things like the aiming segments not controlling well. The on-rails shooter segments not being as nearly as good as Star Fox 64. The annoying little dinosaur companion that you need to keep finding mushrooms to feed it. A lot of tiny aspects hold this game from being the great singleplayer adventure it could've been.
It's still a good game and worth playing through once if you enjoy Zelda dungeon design. But if you had a GameCube and had to decide between this or Wind Waker, I would play the Wind Waker a hundred times over.