Star Fox Adventures

The Arwing has landed! Find out if Rare?s first GameCube venture is worthy of the Star Fox name.

Clone a great Nintendo game and then raise it for four years in a suitably British environment?such was Rare?s appointed task in this world. Its latest spawn comes from the DNA blueprint left by The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and it's a pretty darn good game--but apparently not quite darn good enough to keep Nintendo from selling off the lab.

Prehistory of the Future
It?s been eight years since intrepid spacefarer Fox McCloud last took flight on the N64; Fox McCloud?s latest (and first out-of-the-Arwing) mission takes him to the aptly named Dinosaur Planet, where talking thunder lizards roam with regal pretensions and European accents, and bad things are goin? down?the Spell Stones governing the planet?s gravity have been tampered with, and giant chunks of Planet now revolve in orbit. An oppressive general named Scales is terrorizing the populace. And the planet?s mysterious Krazoa Spirits?guardians of the kindly prehistoric inhabitants?have gone missing from their temples. Now it?s up to Mr. McCloud, armed with a versatile combat staff dropped by an exotic blue vixen named Krystal, to put this anachronistic planetoid back the way it was before you recklessly pressed the Start button on your controller.

If you?ve played Ocarina of Time on the N64, you?ll find that the game is structured in almost exactly the same way?and that is a grand thing indeed. The game?s enormous world is continuous but divided into distinct themed sub-sections; secrets abound under pried-up rocks and atop hard-to-reach plateaus; temples and new areas are accessible only once you have acquired the proper tools?in this case, staff powers, scarabs (money), weird items (exploding bomb spores, vine-creating moon seeds), and new abilities (dig, breathe fire) acquired by your triceratops sidekick Prince Tricky (no, you can?t change his name). Like Link, Fox cannot jump on his own?the game automatically does that for him if he runs off an edge?and the beloved lock-on-target-and-circle-it combat system from Ocarina has been monkeyed right down to the camera angles?only here, lock-ons happen automatically instead of being triggered by a button press.

Degenerative Flaws
What the Fox replicant doesn?t quite share with its father is Zelda?s (i.e., Miyamoto?s) mastery of world and level design?which may come as a surprise, given Rare?s excellent cloning record. The temples you visit are straightforward, and some puzzles you find (push crates, pull switches, shoot targets, avoid enemy?s unexpectedly quaint avalanche of rolling barrels) lack ingenuity; and despite the fact that the big, big world is theoretically wide open (once you find the right tools, of course), it always feels as if you?re being channeled somewhere by unseen gods of gaming contrivance.

The enemy A.I. is rather dumb, too?enemies generally take no notice of you as long as you?re outside their patrol perimeter, even if you shoot them in the head. Even the personality isn?t quite up to par: Star Fox?s nigh-extreme attitude is borderline obnoxious (and not in a good Conker way); Prince Tricky, bless his little heart, is as annoying as his name would imply; and if Krystal (the foxy ?love interest?) is supposed to be ?hot??well, that?s just plain creepy.

Blue Shift
For a game that started off as an N64 project years ago, it certainly doesn?t show its age?at least graphically. The Adventure is drop-dead gorgeous?the environments are sharp and vibrant and tricked out with great effects like heat-warping and subtle day/night cycles. The enemy animation is killer, and Fox?s face is expressive. The sound effects are especially bold with a surround sound setup, and the voice actors are quite excellent (there?s even a made-up language), if a little on the screechy, obnoxious side. The music, however, doesn?t quite stand up to the rest?while some classic Star Fox tunes are instantly recognizable, so, it would seem, are ?classic? (i.e. tinny, mid-grade quality) instrumentations. Call it ?nostalgic,? if that makes you happy.

Star Fox Adventures is huge, varied, and the closest thing to Zelda you?ve played since, well, Zelda?both a great thing and an unfortunate one. Link?s li'l shoes are notoriously hard to fill?and Fox?s furry li'l feet are about one size too small.

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