Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Paul Indelicato

It was 1993, the Super Nintendo was just heating up as a platform, and Nintendo dropped a special game on our laps. Star Fox was the first title to use the Super Fx chip, an in cart 3d accelerator. It was truly something new on the graphics horizon. Fast forward 13 years to the 6th game created in the Star Fox series and we come to Star Fox: Command, this is Fox’s first handheld foray and his first time with online multiplayer.

DS games, and most handheld games in general, are tough to gauge visually. We’ve become so accustomed to great graphics on our home consoles, and even the PSP is pushing the envelope. So when you look at a game like Star Fox you have really step back and be objective. Compared to other DS titles Star Fox is one of the better looking games available; even my own wife commented on how good it looked while watching over my shoulder.

The game runs at a consistent frame rate, even with a ton of enemies on screen. The effects and explosions all look great and are what we’ve come to expect from this series. One thing particular, I liked, is the large arenas used for the battles; you can do quite a bit of dog fighting before you hit the edges of the map. Another neat graphical touch that also contributes to gameplay is that each pilot has an individually designed ship. Unlike in past games where every ship was the same, each character has a ship that is custom to their character, and some of the designs(Falco’s in particular) are really cool.

However, just like most 3d DS games, the textures and polygons are very reminiscent of PSOne or N64 era graphics. As long as you know and are fine with this going in, you’ll see what a really good looking game Star Fox is.

Sound in Star Fox is truly a mixed bag. While the soundtrack and sound effects are good. Some of the stages even have some truly memorable music. The “voices” are almost reason enough to turn the sound off all together. This is where I feel Star Fox drops the ball. Instead of using the voice actors from past games, the developer decided to use a gibberish type of speak like that in Animal Crossing. I found it annoying and distracting while in battle. One quasi-neat thing is that you can have the game warp your own voice into the characters gibberish. It doesn’t make them any less annoying, just in your own words so to speak.

Star Fox: Command is a fine example of how controls should be done for flying games on the DS in the future. Everything was intuitive was the outset, and you have the option to invert controls for those that like a traditional flying control. As well, the game is well suited for left and right handed players, as all the face buttons, minus start and select, and the shoulder buttons can be used to attack while the stylus is used for pretty much every other action. Commands are given on the map screen by drawing a line from your teammate to where you want them to go.

The ships are very responsive to the touch screen and it’s easy to execute spins, boosts and braking. Nintendo opted to put the loop and 180 flip move on separate buttons on the lower screen and it’s just a button tap to execute either command. I also like the fact that instead of just shooting a bomb out in front of you, you dragged it to where you wanted it to hit on the map. I can’t think of one thing bad to say about the controls, Q-games has definitely laid the groundwork for flight games here on out on DS.

Unlike the past Star Fox games, Command is strictly an airship shooter, and what a relief that was to discover. The meat of this game is in the story mode. You’ll finish the initial story and get the first ending in roughly 2 hours. However, that’s just the tip of the iceberg as Command boasts a huge branching path, tons of missions and 9 total endings all with differing and unique story lines. You will definitely have a lot of game to sink into.

Basically, each planet consists of a couple different battles, and each battle consists of two different gameplay styles. First you start with a little bit of turn based strategy. This allows your to direct your teammates, as well as Star Fox, to where you want them to be attacking . Enemies are represented as icons on the map and they all have differing speeds that they travel. This is important, as defending Star Fox’s mother ship, Great Fox, is vital to every stage.

As well as having to defend against a whole host of different alien attackers, the enemy launches large missiles from bases on the map, which you have to pursue and shoot down. Lastly there are the enemy bases/mother ships to take down, and those present a standard fight against enemies along with a charge into the mother ship. While there is a good variety in types of enemies to fight, I would have liked to seen a little more to do mission/battle-wise. Gone are the on-rails type stages where the game world moved while you navigated a path through the enemies, and so too are the times that you had to rescue your comrades. In fact you tackle each battle solo.

While you can make commands on the map screen, only one fighter goes in against the enemy at a time. One thing that has always made Star Fox fun for me was the whole team concept and it is missed here. This is especially disappointing in the face of the massive amount of playable pilots. It seems like every cameo character from the Star Fox universe is here, and you can eventually play as all of them at one point or another. In fact, there are even a few story paths that cut Fox out altogether. Every pilot has his or her own strengths and weaknesses as well but all are fairly balanced.

Multiplayer is more of a deathmatch style of gameplay. Up to 4 players can connect together online, each with their own Arwing ship. You collect pilots and shoot each other out of the sky. I would’ve liked to seen the command aspect and turn based gameplay brought online as well. I think it would’ve been fun matching wits with others in the strategy portion of the game.

With 9 unique endings a ton of missions and characters, the single player alone will absorb a ton of your time. Add onto that online play through Wi-Fi as well as local connections and you have a lot of game for your money. The gameplay and controls are done so well you won’t mind some of the little things that are missing. You definitely get your money's worth here. Nintendo and Q-Game have created what is the best Star Fox game to date. I think if they go back for the Wii version and add some of the things that were missing from this release they’ll have close to the perfect game. The game looks and runs great, controls wonderfully and is a perfect example of gaming done right on the DS.

Gaming Trend Score

88

1. Graphics: 85
2. Audio: 75
3. Controls: 95
4. Gameplay: 90
5. Value/Replay: 95
6. OVERALL:88