How did Assault turn out to be so linear?

[Giladen]

I'll give Adventures a break since it wasn't supposed to be a SF game, but Assault? It's the most linear game in the series besides Adventures. Which is worth noting when you consider it's the first intended and released SF game to not be a rail shooter.

[Dr. Orange]

I know, right? You know what else is linear? Moby Dick.

 

TheGame was designed to be linear shooter in space.  People need to stop getting at linear games. The end. 

[DZComposer]

Yeah, there is nothing inherently wrong with linear games (some of my favorite games of all time were linear, Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max, Portal, etc.), but he has a point: Star Fox, since the SNES days, has had multiple paths to choose. SFAs bucked this trend for some reason.

[Giladen]

I know, right? You know what else is linear? Moby Dick.

 

TheGame was designed to be linear shooter in space.  People need to stop getting at linear games. The end.

 

You would have a point if Moby Dick was the latest game in a series where most of the intended games in the series let the player go through separate routes.

 

SF set itself apart from other games in its genre by having several routes. Assault, the first intended and released game in the series to not be a rail-shooter, doesn't give the player any options to change his or her path through the game. The player is always forced to dink around in Sauria instead of going somewhere else. And so on.

[geoprimedonna]

Yeah, there is nothing inherently wrong with linear games (some of my favorite games of all time were linear, Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max, Portal, etc.), but he has a point: Star Fox, since the SNES days, has had multiple paths to choose. SFAs bucked this trend for some reason.

Yes. Command also blowed another rule: the plots and endings are also different.

But back to Adventures. To tell the truth, Adventures was supposted to be a new Nintendo franchise called Dinosaur Planet. However, Microsoft was in a process to buy Rare, the game's producer. So, they simply threw a few Starfox characters and labeled the game Starfox Adventures.

[Dr. Orange]

You would have a point if Moby Dick was the latest game in a series where most of the intended games in the series let the player go through separate routes.

 

>implying Moby Dick wasn't the best release out of Rare before they were Micro'd

 

SF set itself apart from other games in its genre by having several routes. Assault, the first intended and released game in the series to not be a rail-shooter, doesn't give the player any options to change his or her path through the game. The player is always forced to dink around in Sauria instead of going somewhere else. And so on.

I believe it was a cause from Adv. Nintendo got one linear adventure, it was fun, let's do it with ships now! I don't know why they did it like that specifically, maybe they wanted to solidify the story line blah blah blah speculation from me. All I got at was people have been REALLY getting at newer games for being too linear. There are hounds my friend ... hounds ... 

[Drasiana]

Assault's structure is actually sort of interesting to me because it follows a three-act film structure, following the example set in the original games to try to make the series more cinematic. Personally I like the branching paths more but I don't know if I can fault Assault for trying a different approach to the movie vibe--more than anything I fault it for dropping the potato in the last half of the second act, which would've bungled the pacing of the story even if it was a movie.

 

I doubt this is the sole reason as to why Assault was so strictly linear (time and budget constraints take priority there), but it wasn't an accident either.

 

Adventures doesn't feel the same at all, it is linear but you have way more room to just screw around and explore the world that Assault doesn't provide.

[Pharaoh Shadon]

I didn't like the multiple paths in 64. Mainly because you had to do really cryptic stuff for the "real ending" that I would probably never find out without a guide. In mission 1 you gotta go through the 7 rock rings, and save falco for him to say "Hey, this guy is behind the water fall (Even know another enemy is on the other path) And I vaguely remember this annoying one where you gotta avoid detection. If the game told you, then maybe I would enjoy it more. But its just one scripted event forcing you into another scripted event. Nothing "multiple path" about that. True multiple paths would have a fork in the road and let you choose which way to go. And the beginning probably hint at whats ahead. Like a cave entrance that's harder but quicker, or over the cliff which is easier but longer.

 

Assault on the other hand I liked. And It's hard to hear linear when I think of the ground missions. Those were anything but linear.

[ArwingFan]

Because it tried to go for a more cinematic approach.  While I prefer the alternating paths 64 and SF1 provided.  I don't mind the linear approach, however Assault wasn't good enough to pull it off.