Starfox Assault thoughts

[Pharaoh Shadon]

This is  one of my more favorite games, Starfox Assault. Its probably one of my favorites because its a game I've owned since nearly the beginning of my gaming life. This game, super smash bros melee, and bomberman jetters are my 3 favorite games back when I was like 5-8 so I probably like this game so much purely for nostalgia.

So after years of not playing it how is the game now? Lets find out!

 

Story-

The story takes place 1 year after the events of starfox adventures. The remains of Androsses forces are now led by Andrew and is raging war against Corneria as an attempt to take over the galaxy. Both sides seem about evenly matched although a few secret weapons put Andrew's rebellion at an advantage but then a portal opened (Or I think they are portals, maybe exiting light speed) and suddenly the great fox is in view to fight against Andrew. The team consist of the leader Fox, the Ace pilot Falco, The mechanic Sleppy, the retired pilot Peppy, the navigation robot ROB 64, and their newest member the telepathic Krystal.

They set of in the new, sleek, and awesome arwings destroying many of the enemy fleet's lines, making past secret weapons and going after Andrew's flagship which is fleeing to the planet Fortuna. Once the team chases they activate their G-defusers (Which if that's what I think it is, its genius.) and go in the atmosphere taking chase. After going through a few defenses they make it to the enemy base and finally face Andrew head on, his ship transforming into what Andross looks like (Which BTW, I love how the ships mouth moves as Andrew speaks) So after fox takes down his hands Andrew gloats saying "Is that all you fools have got?" Then he gets blased down by an enemy that looks like a giant insect with Rob saying its an aparoid and Peppy not believing it. After taking it down it leaves a core memory which Fox must retrieve and get back to the great fox.

After retrieving it we learn that the Aparoids are back and they are a very powerful force, how powerful? A single Aparoid destroyed an entire Corneria fleet. (This is assumed to be the queen Aparoid, which makes sense because there is not a single Aparoid other then her that can take on entire fleets) and that a second core memory has to be found to get to their home world.

They later get a distress signal at the base on Katina and as Fox enters the door closes behind him and Aparoids surround him. So Fox has to shoot his way through killing the bigger Aparoids then he request a Landmaster (Tank) to help a bit but the Landmaster is behind several Aparoids so fox has to blast his way through to get in it. After taking out aparoid spawners a bigger Aparoid is summoned. After shooting at the core under it the aparoid falls and this is your chance to use the Landmaster's hovering ability to get ontop and shoot at the core destroying it.  Before Fox can get the core Pigma comes in and steals it from them. He says if its so important then he is going to be rich and he flies off.

The trace for Pigma leads the team to the Sargasso region and to the Sargasso hideout which is a popular hideout for Criminals. After talking the criminals find out that its fox and go after them. Fox has to go inside the base and destroy the enemy spawners while also keeping the forces outside low before they get over whelmed. After destroying the spawners the Wolf and his gang show up with their awesome music and they have a new member Panther who takes a liking to Krystal. After a dog fight and wolf's team is defeated they act like they dont know anything about Pigma's wearabouts but in an attempt to flirt with Krystal Panther reveals that Pigma is at the planet Fortuna. Wolf says that Panther talks too much and they fly out.

During the mission briefing Falco says he hates the cold and that fox needs to get to the weather control unit to take care of the blizzard. After fighting they took down the shield of the control area and stopped the blizzard. There is an ID error and the defense drones go after fox. After fending them off Falco comes in destroying the remaining defenses, landing and letting Fox get on his wing and use the plasma cannon to destroy the remaining Aparoids in the area. After doing this Pigma reveals himself and flies away after one of the control units towers rise up infected by Aparoids. It is then we discover that Aparoids can take over machines and turn it into whatever they want. It turns out if this new Aparoid is not dealt with the blizzard will get so bad the planet wont be livable anymore so the team is forced to let Pigma go and stop the machine from destroying the planets life.

A cutscene shows Pigma saying he will will obey, showing that the Aparoids are slowly taking him over.

They track Pigma to the astroid belt which is a popular criminal playground as Falco explains so they fly in seeing a few Wolfens showing that they were forced to abandon ship (Although nothing later in the game mentions this, its either to scare you off, or probably an older model of the wolfen that was abandoned for the newer models.) After going through the Astroid belt and a base they catch up to Pigma ontop of a giant machine. The machine eats him and... Well its hard to explain so here is a screenshot.
https://a248.e.akama...o/mqdefault.jpg

After destroying Pigma they retrieve the core memory and find the location of the Aparoid homeworld. Just before the team sets out Krystal gets a distress signal from Sauria, the dinosaur planet so the team sets off to Sauria. They find out the Aparoids attacked the planet and is killing the dinosaurs so the team goes to rescue a city by destroying the forces and once the threat is gone Prince Tricky, now all grown up jumps on fox crushing him the end... Just kidding. So the scene after Fox and Krystal are riding Tricky and talking about the planet. Tricky wants to go with fox but fox says he is more needed here and that Tricky has a kingdom to run. So Tricky agrees claiming he needs the place all nice for when Krystal and Fox come back for their Honeymoon. Fox gets all weird about that statement saying "What! What're you nuts?!... We're not yet! Ug..." Then Krystal gives him a stare with a grin while Tricky ask "Not yet?" Then fox says how this isn't a conversation for children while Krystal laughs, Tricky reminds fox that he wont treat him like a kid anymore leaving fox to reply "then quit acting like one." Then Krystal decides to end it by saying "That's enough boys"

After returning to the great fox the team discovers while they were at Sauria a full scale Aparoid invasion happened at Corneria. Fox is left in disbelieve and go to the rescue as soon as he can. He goes to shoot down all the radar jamers so the team can use radar again and fox goes to his arwing. Upon ariving at it it is destroyed by Aparoids surrounding fox. Wolf comes in and shoots the roof leaving Fox to run for his live and jump down avoiding fire but is saved by wolf. Fox stars wing riding (Which is possible through G-defusers) and starts to shoot down the remaining Aparoid army. Panther ask Krystal if she wants to ride on his wing while she says only if she's covering fox So during that time she gets on his wing and later says that wing riding is quite a thrill. After destroying the forces General peppers flagship is seen, being infected by Aparoids but he begs fox to take him down, not wanting to be an ally of the Aparoids. After Fox hesitates Wolf tells him that it has to be done so Fox on Wolf's wing takes down the general's flagship and before it crashes Peppy gets below the generals flagship taking most the impact himself saving Pepper. After wards the medics come to save them and Wolf drops off Fox giving a piece of advice. "Don't hesitate, when the time comes, just act." (Although I personally find it to be crappy advice but it stuck and helped fox so whatever floats his boat I guess)

It is then explained that the research team found out that the Aparoids have a counter program which if launched into the queen can destroy every Aparoid in the universe.

The team then goes to the orbital gate which is used to warp ships to planets Although with the homeworlds range this takes a while. But not all goes smoothly as the Aparoids decide to attack the base and send several missiles to take them out, the final missile being a giant missile that can take out more then just the base. So after the last missile is dealt with the portal opens to the Aparoids homeworld.

Once the team arrives at the home world Krystal says she didn't expect it to be so beautiful but then Peppy says its size and mass are not compatible meaning its hollow and as the planet turns they see the entrance. So fox must go to the land and take up the shield generators (Although they are really just Aparoid spawners) so after taking them out the shield is opened but energy is going to the shield and its back up. So the great fox comes into play, half engulfed by Aparoids and starts to use its main cannons shooting at the shield (Which dang that blaster is powerful, a single blast can take out entire bases, maybe even small cities) but despite that the shield stays up so Peppy crashes the ship into the shield opening it. After the team hesitates they fly through the opening and the shield regenerates blowing up the Great fox killing Peppy and Rob.

So while entering the planet Wolf'f team shows up to help, the great fox explosions probably destroyed the entire shield system leaving an opening for Wolf to fly in. So the two teams work together to get to the core of the aparoid although Wolf's team half way gets stronger Aparoids distracted and gets them away from fox while he goes right for the queen. The queen takes data from memories and uses James (Fox's dad) and other known people to talk Fox out of fighting. Falco then snaps Fox back into reality that James would never tell fox to give up so they fight the aparoid queen. After making an opening and launching the program into the queen she tries to escape and create an antibody to get out of death from the program. So the team shoots at the queen making her weak so the program can take effect and destroys her and the rest of the Aparoids. Once escaping they talk about the dead a bit and the sacrifices then Peppy and rob come back in one of the great fox's escape pods. Its explained that Fox knew about this and Fox says his thanks to the team and they all fly off ending the game.

Gameplay- The gameplay has 4 different styles, the normal on rails arwing shooter like the previous. It plays VERY smoothly. By far the best in the series (I think so anyway), dog fights which you have full control of the ship (Again, best in the series I think), ground where you use your weapons to shoot, so a 3rd person shooter (Very clunky, more on that in the complaints), and landmaster control where its like driving a tank with hovering abilities. (Or if you played halo. Imagine a scorpion trying to be a Wraith)

Graphics- I think the graphics are very good. They went for more realistic as you can see individual hair strands on the characters and that amount of detail is pretty good for a gamecube game. (I think so anyway)

Music- I like it, a few tracks are more unique and memorable like wolf's theme.

Complaints-
The ground combat is a tad wonky or just takes a while to get use to. It is a bit awkward which is where the complaints come in from but once you get use to it its not so bad.

Wants in the game-

Better ground controls.

 

More cutscenes to show more about the characters personalities and thoughts. You get that through the game with voice acting and lines although part of me kinda wishes it had a bit more scenes like the one after saving the planet. Not focusing the romance but more of the guys hanging out during a break or something. The cutscenes are skipable so I don't think it would be that bad.

who is it recommended for- For some reasons starfox fans don't like it very much only because of the ground missions. I say anyone should give it a try.

Rating- 9.5/10. The games ground controls are kinda lacking, if the ground controls were good I would place it at a 10/10.

 

Soooooooooo after years of loving it, I still love it. It's still my favorite starfox game (Almost being rivaled by starfox 64 3D) And if they make an assault 2 and take notes from games like mass effect when it comes to 3rd person shooters (Even writing), I think we may very well the best starfox game to ever exist.

 

So what do you guys think? Is it good? Bad? Meh? Rate it in the poll and put your thoughts below in the comments

[Who Knows]

Assault is a Excellent addition to any avid star fox fan is what i would say if i were in marketing

 

On a serious note Assault is very good and is how future star foxes should be but there are some things that really need fixing

 

1 Krystal Fox Romance

   Rescues Krystal and does absolutely nothing for 1 year really ? this should have been resolved in the 1 year gap not during a aparoid invasion it also goes to show that Fox is a terrible romancer

 

2 More Flight Missions

    The beginning of the game was great and i wanted more missions like that but instead a majority of the game is spent on ground while i dont hate ground missions they should have been a secondary priority and not the primary focus of the game

 

3 Better Ground Controls

   Self Explanatory

 

Other then this the game is very very good and with some refinement it can become a perfect star fox game

 

Rating 8.5

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[Scourge]

Assault was a step in the right direction after the disaster that was Adventures.

 

Granted, it suffered from being way too fucking short/easy/uncontrollable

 

 

On the subect: OH MY FUCKING GODS THE LAND CONTROLS, JFC THEY'RE BAD

[Joseph.]

Assault was a good game. Yes it had its flaws but it wasn't something that bugged me to the point where i regretted buying the game

 

 

PROS:

- Arwing missions were well constructed similar to that of star fox 64's style. Even the all-range mode levels were great and now one those missions is becoming a stage in smash 4

 

- Assault has a beautiful Soundtrack and voice acting was well done  

 

- Even tho the MP was completely unbalanced there was a great variety of options for the player to change it however they wish to. From vehicle options to weapon options it was there to give the game a sense of freedom  (There were also nice rewards given when playing trough it)    

 

CONS:

- Story mode was too short 

 

- On-foot missions had awkward controls 

 

- Was a bit to easy even when playing a mission on a golden medal 

 

 

HOW TO OVERCOME CONS:

- Invite friends over and play MP with vehicles only (Arwing dogfights and Landmaster tank fights are by far better then playing on-foot with those awkward controls which your friends will probably not bother trying) 

 

 

- Challenge yourself during on-foot missions to create a challenge (Example: try scoring 3000 points or higher without using the Landmaster in Mission 2 ) 

 

 

- Replay those Arwing missions and get better at them (There might be only 3 Arwing missions but there are tons of ways to score points. There are even hidden little secrets in mission 1 that when activated it creates a swarm of enemies to pop out)  

[Scourge]

Colorful posts are colorful

[Sideways]

It has been forever since I've played Assault. Were the foot controls really that bad?

[Joseph.]

Colorful posts are colorful

 

Colorful just like its review score lol. Assault was actually received with pretty mixed scores  

 

It has been forever since I've played Assault. Were the foot controls really that bad?

 

 

They were ok but it takes forever to turn back but at least they gave you 3 controller layouts.

[Thomas Draco]

It has been forever since I've played Assault. Were the foot controls really that bad?

 

Not really, but some things weren't really intuitive. Sniping, for example, was awfully implemented and only had one actual use in the Corneria mission (which is possibly the hardest foot mission in the game) for the sole reason you can get blindsided while scoped in. Plus all the weapons weren't every useful in single mode, in multiplayer maybe, but not really in single mode. You could easily solo the game using the blaster (minus the above example needing it and the plasma machinegun for wingriding). If you're going to do that, why bother throwing in multiple weapons?

[InfinitySquared]

The Good

-Graphics and sound are pretty nice, for a Gamecube game.

-The score is lush and gorgeous, although the arrangements and instrumentation are a tad on the generic side.

-The Aparoids spiced things up, but they didn't totally throw out Andross/Oikonny. However, they could done a bit more with them, methinks.

 

The Meh

-The voice acting and writing could've been a lot better. Some (Slippy and Oikonny) are almost enough to make me mute my speakers, while the rest just sound bored, as if they were at some boring Sunday brunch. 

-The models are a little stiff and move awkwardly. 

-Feels just meh.

 

The Bad

-Seems to cater to the hardcore crowd, but it's too short and easy to be a "hardcore" game. Also, no paths.

-Not a lot of replay value, unless you like old arcade games!

-Feels longer than it should be

-Tries way too hard to be '64 instead of it's own thing

-When it tries to be deep, it just gets laughable. There was a flicker of personality here and there, but it's mostly about as deep as tinfoil.