Does anybody here actually LIKE Assault?

[StarFoxfan-FUR_ever]

But you make a good point there "Krystal fan". It seems that every single shooting game these days is getting demoted to "Destroy target X". And then it starts to seem like the enemies are all exactly the same with possibility one or two "overpowering" enemies....it just gets boring you know?

[The Shaper]

But you make a good point there "Krystal fan". It seems that every single shooting game these days is getting demoted to "Destroy target X". And then it starts to seem like the enemies are all exactly the same with possibility one or two "overpowering" enemies....it just gets boring you know?

Yes it does get repetitive but we don't play the games only for enjoyment, we play them because they are star fox games in general. Multiplayer was fun too

even more or a challinge than call of duty black ops

That's because call of duty is easy. But I have to admit, Assault was much easier.

[Blaze the Sage]

I loved Assault.

Graphics: This game looks great. The team's just coming off their mission to save Sauria, they got a beefy new paycheck, and they've been able to get back on their feet, looking sleeker and shinier than ever. Everything looks fantastic, even the character models for pilot mode are well-detailed. My only complaint is about something that happened in the transition from Japan to America; during the mission briefings, the US version actually REMOVED most of the facial expression from the characters. All expression with eyes and mouth was taken out. The eyes were unblinking, unexpressive, the only thing they did was look around. The mouths ONLY moved while they were talking, otherwise they were completely immobile. There was a comparison at one point, and just as an example, where Fox is deciding what he's gonna do, and Slippy grows a huge smile, looking really happy in the Japan version, whereas the US version completely takes it out. A lot of the subtleties with Krystal's expressions are removed, so Krystal's little huff at Fox's reaction to her noting that they finally had a mission together loses most of its impact.

Music: Normally, I don't really pay much attention to the music in games. I either like it, or I don't notice it. And I gotta say, I've always loved Star Wolf's theme. There are a number of moments where the music really sticks out and sets the mood. Great job here.

Story: It was good, but could have been a lot better. As mentioned many times over, the game is very short. While Andrew's rebellion does a nice job of introducing the game on a familiar note, with a familiar enemy before introducing the REAL bad guys, I feel like they went down too fast. It seems like you're barely getting started, when suddenly you're up against their Big Bad - and just when it seems like you've got him, he starts bragging and sounding like he's got another ace up his sleeve when BAM DOWN HE GOES and you get into the real boss fight. While the missions flow well from one to the next, it would have been nice to visit a few more familiar locations to help out against the Aparoids and really make it feel like the whole system is under attack, not just Cornerian forces and a distraction at Sauria. The Zoness base would have made an awesome location for an on-foot mission of some sort, while Titania had potential as well, though more Arwing levels in various areas would have been preferable as well.

Characters: I like the way things went. Fox is grown up, confident, and professional, and (for the most part) keeps his mind on the mission. While he does have feelings for Krystal, he's nervous about it, being rather... inexperienced in such matters. It's foreign ground that he's not really sure how to handle. As such, he tends to panic and avoid it altogether, preferring to focus more on things he's familiar with - his job, and the mission.

Slippy's gotten back into the action, though he remains as nervous as ever, slipping up (hurr hurr) from time to time, but at least holding his own.

Falco seems to have calmed down a bit from older games, while he's still hotheaded and sarcastic, he's dropped some of his arrogant pride, and isn't above asking for help or admitting to screwups.

Krystal is adjusting to her position well, and while she's by far the newest member of the team, she performs well enough that to an outsider unfamiliar with them, they wouldn't be able to tell, and her telepathy provides a great asset to the team, identifying weaknesses, allowing for alternate communication methods (as seen via Sauria's call for help). While she's far from the best pilot on the team, she's confident enough in her skills to hold her own, but tends to panic when things start to turn against her, having not had the raw experience needed to keep a level head and handle things herself.

Peppy meanwhile, is really starting to show his age. He's retired from pilot duty, calling strategy and advice, and basically serving as Star Fox HQ. When the going gets tough though, Peppy shows that he can still kick butt, and he jumps into action despite his advancing age and failing reflexes several times at great risk to himself, showing beyond a doubt that while he may be a greying old hare, he's still the same member of Star Fox he used to be.

Pepper's age may be getting to him as well, though. He doesn't quite have the same air of nobility about him as he used to.

As for Wolf's team... they never did quite get over the defeat by Star Fox. They aren't, however, bent on your destruction. They're merely out for their own interests. Wolf has grown into a bit of an accomplished criminal overlord if Sargasso's anything to go by, and while he seems to have a personal vendetta against Fox, he shows that he's willing to set it aside long enough to fight a greater threat. He hates Fox, but he's not stupid. He knows that the Aparoids, if not stopped, will destroy EVERYTHING, himself included. His stubborn pride stops him from admitting it, but he does have some respect for Fox, and wants to prove himself by being the one to take him down - even if that means protecting him once in a while to ensure he gets the chance.

Leon continues his little fued with Falco, and overall just does a good job keeping up his creepy persona, and doesn't really DEVELOP much, just maintaining who he is.

Panther, the new Star Wolf member, introduces himself, and he instantly shows us that he considers himself something of a romantic, but also that he's not to be trifled with.

As for Pigma... he's Pigma. He's greed incarnate, end of story.

Voices: There were ups, and there were downs. There were some voices that I really liked the direction of. Slippy, for example, was a massive improvement all around. Others though, were more questionable. Leon, I disliked his high pitched voice, having grown used to a smooth, deep british voice. However, much as I dislike it, it does work well for the character they're trying to portray, and it's here to stay. Peppy's voice actor was spectacular. He did a fantastic job with the character himself, and when things got interesting, Peppy really delivered on his lines, and I think we all know which two cinematics I'm referring to. Fox's deep voice fits his maturity this time around. Fox used to be young, brash, reckless, and brave, and the higher voice did a great job of that, but he's older now, and more level-headed. The deeper voice portrays that well. I liked the new direction with many characters, even if I liked their old voices. Wolf's new voice very much fit the character he'd become, even if I loved the british accent for him. Andrew meanwhile... it just FITS. Try swapping the 64 voice and the Assault Voice - the Assault voice would do much better in the other game than the 64 voice would in assault. It just fits the character too well. He's a bumbling idiot that, while a half-decent pilot, really doesn't stand a chance in the long run; not that he'll ever realize that.

On a note of voicing though, I am very pleased that the infamous "Barrel Roll" line is gone. Not only did it spout a horrid meme that butchered an incredible character, it was a damn lie, as the Arwing's roll is NOT a Barrel Roll, as many of you are no doubt aware. It is an Aileron (sp?) roll. I'd prefer that it simply be referred to as "rolling" though, as the terminology might seem out of place in the dialogue of a Star Fox game.

Gameplay: Ok, here we go. I've already mentioned that I feel the game was too short, as has everyone else. Either a longer story, or a branching mission path was needed. As it stood, the single player had the same number of missions in a single run as Starfox 64, but where in Star Fox 64, you could have anywhere between 1 and 3 possible missions for any one step in the path, Assault had one single set, defined path that you can't deviate from at all.

The controls, while an adjustment for those coming from 64, were done well for the Arwing levels. Having a single button for hard, banking turns regardless of direction was an interesting move, and one I felt worked well. It was easy enough to get from one part of the screen to another, the aiming was done well, assisted by the auto-aim feature once you got the target in range and in your crosshairs (a feature I think is nifty - targetting computers helping aim your shots, and all that).

The charged shot is a lot easier to use effectively these days, but also not as infallible as it used to seem. If you just fire it off recklessly, the enemy CAN out-manouver it, which I think is a good thing. Its power, however, made the Star Wolf fight entirely too easy, what with them no longer immune to the lock-on feature. However, with their reaction to getting shot, not being able to use it against them likely would have made the fight take too long, and become tedious - after a single laser shot, they will roll and manouver in such a way that it becomes near impossible to hit them again for the next few seconds.

The Landmaster controls very well, in my opinion. It can turn on a dime, it's incredibly manouverable as far as tanks go, making it stand out as an incredible machine - but it still manages to feel slow and clunky enough that you still believe you're in a tank rather than an Arwing on wheels. And while it definitely feels powerful to simply crush many lesser Aparoids beneath you, the situations where you're given a tank still manage to make you remember that you aren't invincible.

On foot, I loved. While I think it felt weird to be moving quite so fast so consistantly on foot considering the size of the stages, I like how it shook things up and reminded you that there are individuals within the vehicles, and that they're more than capable of picking up a gun themselves and fighting outside the safety of their vehicle if they have to. The variety of weapons is cool, and I love the sniper rifle, though I feel it did lack a bit in that several weapons felt relatively useless compared to others. Grenades and Sensor Bombs were plentiful on several levels, but you never realistically got to use them, as other weapons would always perform so much better. While the Blaster's charge was incredibly useful, I feel it was a mistake to make such a powerful attack usable ad infinitum with absolutely no penalties other than rate of fire.

As for multiplayer, while I've never really gotten a chance to play it properly, I feel I would enjoy it. In player-against-player environments, many of the items that were near-useless in single-player could become much more powerful, such as the Sensor Bomb, grenades, etc. Though when vehicles are present, they most certainly make or break the game. Pilots on foot stand little chance against enemies in an Arwing or Landmaster, and so when an enemy gets a vehicle, it becomes a mad scramble to find your own before you get roasted or flattened. And while some might dislike that, I think it provides a fun, realistic element. Unless you're very confident in your performance and your equipment, facing down a tank on foot is generally suicidal. Besides, there's always the option to turn vehicles off in foot-enabled levels. In terms of character balance, however... I personally disagree on the issue of health. I like the idea of some characters being more brittle than others. It forces you to use your other stats to your advantage. Peppy is slow, and has low life, but he has an INCREDIBLE jump, and can use that to help dodge his foes shots while tossing out his own shots, possibly from his insanely fast Blaster Charge. Falco meanwhile, is made of paper, but moves like relative lightning, and is far and beyond the king of the skies. Slippy on the other hand, is fairly slow, but jumps really well and is built like a brick. Wolf is unquestionably unfair however, and while he is an unlockable character, the decision to give him such monstrous stats was very poorly thought out. One thing I've done in some of my spare time is think about what my own characters would be like if they were given stats and put in the game. One thing I noted was that, outside Wolf and Peppy, no one had a five-star in any personal stat. The highest anyone had is 4 stars, and I think that's a bit of a waste of the five-star system. And there wasn't a single character who could five-star on-foot combat. While understandable considering the game is primarily about piloting vehicles, it again struck me as a bit of a waste - Krystal would have been a great contender to be the master of on-foot combat, considering her background. That was HER staff that Fox used in Adventure, after all. If Fox was that good with it, how do you think Krystal would fare in an on-foot battle?

And I think, after this MONSTER of a post, that I'm finally done. Those are my thoughts on Assault.

No TL;DR for you. :P

[Blue Arwing]

I thought Assault was good but not great.

I liked the ability to get in and out of arwings and landmasters, the awring controll was good, on foot probably would have work if there were two analog sticks (one for camera control and one for moving)

Personaly dont get why people hate the voices in SFAs, the only voice I didnt like was Peppys and Leon.

I would give the game a 7 out of 10 :cool:

[matthiasrocks]

I like Assault. The great music though is really cool. I wonder when they are going to be continuing the saga. :fox:

[Eden]

I liked it and I hate it.

I have a lot of reasons but I'm too lazy to type them.

One thing that I don't like is Falco's outfit.

It's so tight... :shock:

[Rin]

I actually really liked Assault. Wish the story was more fleshed out though.

[ThePointingMan]

I wish they had more time to work on it, but I love it nonetheless.

[Fire Yoshi]

I, without a doubt, would have played Assault a -lot- more (And continued to today, occasionally) if there were bots you could play against in the multiplayer mode.

On a related note, I hear SF64 3D is supposed to have Multiplayer bots. I hope this is true.

[Alucard5200]

I thought it was pretty good.

[Gestalt]

I waited 5yrs to get that game (after it came out)...and I love it to death. The orchestration sends chills down my spine...

[Salem]

In a nutshell what blaze said

I liked it but they could of done more in fact they needed to do more.

[Ravior_Stygian]

The only real complaint I remember having is that it was too short. Only 10 missions? If there was 15, it would have been way better. The gameplay and story was either average or above average, which is good in my opinion. It's an epic game, that's for sure.

As it is, though, it's my third favorite after 64 and Command. 64 and Command just have more variety. They have a lot more re-playability and have very epic stories (I personally love Command as the epic conclusion to the Star Fox saga. It only feels underwhelming because it's on a portable). Assault would be my second if it had more missions.

I really liked the story and gameplay.

EDIT: Blaze's post is a good read.

[Prince Elite]

I haven't played it, but it's on order, should arrive in a bit. So that'll be fun to play

[Drasiana]

I liked aspects of Assault. It was fun on its first playthough and had some really great cinematic moments (Peppy's sacrifice still gives me chills). It was also great seeing Star Wolf and co. again after so long, and multiplayer is fun enough if you get the right people on-board. The soundtrack was good for the most part, I liked how the Arwing moved and the level design (for the most part...) was pretty fun. Voice acting was surprisingly good as well; Fox was the only one I completely didn't like, and Krystal's voice itself wasn't so bad but some of her line deliveries were kind of awkward-sounding, but Peppy, Pepper, Panther, Wolf, Slippy, Falco, Pigma, Andrew, Leon...all were in-character, flavourful and fun. Hell, even Tricky was decent.

[mozolkiraly]

64 and Assault is the best! I don't know what to write its brilliant

[FoxMcCloud]

Be careful of dredging topics, but since you are new it is allright, but please be careful, also This one has been dredged one too many times, and will be locked.