Fox Gets Some Information

Play as Fox McCloud as you liberate the inhabitants of Dinosaur Planet and uncover the sinister truth.

Fox McCloud, unrivalled Arwing pilot takes his first steps on land when he visits Dinosaur Planet. Our hero receives a distress call and like all good Foxes he decides to investigate this. He arrives to find that there is an evil Ruler on the planet, General Scales. The other dinosaurs are all under attack from him as he seeks their power which holds order in the world. Your job is to save the Dinosaurs and a hot female fox that has been somehow been suspended in a Crystal, interesting. Armed with her staff and a small Dinosaur can you save the day?

Another Battle Shot

This is the last GameCube game by Rare, fond partners of Nintendo, who are now over at Microsoft. Many Rare workers left before this game had gone gold and as a result this is one of their few flawed games.

Many people will remember team Star Fox from the N64 game Lylat wars, or even the SNES version Starwing, in both he flew through space with his arwing defeating his nemesis Andross. We have had a lot of arwing’s and that’s why it was a nice surprise to see that Fox McCloud was having a game where he would be on foot for 90% of the time. You still get the classic Arwing bits when you travel to levels, but the focus is mainly on Adventure.

For the vast majority of the game you are accompanied by a little Dinosaur Royal, Prince Tricky. This guy helps you dig up hidden items, burn enemies and a few other vital side-kick actions. You control everything about him except movement and if you want him to use skills you can, just make sure he has been fed.
Over the course of the game you will visit different sections of the planet, these are all unique and visually pleasing. There are snow levels, beach levels, temples and many more that will leave you staring for hours. You spend a fair amount of time simply exploring each level, trying to find any hidden goodies. Many dinosaurs are roaming around in the game, typically the most ferocious are baddies, who will either provide information or a swift death. On each zone there is a Dinosaur of some sorts that has been imprisoned by General Scales.

Fox Wonders Where To Go

The combat system is basic and this lets the game down slightly. To attack with your staff you simply press A in a rhythmic sequence, you can also use special staff powers but this process is slow. The most enjoyable combat move is where you shout for tricky to breathe fire upon the enemy and then kick back and watch them run around, twisted.

There isn’t much in the way of difficulty here, the average player shouldn’t die much. The length of the game is around the 20 hour region and there isn’t much inspiration to play it again soon after. The end of the game, mainly the last boss disappointed me and I was expecting a lot more.

SFA is a good solid adventure with lush visuals that is let down by dull controls. The game promises so much to the player but it just lacks the execution in its gameplay, it should have been so much more. It’s a disappointing end to a good partnership of Rare and Nintendo, the magic has gone. This is nowhere near the quality of Banjo Kazooie but worthwhile if you like adventure games.