For some reason, the various developers of the Star Fox games have refused to listen to public outcry and just give us a pure, on-rails, Star Fox game.  Since the N64 classic, we've been given an adventure game that many don't believe was even intended to bear the Star Fox brand.  Star Fox on foot versus. . . dinosaurs?  Then there was Star Fox Assault on the GameCube, which was like a slap in the face to series fans.  It gave the illusion of being the true successor to StarFox 64, but behind the smoke and mirrors was a game that had Fox fighting on foot as much as in an Arwing.  Yuck.  And now we have a StarFox game for the DS.  Naturally, asking for just a plain, entertaining trip down memory lane was asking too much.  With a unique platform such as the DS, asking for anything "plain" might always be too much.  Let's explore.

There is one small, overlookable feature involving the DS' microphone worth mention.  Basically, there is a feature in the options menu in which you verbally answer a series of questions about yourself.  "What is your favorite color", "what are you doing right now", and so on.  After you're done with these questions, the game allows you to set your voice patterns over the characters' in-game gibberish, making everyone sound a little like you would if you spoke "Animal-ese".  It's not a major flaunt, but it's a much different one, that's for sure.

Of course, you knew there would be a map.  There has to be; it's become a DS staple.  And just like the many other examples of maps taking over the DS' second screen in a good way, it proves to be both useful and entertaining in Star Fox Command.  Between sorties, the Star Fox team takes their places on the map located on the bottom screen.  Here, you are prompted to use the stylus to draw out flight paths for them, engaging enemies and recapturing bases along the way.  Not only is this a giant leap away from anything the StarFox series has seen, it represents a pretty cool implementation of the touch screen for strategy games.  How much you enjoy these sequences will vary depending on your personal tasted, but there's no doubt it's a creative function that we can expect to see in future DS games.

Gimmicky mic options and strategy sequences aside, there are certain moments in the game where it feels like it was made for the DS.  For example, it feels great to steer the Arwing with the stylus.  Slowly move it up the screen, and the Arwing slowly gains altitude, matching your movement speed of the stylus.  Give it a sudden, quick jerk to the right or left, and its movement is equally sudden and quick.  This very fluid, nuanced control is perfect for a flight-based game, much like it is perfect for the FPS genre, and it wouldn't work with the d-pad.  Instead, pushing up would make the Arwing move up at the same rate every time.  A push of to the right on the d-pad would initiate the same exact degree of turn every time.  Had that been the case, flying around in Fox's ship would have been stiff as a board and far less entertaining, making the touch controls an absolute blessing.

But then there are the moments when it becomes clear that StarFox Command over-flaunts the DS' features.  Barrel-rolls are the best example, and the biggest culprit in driving the experience with the game down.  To do them, you have to quickly slide the stylus back and forth on the touch screen.  Think about that.  Weren't you just trying to steer with the touch screen?  Yeah, you were.  So if you're trying to chase down an enemy whose flying sporadically around the sky, or trying to deflect bullets as you fly through one of the famous rings on the map, why would you want to wildly slide the stylus back and forth?  It doesn't make sense, and it makes doing this simple maneuver much, much more annoying than it needs to be.

This goes for pretty much everything else as well.  To speed up, you have to double-tap on the top of the touch screen.  Okay, fine.  Now consider that to gain altitude, you have to touch the top of the touch screen.  Hmmmm. . . does this mean that every time you accelerate you get an undesired, unavoidable change in altitude?  Although it is momentary, and you can eventually get used to adjusting to it, the answer is yes.  Why not let "up" on the d-pad do the accellerating, while "down" did the braking.  While we're talking about it, why not let left/right do the barrel rolls?

This, or something like it, would have been the ideal way to design StarFox Command.  It would give the precise, fun stylus-based controls a chance to shine without causing the controls to become more complicated than they needed to be.  But due only to the fact that the default, unchangeable controls put too much emphasis on the touch-screen, the verdict is clear.  Star Fox Command, though fun, overflaunts what the DS has got.

Full review, by Mystic_Flames
Full review, by ShenlongBo