It was initially a disappointment, but Star Fox Adventures is truly a great game if you just give it a chance.
User Rating: 8.6 | Star Fox Adventures GC
When you hear the name Star Fox, naturally you have expectations about the game. You'll probably expect a fun space shooter, flying through the Lylat System, trying to get to the back of Andross' devilish plan. Rare, the developer of Star Fox Adventures, is known for two things, however: surprises and delays. We got both for Star Fox Adventures, and the result was a completely different game than we've come to expect from the Star Fox team: an adventure game. Naturally, most would think the game wouldn't work, and Fox McCloud would simply not do well on Dinosaur Planet (yes, it's actually called Dinosaur Planet). Well, it turns out old dogs can learn new tricks, as Fox McCloud is successfully out of his Arwing, and into adventure with this brand new, action-packed quest. However, most things take time, and a full transition into the adventure genre would not be a good idea for the Star Fox team, at least right away. In fact, you're probably wondering why in the world would Rare suddenly want to completely recreate one of Nintendo's best franchises. Well, Star Fox Adventures actually started as a game for N64 known as Dinosaur Planet. It promised to be like Zelda, but in a whole new world with lots of difficulty, fascinating quests, cool new monsters and many more unimaginable promises. Having such high expectations this game naturally fell short (from 80 hours to 20 hours; from difficult to pretty easy; from worthy of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time to worthy of The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventure) and vastly disappointed many, but I'll touch on that later. The game eventually became a Star Fox title, and the characters were changed, but the massive promises remained. The game was delayed time and time again, and eventually switched to Nintendo's next console. This game was huge, and the outcome was hotly anticipated. What was the result though? Well, let's just say it fell pretty far below the gross expectations it had set for it, but all preconceptions aside, it is still a very impressive game. I'll start with the good. The graphics in this game can be described simply on one word: breathtaking. They look absolutely phenomenal, and add so much to the game. It's atmospheric, has very impressive character models and lighting effects. You can see each individual piece of fur on Fox McClouds body move and sway in the wind (at least in cinematics) and the other characters look fantastic. There are some nice facial emotions as well, not to mention some very lifelike physical actions. The water, though, may even be the crown achievement of the graphics despite all of the rest of the gorgeous visuals. It shines and shimmers from all angles, with crashing waves and amazing effects as you wade through. This game is a contender for the best looking on GameCube, and this is likely what caused Rare to take so long. They are perfectionists, after all. One thing has to be said about this game before I get into the gameplay. This game grows on you, completely. It’ll start off seeming a little gritty, with some boring environments and a substandard plot. But once you develop into it, the plot gets better and more interesting, the environments became more detailed with more complex puzzles, and even the baddies start to get smarter. This game is the very meaning of improvement (at least from start to finish), and you’ll be surprised at the end by its drastic improvement in quality. Since I'm not all praise I'll move along. This game is missing in some major areas, namely the physical combat. In this game you get a staff early on, and you can use it, quite simply, to beat people. However, it is very boring, and repetitive. You pretty much just have to time when you hit the "A" button, and make sure to hit it a lot. A lot, a lot. Heck, I would even say the combat is derivative, as it just feels like I've done it before, but I don't think any other games play in this very mediocre, hack and slash style. It is simply rather repelling, and off-putting. It makes you wonder where exactly Rare was putting in all that polish that caused so many delays. The graphics, or the gameplay? However, this is not the main focus of the combat, luckily. There's also magical combat, where you use the staff's magical abilities, like fireballs, iceblast, groundquake etc. This makes for some very interesting gameplay, and make the game much less of a bore than it would have been. The puzzles require elemental solving, matching, shapes, timing, and a whole array of different puzzles and challenges for you to undertake to complete the game. But, alas, there is no laser gun for Fox. I know what you're thinking; this defies the laws of Star Fox. It’s like Marry Poppins without an umbrella! But, it works in the end, and the staff was a very nice addition. The good people at Rare decided that just using this staff wouldn't be enough, so naturally they added in a dinosaur companion. Unluckily enough they included a snot-nosed punk of a dinosaur with a voice reminiscent of a prepubescent boy with a severe nasal issue to follow you around. Despite the annoyance of his voice, he speaks sparingly and is very helpful. The dinosaur, Prince Tricky, is missing his father and his mother is sick. He's on a mission (two missions, really) and follows you around. He can follow many commands, such as sit, stay, and flame, among others, and also makes some of the puzzle solving rather interesting. Due to all of these factors, Star Fox Adventures has a surprising variety in gameplay, and offers many interesting ways to play as you go along. Keep in mind, the variety is not only in the amount, but in the quality as well. But generally the games and quests are pretty high-end, and are fairly original. If you’ve played the past Star Fox games then you’ll likely be familiar with many tunes. They’re fast-paced, loud, edgy and filled with a whole bunch of energy. They’re fantastic. But, due to the new style of the game, you’ll only hear them during the few space levels. There is a whole revamped sound track with new tunes, which even sound dinosaur-ish, somehow. However, they’re surprisingly well orchestrated, and help with the already fantastic atmosphere of the levels. But, I do have a major beef with the sound. One thing you must come to expect from Star Fox games is shoddy voice acting. Never has it ever risen above mediocre, and this is no exception. The voices are annoying, repetitive, either emotionless or overacting, and tend to get under your skin. Luckily Fox’s isn’t all bad, but some of the minor characters are just so terrible that you really just want to punch them in the face. But, the music is good enough that the overall sound in this game is pretty impressive. Quite simply put, Star Fox Adventures is worthy of anyone’s collection. It is a good twenty-hour game on your first play through, and probably closer to twelve on your second. It boasts some decent replay value, with a few nice sidequests and will last you a while. But, if you just want to rent it for a week and play your heart out, go ahead. You’ll end up saving money, but having a great time nonetheless. During this time, you’ll see easily some of the best looking graphics the GameCube has to offer, some nice music, bad voice acting, interesting variety in levels and puzzles, many surprises, and a great final boss fight. This game should not be passed up, especially now since it can be found cheap as a Player’s Choice Title. Unless of course you’d rather not see Fox McCloud outside of his Arwing (for whatever strange reason you may have) then you should give this game a try. It was rather poorly received at release due to its failure to meet expectations, but it truly is a great game. 
