A slightly off-kilter way of presenting Starfox to the DS.
Concept (7/10): Team Starfox is all but disbanded, and Fox takes it upon himself to fight against the latest horde of bad guys to invade the planet Venom.
Gameplay (7.5/10): In single-player mode, you are required to navigate through various pathways in order to unlock different characters and endings. Initially, it's easy to get through the first few pathways as the game all but tells you where to go, using blue markers and character logos to tell you where you've already gone. It gets complicated once you get down to the final four or five characters and endings. The blue markings which help you at first become a big detriment, often resulting in you forgetting which paths you've already taken.
The biggest draw of this game lies in the combat itself, using touch screen controls almost all the way. The balance between using the touch screen to navigate your ship and using the buttons to fire your primary weapon make it near flawless. In essence, you use a map on the bottom screen that identifies your enemies, and you can also use the map to drop bombs using a drag and drop system. The only complaint I could find with these controls was when I used the reverse on the touch screen, which can cause your momentum to slow to a slight crawl. When you're in pursuit of you're target and you suddenly have to turn around because you've either reached the end of the map (which the game does for you automatically), or your opponent has pulled off a tricky maneuver, it can be frustrating to readjust.
As big of a draw as the contols are, the use of a semi-turn-based strategy system drags the game down a bit. Overall, the strategy element seems all too superficial and unnecessary, providing little real challenge to the game. Playing through the strategy maps felt uninspiring, almost as though they just slapped it on at the last minute. The system is not completely flawed, however, as you do have to take fuel and number of turns into account.
Sound (8/10): Those who are familiar with the infamous sounds of the original Starfox games ("wah-wah-wup-whee-oop") will find the voice recording element incredibly enjoyable. Before you launch into the game, you can take the time to record your voice, at which point the game adjusts the voice in the same style ("wah-wah-wup-whee-oop"...I love saying that), tayloring it to the specific character in terms of tone, etc.
The music in this game is pretty impressive, if a little too repetitive. The music sounds like the same track altered ever-so-slightly from level to level. Even the boss music tends to sound the same, although they do a better job of trying to make it sound different.
Multiplayer (7/10): Personally, I've only had two rounds of experience with the multiplayer in this game. The biggest problem with the multiplayer in this game, whether it's online or system-to-system link, is the lag. The more players you get on a single game, the greater the lag becomes. While this sounds like the most obvious statement ever to be written in reviewing history, in this case, it tends to be a little worse than you'd initially expect.
Replay Value (7/10): After your first run-through of the game, you may be reticent to continue going through the game to unlock all the characters and endings. Yes, while the touch screen controls are amazing, the strategy system can become a real headache after going through the game the first time. It doesn't take that long to unlock everything in the game (it took me about three days' time to complete), but, again, you have to be willing to sit down and go through the strategy element again and again....and again.
It was a very good decision on Nintendo's part to bring this epic franchise to the DS, but it would have been better to make a straight-up combat-style Starfox game, or they could have created a more in-depth strategy element (I'm thinking an incredibly scaled-down version of the Sins of A Solar Empire set up). Ultimately, it all depends on your own taste: If you like games that incorporate a semi-decent strategy element, then you could do worse than pick up this game. If you're a die-hard Starfox fan, then you should avoid this game. There are elements that would make you happy, but the poorly-executed strategy system will cause you to convulse in disgust.