Star Fox Command captains into worthwhile game time
The Simple touch based controls that are fun to use and easy to master, immersing the player in all the action of the Star Fox franchise dogfights. All the familiar faces are at your command, free to maneuver in loops and rolls, deflecting attacks, dropping bombs and firing their canons as they take out a tactical array of enemies, missiles, and mother ships. It begins with the Star Fox fleet disbanded after putting Andross out of the picture, however when a new fish-form alien shows his face, ol’ Fox McCloud rises to the occasion. After the initial play through the game, a variety of choices become unlocked, leaving several ways to go about Command’s replay value, meeting different characters and foes, driving the surprisingly intense moments of story further as you try to save the Lylat system. What’s best is that the multiple story lines don’t all end on the same note, rather they each wrap up in their own, unexpected way; it’s a treat even worth replaying the Slippy missions for.
However, it is to note that although the story does take many directions, each plays out over the course of a mere 2 or 3 hours. That said, the multiplayer is fox-tastic, and really completes the value of the package, allowing for up to 6 to play locally on a single DS game card, or 4 player multi-card action over Nintendo WiFi. The sound effects are stellar and the graphics are clean, crisp, and classic, with all the polygons and hard lines that made the franchise on the SNES and N64, a welcome spectacle for Nintendo’s handheld. Nabbing highly respectable scores and holding its own in the top of the sales charts, I give Star Fox Command an 8.8/10.