Excellent intergactic dog fights weighed down by crappy turn-based missions.
Gameplay: 6/10
The controls take some getting used to, but they seem like a natural fit to the series. You manuever your stylus across the bottom screen to turn, and although you never stop going forward, you can scribble to perform barrel rolls, or touch the two buttons on the side for loops and aerial turns. To fire, you'll press a button (any will do, I use the Left on the D-Pad), and holding it will aloow you to lock-on. Unofrtuantely, not all characters can lock on, but usually they will have faster firing because of it.
Unfortunately, the game is weighed down by turn-based battles. There's a map, and you draw lines onto it showing where you want your character(s) to go. If you run out of time or lose all your health you lose a ship. If you lose all your ships or fail to keep enemies away from the Great Fox, you lose. On top of that, you have missiles that can take down enemies but not rockets, which you'll be chasing in a "fly-through-the-hoops-while firing" minigame. And even more, you have limited turns.
Graphics: 9/10
This is one of the best looking games on the DS. It has nice, cel-shaded character designs in the between mission cut-scenes. The in battle graphics are beautiful, with cool areas and nice looking ships and enemies. I love how the blasts look like plasma with their neon colours, and it just adds to the intergalactic war sci-fi feel.
Sound: 8/10
Not much I can say. The music is decent, but the sound of your lasers are what grabs me and dares me to put my sound up on high while in a movie theatre. Value: 10/10
For 10-30 bucks you'll get lots of game. There are multiple endings based on your choices, each with varying degrees of length. It can get frustrating that you'll play the first mission over and over, but the different characters after that keep me into it.
Final Word:
A decent game that is not without its flaws.
--Enemy93