Reviewed: March 3, 2005
Reviewed by: Roger Cox

Publisher
Nintendo

Developer
Nintendo

Released: February 14, 2005
Genre: Action
Players: 4
ESRB: Teen

8
10
9
6
8.7

Supported Features:

Story: Several years after disaster was narrowly averted on Dinosaur Planet, Lylat Central Command detects a new threat spreading throughout the galaxy. The Star Fox team is sent in to eradicate this growing menace, but what begins as a standard combat mission quickly takes a dramatic turn. Legendary team members Fox McCloud, Slippy Toad, Peppy Hare, and Falco Lombardi join forces to form the most formidable team in the history of this celebrated series: the Star Fox Armada!

Features:

• Soar through space and attack an armada of strike fighters in your Arwing
• Roll over hostile terrain in a heavily-armored Landmaster Tank, or bring the hurt to the enemy on foot
• Play missions solo or join the fight against up to three opponents in split screen battles
• Powerful weapons including automatic blasters, sniper rifles, and shoulder-launched rockets

Every weapon and vehicle works great. Each has their own unique functions and abilities which makes the game well rounded. In some levels you must fight in 3rd person on the ground (as Fox McCloud) using a blaster and any other weapons you happen to pick up. Others require you to be in the Arwing, but most levels give you a choice.

You can run around on foot, hop in the Landmaster or even jump in your Arwing if you like. It’s great never feeling force to use a particular vehicle, although one or two levels do. But for the most part you will feel like you have a choice on how you decide to play the game.

Boss battles are still quick and fun. Each one has their own distinct weak point that you must hit in order to kill it. The final boss battle is very tough, but doable if you are a good pilot. Make sure practice up before the final boss or have a healthy amount of extra lives saved up.

The controls in assault are dead on. They couldn’t be more perfect or easy to learn. One reason is because you get three different control schemes to choose from. Each one perfectly set up to suit each individual player. It’s ok that you can’t fully customize your settings because they are already the way anyone would want them. Simply put, the controls are so good that they’ll be a distant thought.

I have only two complaints. First of all, the story mode is entirely too short (4-6 hours). By the time you really get into the game, it has ended. It’ll leave you drooling for more or in shock that it’s over. The only good part is that you’ll have a blast the entire time you are playing. Such a good time that you are sure to go back and beat the game over and over.

Secondly, while in 3rd person mode (on foot) turning around is kind of slow and can be annoying if you get turned around the wrong direction. For the most part it isn’t a problem, but there are times when you’ll yell “turn around faster D@#$!%.”

Overall it has extremely solid colorful graphics that shine. So good in fact, that I am willing to compare it to Metroid Prime 2. On top of that, it has an extremely far draw-distance, solid frame rate that never slows down even in the most graphically intense moments, and animation that’s smooth and polished. Assault is a beautiful game that features the best snow effects I have ever seen in a video game. (Blizzard “white-out” effects that you must see to believe)

The voice acting is well done, but what else would you expect from Nintendo? Some might find the child like characters to be annoying, but that doesn’t mean that the voice acting is bad. And for all you veterans, Assault features most all of the original voices from Star Fox 64.

List of extra stuff to do:

• Collect 5 special flags per stage
• Win all three medals (bronze, silver, and gold) for every stage
• Beat the game in survival mode on all 3 difficulties
• Simply beating the game on all 3 difficulties