Introduction: They are tons of Nintendo characters very popular because they have change the gaming industry. Also they impress with a big title. Metroid got famous with Metroid Prime, Mario as always been popular and Zelda shock everyone with an Ocarina of Time. Star Fox on the other hand shock sonicphoto with Starfox 64. It features shooting and flying action. While it was short it was fun to do the same stuff all over again. Later comes Starfox Adventures that made Fox go in a Adventure Zelda style. While the game was fun it didn't have that replay value and Fox belongs in shooting action. So now 3 years later the wait is over Starfox Assault was release featuring the classic arwing missions like Starfox 64 and 3rd person shooting in ground.
Gameplay: The game features 3 types of controls but they change mostly the on foot and Landmaster controls. The Dual stick is better for on foot because aiming is easier with c stick and you shoot with the R button. On the other hand Single stick is better for Landmaster because is more easier to move because with the Dual Stick Control you have to move left and right with the c stick. So enough with controls the game arwing missions have lots of enemies to shoot and one level is full of meteors to avoid. In 2 levels you will be in someone's Arwing wing and you will shoot enemies with the plasma cannon that has unlimited ammo and you will have to blast some enemies that will lock on you to finish you off easily. The bosses such as Andrew Oikonny in a robot that it's very familiar to Andross the only thing is that he doesn't eat you. But just like Andross you got to shoot his hands but you got to be careful with his punches. In Ground missions you get 8 weapons: Gatling, blaster, Homing Launcher, Sniper Rifle, Machine gun, sensor bomb, grenade and Plasma Cannon. The ground missions mostly have you destroying specific targets such as the hatchers the thing that brings more aparoids. The action is quite great but sometimes it gets crazy because you have many enemies. Some enemies can be defeated with specific weapons. The Landmaster is useful to blow up targets faster and push away all the little aparoids. But the Landmaster is hard to hit enemies on the air to save your teammates. In some places you can get in a Arwing to save your friends easily and have more time to complete your mission. You will encounter Star Wolf and you will go against them in one level. You will also encounter other old characters plus some new. At the beginning of each Mission there is going to be a mission briefing where everyone talks about the mission and what are your targets. They are 5 special flags on each mission and if you collect them all you will unlock a special gun for multiplayer. The action is pure good an shooter fans and Starfox fans will really like it. Sadly the game is only 10 missions. Each time you finish a mission you can save which is good. You can play in 3 difficulties: Bronze, Silver and Gold and once you clear bronze mode you can play survival mode where you play the game without saving. Also there is a lot to unlock. 95/100
Weapons info:
Blaster The weapon you start out with. It can shoot charge shots and has unlimited ammo.
Machine Gun Shoot multiple times by merely holding down the fire button.
Grenade Press and hold the fire button to trigger a grenade, and then release the fire button to throw it.
Sensor Bomb Place these bombs with the fire button then wait for something to pass close by and set them off.
Sniper Rifle Press X to use the scope and shoot at far off enemies. Press L to zoom in more. You can take enemies out with one shot.
Homing Launcher Lock onto enemies, and then fire a missile that will chase after the enemy.
Gatling Gun Press and hold the fire button to shoot continually. Is a more powerful version of the machine gun.
Plasma Cannon A cannon you can wield while riding on the wing of someone's Arwing. It fires rapidly and has endless ammo.
Items on Ground:
Barrier This item deflects all enemy attacks for a short period of time but it only works with Fox no Landmaster and neither Arwing.
First Aid Kits These beneficial items restore the user's health. There are 3 types of first Aid Kits.
1-up Find one of these on a stage to receive an extra life.
Graphics: Starfox Assault does a fine job with the characters and there movements they are look great. Plus the costumes feel very appropriate for each character. Panther also it's a nice addition in the Star Wolf team and Wolf never look better. The special effects like your rolls in arwing, laser, fire, water, grass and others do have a nice touch. The places are nicely done such as backgrounds. But some of these ground levels needed more rooms to enter to see more stuff around. Plus a few cinematic look very nice such as the beginning one. Also in Planet Fortuna as you see in the screenshot the grass is so real and vegetation. The Wolfen (Star Wolf's arwing) looks better than ever. Thought explosions could have been more impressive. While it's not mind blowing like Metroid Prime everything looks nice and there is not much to say bad about the environments. 9/10
Sound: The voiceovers are nice enough. While Falco needed something better it's still pretty decent. But I could not stand Oikonny's voice is so cartoonish. Well at least you only see him in the first mission only. So you don't suffer. The Star Wolf theme is a little slow with trumpet sounds and it sounds very well. Some music tunes sound familiar to the ones of Starfox 64 they just change a few sounds. Sound effects like going in high speed shooting and blowing stuff sound very well too. 9/10
Multiplayer: The game features up to 4 players playable. In which you can play with all guns from story mode and you can unlock new ones by playing a specific number of times in multiplayer. You can unlock 2 special characters. In multiplayer you can team up with another player and defeat the other team or everyone going against each other. You can hop in a Arwing or Landmaster when they appear. They are lots of maps to play in but some of them are only battling in the ground without any vehicles and others are only arwing dogfights. While it's good you can get sometimes a little lost once in a while. If you are looking for a multiplayer game that is all about battles against other players than this is all yours. 9/10
Value: Starfox fans like me will be pleased seeing Fox in action shooting and blasting bad guys all the time. If you love Starfox 64 then you can easily pick up this one. Otherwise if you are interested in a great shooting arcade action game then you can give this one a rent. 9/10
Overall: Is good to see Fox back on his roots and seeing old favorite characters making a come back as well. The first time you play on ground it can get tricky but once you get use to it you will enjoy the game a lot. Plus they lots of unlockables for multiplayer and 3 level of difficulties. Starfox fans will enjoy it and I am very proud with this game and it did worth the wait.
+ Arwing missions play like SF64
+ Blasting enemies in ground is fun
+ the characters never look better
+ The music is very nice
+ Lots of unlockables for multiplayer
Cons:
- Landmaster controls can get tricky at first
- Short
- sometimes is hard to avoid your enemies attacks
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