Nintendo Switch is among us and there are many titles that fans of the Japanese house would like to see again on the hybrid console: after Star Fox Zero released on Wii U it is reasonable to expect another chapter that will follow in the classic footsteps of the genre. Personally speaking, however, another Star Fox at "Adventures" would not mind at all, since at the time the latest Rare title for Game Cube was really liked. So I decided to have my say in this new issue of GameScope, in which we try to make you rediscover lost pearls that most of the public did not appreciate: StarFox Adventures, title starring another of the Nintendo videogame icons, Fox McCloud, has completely revolutionized the classic gameplay we were used to and this is perhaps what has marked its destiny.
As it is easy to understand from the title of the game, in this chapter of the Star Fox saga we will find ourselves experiencing a real adventure: the peculiarity (and as mentioned above, perhaps its condemnation) lies in the fact that for the first time in its history, Fox McCloud sets foot on the ground, exploring worlds, buying tools, meeting old and new friends, fighting enemies. Does it remind you of anything else? Well, if I hadn't said that the protagonist is Fox, we would be facing a new chapter of The Legend of Zelda. Rare's latest effort for the GameCube (2002), in fact, takes all the foundations of the famous Nintendo saga and applies it to the Star Fox saga, which until then had seen its games only as space shooters. Already this was enough to make the general public express their dissent and I must admit that I myself was initially not thrilled with the idea of having to control Fox on foot, having him fight with martial arts skills; on the other hand, think if they took the characters of Zelda and put them on the spaceships and made them fight, sacrilege. And instead, once I saw the first trailer, I fell in love with it.
Being this an adventure title, there certainly had to be a plot behind it all, and it must be said that although it is nothing extraordinary or with great twists, the story keeps you motivated until the end (and by the end, I mean the end!) with a Fox never so charismatic, nice characters like the little Tricky and the new entry Krystal. In summary, here is what will lead us to start the adventure:
Fox, 8 years after the Lylat Wars, receives an important message from General Pepper, who entrusts him with a new mission, to go to the Dinosaur Planet which has been fragmented into several small planets by the cruel General Scales. Our protagonist then faces his mission on foot using the Arwing only for small movements on the planet, all with the help of little Tricky.
Of course, I won't reveal anything else, but I assure you that there will be many exciting situations and the main mission to save the planet will intertwine with other main quests to be carried out until the end of the game.
But let's start talking about the game itself. As in any adventure game, we will find ourselves at travel to many lands, with the various stereotypes always present: snowy, fiery lands, full of vegetation, marine settings, ancient and monumental buildings, enemy fortresses and so on. During our adventure, moreover, we will fight the enemies with a rod (whose origin is entirely linked to the story), which we can upgrade to make our Fox more and more powerful and lethal.
But brute force isn't all without a mind behind it: there are many in fact the puzzles to solve during the adventure, many of which thanks to the skills of Tricky, the little dinosaur that will keep us company throughout much of the game. Despite being the first time he has faced his enemies face to face, Fox McCloud seems to be comfortable with the hand to hand combat, and it is good that it is thus given the presence of a good number of enemies, each with their own abilities, up to the bosses, ranging from "simple" T-Rex to really huge monsters, to be fought using all their points weak. But as mentioned before, there will also be some small sections aboard the Arwing, which has certainly had better days.
We come to an aspect that interests everyone, namely the technical one. Graphically speaking, we are faced with one of the best GameCube titles (along with Metroid Prime 2 and Resident Evil 4): vast lands that are beautiful to see, light effects, water that gives a truly extraordinary sense of "wet", the scales of dinosaurs, Fox's fur (you want to caress it ). For the time, real miracles had been made, certainly the criticisms leveled at this game could not be aimed at the graphics sector. A little less successful is the sound compartment, which still remains of good quality: we find an OST that goes well with the various lands that we are going to visit and other more lively music for the most excited moments, but nothing that can remain in the heart for long and that is unforgettable. In any case, I post one of the tracks that I liked the most and that gave me a sense of truly absolute peace.
La longevity is good, we are talking about 20 hours and as already said the pace is almost always high, the motivation remains high until the end of the game, in which the best of the (few) twists take place. So, finally, why has this game been so criticized? The main reason is certainly that, already mentioned, of the not bepractically a Star Fox. This game has nothing to do with the saga that we have come to love over time, but simply took the elements of Zelda, applied them to the game world and the characters of Star Fox and hence Adventures. The problem lies in the fact that, in any case, we cannot achieve the excellence that every Zelda is accustomed to, so we are not faced with an excellent game nor a very good Star Fox.
As far as I'm concerned, however, I always try to evaluate a game for what it is and not for what it could or should have been: Star Fox Adventures is a great game, which excels in the graphics and is very happy to play for everything else; being indifferent and leaving it on the back burner is really a shame that shouldn't be done.
