Starfox Adventures: Dinosaur Planet

Written By Thomas Goodwin

     Star Fox, a memorable title, originally launched for the Super Nintendo. With a trusty Arwing fighter, as well as many non-player characters as allies, a player was to vanquish evil opposition. The massive success of this game led to the release of its sequel, Star Fox 64, for the Nintendo 64 in May of 1997. Four years later, there is now talk of a return to this widely successful series, on Nintendo’s new Gamecube with Star Fox Adventures: Dinosaur Planet. Despite the tried and true gameplay style of its predecessors, this new title will play much differently than previous Star Fox title.

Fox McCloud, an Arwing pilot, now finds himself challenged by a new foe. General Scales has taken it upon himself to invade and occupy Dinosaur Planet. Shortly after, Fox decides that an investigation and assessment of the situation is necessary, and takes personal responsibility for the task. With his powerful staff, Fox journeys to Dinosaur Planet and begins his investigation on foot. On the planet's surface, he meets many allies as well as plenty of foes. Many old characters from the previous games will show up from time to time throughout the game to support Fox and give him aid when necessary. There are also newer allies, such as Prince Tricky, Fox’s main ally throughout the game.

Although it looks like an excellent idea, Rare is taking quite a risk in the creation of Star Fox Adventures: Dinosaur Planet. Breaking away from the precedent set forth for gameplay style of the series by both Star Fox and Star Fox 64, Star Fox Adventures: Dinosaur Planet is expected to have more in common with the Zelda series than the Star Fox series, as far as gameplay issues go. At the beginning of the game, Fox McCloud will be on foot and will be carrying a powerful staff, rather than piloting his Arwing and battling in the skies. This staff will be his combat weapon. Unfortunately, due to recent information, it appears that the staff will be the only weapon available. Although this is somewhat of a disappointment, there should be multiple attacks that the staff can be used for. Personally, I would prefer to be able to take out a handy blaster. If used to its fullest potential, though, the multi-tasking staff may turn out to be a better option for the game than multiple weapons. Although much of the game will take place on the ground, Rare knows better than to completely abandon the Arwing and the fun it brought to the Starfox series. There will, at some points in the game, be opportunities to fly the Arwing and combat enemies as necessary. This feature will combine the best of both worlds, allowing for some ground combat and some air combat in the same game. Other characters will also aid the game, making it more enjoyable and opening more options to player. Prince Tricky, a small dinosaur, tags along with Fox and will also surface in Starfox Adventures: Dinosaur Planet. He will play a large part in the game, as players will be able to instruct him to accomplish their goals. Features such as this should, in themselves, make the game terrific.

There are both negative and positive aspects of Starfox Adventures: Dinosaur Planet, the latter of which should be most prominent. Sadly, there will be no multiplayer game. Although Rare would have been wise to incorporate some sort of multiplayer ground and/or flight combat, this is, for some reason, absent from the title. This robs the game of a great deal of replay ability and, unfortunately, will prevent the game from taking advantage of the online capabilities of the Gamecube. Hopefully, the single player game will make up for this shortcoming. The game should captivate players, much as the Zelda series has, if it is done as well as is expected. The game should, apparently, have vast, terrific environments filled with non-player characters that serve no purpose but to enliven the atmosphere of the game. These will mostly be dinosaurs roaming the planet. Rare has done this to give the game more depth and to allow a greater level of immersion while playing it. Most likely, details such as these will cause the title to be a great success.

Publisher   Nintendo   Developer   Nintendo   Platform   Gamecube   Player   One Player

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