| Star Fox: Assault | |
|---|---|
 North American box art | |
| Developer | Namco |
| Publisher | Nintendo |
| Directors | Toshiyuki Nakanishi Hideki Okazaki Yutaka Yoshida |
| Producers | Tsuyoshi Kobayashi Shigeru Miyamoto Takaya Imamura |
| Artist | Yoshihiko Arawi |
| Writers | Yoshihiko Arawi Ayumu Shindo Kazuya Hatazawa |
| Composers | Yoshie Arakawa Yoshinori Kawamoto |
| Series | Star Fox |
| Platform | GameCube |
| Release | |
| Genres | Rail shooter,third-person shooter |
| Modes | Single-player,multiplayer |
Star Fox: Assault[a] is a 2005third-person shooter game developed byNamco and published byNintendo for theGameCube. It is the fourth released title in theStar Fox series. The game was released on 15 February 2005 in North America,[1] on 24 February 2005 in Japan, on 29 April 2005 in Europe,[2] and on 16 June 2005 in Australia.
The game is set after the events ofStar Fox Adventures, and follows Fox McCloud and his team attempting to save the Lylat System from the enemy insectoid beings called Aparoids.[3] It contains orchestral arrangements of music fromStar Fox 64 as well as original tracks created specifically for the game.
WhenAssault was initially announced by Nintendo and Namco, it was also rumored that anarcade game was under development,[4] but it was never officially revealed to the public.[citation needed]
Star Fox: Assault received average to mostly positive reviews from critics, who praised its atmosphere, soundtrack and the ability to use both the Arwing and Landmaster at will during ground missions, but criticized its on-foot controls, short length and low lasting impact of the multiplayer mode.
The gameplay ofStar Fox: Assault is divided into three distinctive types. The player can either fly anArwing spacecraft, drive aLandmaster tank or perform certain tasks on foot. All three play types are available for use in the game'smultiplayer mode, though the available gameplay types are restricted based on the chosen map.
Arwing missions are similar to those of the first two games in the series. The player flies in space or close to the ground and shoots down enemies. Some levels areon rails, while others allowfull freedom of movement in a relatively small area. As in previous games, main character Fox'swing mates Falco, Slippy and Krystal occasionally call for help when chased by enemies, requiring the player to save them. If their shield gauge is depleted, they will retreat. Against bosses, Slippy can show their health bar by analyzing them, while Krystal can spot their weak points. In Arwing-only missions, if Fox has rescued his teammates, they will return the favour later on. Slippy and Krystal will grant him silver rings to replenish his shield gauge, while Falco will pass him Smart Bombs. Completing a mission without any teammate retreating will grant an ally medal. Additionally, in some levels, the player has the ability to hop in and out of the Arwing at will.
While in the Landmaster, the player has complete freedom to move about the level. They arefree to shoot or run over enemies and assist their wing mates when necessary. Playing on foot essentially turns the game into a3D third-personrun 'n' gun shooter; the player starts armed with a standardblaster gun and can acquire a variety of other weapons scattered throughout each stage. In twoshooting gallery levels, the player rides on the wing of an Arwing or a Wolfen fighter, shooting enemies on the ground and in the air with a plasma cannon.
The game features a number of weapons, such as the blaster,machine gun,Homing Launcher,sniper rifle and thehand grenade.[3] The game has a number of special items, including personalbarriers which deflect enemy attacks. The usual rings seen in otherStar Fox games that restore a vehicle's shield are also present.[3]
Whenever damage is taken from enemies or hazards, the shield or health meter depletes; depleting the meter completely will cause the vehicle to be destroyed or the player to lose a life, with a blue meter appearing when using vehicles during on-foot missions. Lives are also lost from four mission failures. If the player runs out of lives, they will receive agame over and be sent back to the title screen. If Fox dies, the mission will go back at the start of the section he died in. During ground missions, a vehicle's destruction won't cause him to lose a life unless his health meter is also depleted, and Peppy will send him another one right after. However, if the Arwing gets destroyed in space, Fox will die instantly. During ground battles, he can replenish his health by collecting first aid kits, while rings will repair the vehicle he's using.
Players can receive a bronze, silver, or gold medal for each stage based on their score upon completion. Collecting all silver medals throughout the game will unlock theNES port of thescrolling shooterarcade gameXevious as a bonus minigame.[3] In the Japanese version, collecting all bronze and gold medals will also unlock theFamicom gamesBattle City andStar Luster respectively.[5][6]
The game supportsmultiplayer for up to four players simultaneously. This mode starts off very limited, with only a few playable characters, weapons, items, and maps; but many more can be unlocked by either playing a certain number of multiplayer games or achieving certain accomplishments in-game. Players are able to fight on foot or in a vehicle (a Landmaster, Arwing, orWolfen), though some stages prohibit certain modes of travel. Playable characters include all four members of theStar Fox team, along with unlockable characters Peppy and Wolf.
Multiplayer mode offers several stages for gameplay, including stages from the single-player mode, "Simple Maps" made from blocks in basic geometric shapes, and other new maps. There are also several modes for play available, which can force a certain weapon (sniper, rocket launcher, etc.) or change the style of play (capture the crown, etc.). Players can choose to enable or disable certain options, such as radar, special weapons, and Demon Launchers.
Players can wield all of the items and weapons featured in the single-player mode, along with special unlockable items and weapons. These include jet packs, which allow the characters to hover; the stealth suit, which temporarily makes characters invisible; and the Demon Sniper and Demon Launcher, which can eliminate an opponent or vehicle with one shot.[3]
The game stars the members ofStar Fox, a team of spacefaring mercenaries:Fox McCloud (Jim Walker/Kenji Nojima),Falco Lombardi (Mike Madeoy/Hisao Egawa),Slippy Toad (Mike McAuliffe/Kyōko Tongū) and their newest memberKrystal (Alésia Glidewell/Aya Hara) participate in combat missions, whilePeppy Hare (Henry Dardenne/Tomohisa Asō) andROB 64 (Dex Manley/Yūsuke Numata) provide tactical support from their mothership, theGreat Fox. Star Fox frequently clash with rival mercenary groupStar Wolf, made up ofWolf O'Donnell (Grant Goodeve/Mahito Ohba),Leon Powalski (David Scully/Shinobu Satouchi) and new recruitPanther Caroso (Scully/Tetsu Inada); former membersPigma Dengar (Lev Liberman/Daisuke Gōri) andAndrew Oikonny (John Hugill/Numata) have since been kicked out of the team. Other supporting characters include Cornerian commanding officerGeneral Pepper (Gray Eubank/Michihiro Ikemizu) and Slippy's scientist father,Beltino Toad (Scott Burns/Hirohiko Kakegawa).
The Star Fox team's primary opponents are the Aparoids, a race of cybernetic insectoid creatures. They are capable of controlling machines and life forms through aninfection process known as "Aparoidedation". The Aparoids operate as ahive mind under the control of theAparoid Queen (Glidewell/Hara), who believes that all things exist for the infestation and seeks to assimilate everything in the universe under her control.
Assault takes place one year after the events ofStar Fox Adventures. The game is once again set in the Lylat System and sees the Star Fox team travelling to many different locations, such as their native planet Corneria, Star Wolf's base the Sargasso Hideout, the prehistoric planet Sauria, and the Aparoid Homeworld. Other planets are featured exclusively in the game's multiplayer mode.
After the death of his uncleAndross, Andrew Oikonny assumes leadership of the planet Venom's remaining troops and begins a rebellion. General Pepper orders an attack on Oikonny's forces, hiring the Star Fox team to assist the Cornerian Army. During the battle, Oikonny's flagship is destroyed by an insectoid creature, which attacks the Star Fox team. After Fox destroys the creature, he recovers its damaged Core Memory unit and turns it over to Slippy's father Beltino for research. Beltino explains the creature is a member of a race of robotic insectoids called Aparoids, one of which ravaged the Cornerian fleet seventeen years prior. Fearing an invasion, Beltino asks Star Fox to recover an undamaged Core Memory so that they might find a way to stop the Aparoids.
Lured by a false distress signal, the Star Fox team are deceived by Pigma, who tricks them into destroying a giant Aparoid so he can steal its Core Memory and sell it on the black market. Wishing to find Pigma, the team attack the base of his former cohorts, Star Wolf, and get them to reveal his hideout's location. However, by the time Team Star Fox arrive to Pigma's hideaway, he has already been infected by the Aparoids and they are forced to kill him. The Core Memory Pigma had stolen is then sent to Beltino for analysis. While Star Fox prevents an Aparoid assault on Sauria, Corneria is left nearly defenseless, with the Aparoids breaching the planet and infecting General Pepper. The team returns to contain the threat, aided by the unexpected arrival of Star Wolf, who seek to eliminate their common enemy.
Beltino uses the Core Memory to locate the Aparoid Homeworld, and discovers their vulnerability toapoptosis. He creates a program which, if fired into the Aparoid Queen, will force all Aparoids to self-destruct. Star Fox and Star Wolf travel to the Aparoid Homeworld, only to discover the planet's core is blocked by a regenerative shield. With theGreat Fox becoming infected, Peppy and ROB crash it into the shield to create an opening for the two teams to enter. While Star Wolf takes care of the remaining Aparoid forces, Fox and his allies reach the planet's core. The Aparoid Queen attempts to use the voices of Peppy, Pepper, Pigma andJames McCloud to deceive them into joining her, but the team is undeterred. After a long battle, Fox launches the self-destruct program into the Queen, but she resists it and attempts to escape to create an antibody. The team deals the final blow to the Queen, killing her and causing the self-destruction of the planet and all the Aparoids. Successfully evacuating, the Star Fox team reunite with Peppy and ROB, who survived the crash via an escape pod and reveal the other infectees have been cured, including General Pepper. Satisfied, Fox thanks his friends as they head for home.
Star Fox: Assault was first informally announced on May 8, 2002, several months before the release of its predecessor,Star Fox Adventures. The initial press release gave the game a tentative release date of April 2003, while also claiming that it was being developed by the same employees who worked on Ace Combat 2 at Namco;[4][8] neither of these came to pass, with the game receiving multiple delays until 2005 and also being produced and directed by other Namco staff members outside of the Ace Combat development team, particularly those that worked on theKlonoa series, such as Tsuyoshi Kobayashi and Toshiyuki Nakanishi.[7]
Star Fox: Assault was meant to be a return to the series' roots, afterStar Fox Adventures being a notable departure from the series' usual 3DRail shooter gameplay in favor of an action adventure styled title. According to Star Fox series creatorTakaya Imamura,Shigeru Miyamoto had requested prior to development that he wanted to see "a Star Fox game that was cooler and slicker than ever before".[9] The game's development, unusually, began with its multiplayer battle mode, as Imamura desired to improve upon the battle mode that was present inStar Fox 64, which was described as being a last-minute bonus. Namco handed Nintendo a handful of planning documents titled "Vehicle-Swapping War Action game", and it was decided that this concept, of being able to change freely between vehicles such as the Arwings and Landmasters, would be the starting point forAssault's development.[7] Reportedly, the development team had put much of their effort and resources into the battle mode, and even questioned creating a single-player mode at all, explaining why the game's initial reveal trailer inE3 2003 exclusively focused on the multiplayer;[10] According toElectronic Gaming Monthly, this particular video was booed by viewers, andEGM itself said the video was "remarkably unimpressive".[11] In the end, the developers felt that fans would want a proper story mode similar to the ones present in previousStar Fox games, so it was then decided to press on and create one; this is reportedly a factor into why the game received multiple delays. It was also decided to forgo the series' tradition of including branching pathways, instead deciding to put effort into including more volume and strategic possibility into a single stage each that would also now include checkpoints, thus, from the perspective of the developers, negating the need for branching paths as seen inStar Fox 64.[7] AtE3 2004,EGM, the same magazine that wrote poorly about it a year before, wrote a follow-up that said the game looked "much better than...a year ago".[12]Assault was then scheduled for a November 2004 release, but was delayed to the beginning of 2005.[13]
Assault notably includes three different controller setups, as there were a lot of issues on the team's part in solidifying the control scheme. The biggest worry was how Fox would control during the game's on-foot stages; initially the team implemented a twinstick control set up similar to those found in western designedShooter games, but when they tried it out, they feared that novice players would consider it too difficult, which is why they also decided to add a 1-stick control scheme, as they thought it would be more intuitive for beginner players especially. The last "acceleration style" control scheme was included to harken back to theNintendo 64 controller, where the player presses the R trigger to accelerate, feeling that older fans would enjoy it.[7]
The game's narrative was handled by Namco,[7] with the concept of the Aparoids, the main enemy forces ofStar Fox: Assault, in particular being conceived by Kobayashi, as something of a tribute to theGalaxian series, a sci-fiShoot 'em up video game franchise that involves combating alien insectoids, which was also created by Namco.[9] However, Nintendo staff, particularly Imamura, would also provide requests and inputs on how the Star Fox characters and world would be portrayed. For example, the inclusion of new female pilot Krystal, first introduced inStar Fox Adventures, was requested by Nintendo; according to Imamura, this was partially because he wanted players to see the characters grow and evolve over the course of the series, and thus there was a desire to acknowledgeAdventures, despite it being considered to be something of a side story within theStar Fox series. The development team were reportedly split on how Krystal would be portrayed, with one side wanting her to be occupy a motherly role, and those who wanted her to be more of a big sister type.[7] It was also Imamura's call to feature Beltino Toad, Slippy's father, as director of research for the Cornerian Army, who previously fought against the Aparoids 17 years prior to the events ofAssault, as Imamura wanted there to be something that was already there in the past so there would be a connection, giving the story greater depth. Beltino had previously only been mentioned in Star Fox 64's print material, specifically the game's players guide, Assault marks his first official appearance in the series.[14][15][better source needed]
The game's subtitle,Assault, was suggested by Nintendo of America. However, there were initially legal concerns as Namco had already trademarked that name for their1988 arcade game of the same name; fortunately, this trademark was said to be only valid within Japan, and Namco, who were already developers forStar Fox: Assault, had granted them permission to use the title.[7]
The game usesmiddleware provided by the Japanese companyCRI Middleware as agame engine.[16] Yoshie Arakawa and Yoshinori Kanemoto providedAssault with a musical score and sound effects with the music performed by the Tokyo New City Orchestra.[17] Most of the score pieces use themes fromStar Fox 64, composed byKoji Kondo and Hajime Wakai.
| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| GameRankings | 71%[18] |
| Metacritic | 67/100[19] |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| Electronic Gaming Monthly | 7.33/10[18] |
| Famitsu | 31/40[20] |
| GameSpot | 7.3/10[21] |
| IGN | 7.0/10[22] |
| Play | 8/10[18] |
| Cube | 6.9/10[23] |
Star Fox: Assault received "mixed or average" reviews, according to video gamereview aggregatorMetacritic.[19]GameRankings gave the game an average score of 71%.[18] Some complaints were aimed at the control scheme during on-foot portions;IGN worded the complaint as "ground missions suffering from sloppy control".[22]GameSpot noted that the multiplayer portion of the game has little lasting value, an annoyance that IGN felt as well. IGN went on to say thedesign was too simplistic.[21][22] However, IGN noted that being able to switch between the Arwing and Landmaster at will was a "welcome addition". InElectronic Gaming Monthly, two of the reviewers gave it an 8 out of 10.Play Magazine gave the game 8 out of 10.[18] Thunderbolt gave it 9 out of 10.[24] Kevin Gifford said that "the game is aimed less at theMario club and more toward the hardcore crowd".EGM also noted thatAssault had an epic feel, helped by a great soundtrack.[25]
The game became enough of a commercial success for it to be included in Nintendo'sPlayer's Choice line, which also includesStar Fox 64 andStar Fox Adventures.[26]
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