Star Fox Adventures

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Star Fox Adventures
Starfox Adventures Logo.png
Studio Rare
Publisher Nintendo
Erstveröffent-
lichung
North AmericaNorth AmericaSeptember 23, 2002 September 27, 2002 November 15, 2002 November 22, 2002
JapanJapan
AustraliaAustralia
EuropeEurope
platform Nintendo GameCube
genre Action adventure
Game mode Single player
control Nintendo GameCube controller
medium GameCube disk
Age rating
USK released from 6
PEGI recommended from 3 years

Star Fox Adventures ( English translated: Star Fox Adventures ) is a video game software development company Rare for the Nintendo GameCube . The publisher is Nintendo , which was the owner of Rare at the time of development. The game was Rare's last for Nintendo before it was sold to Nintendo's competitor Microsoft .

The game is a representative of the action-adventure genre . Star Fox Adventures is the third installment in the Star Fox series and the first and so far only one that is set in this genre.

The action takes place on the Dinosaur Planet (English, translated: Dinosaur Planet) in the Lylat system, which is breaking apart. The character Fox McCloud is commissioned to restore the planet after parts of it have broken off and are floating in space, as the planet is a danger to the system due to its instability . After landing on the planet, he discovers a mystical staff from an unknown woman named Krystal, who has been kidnapped. With the help of the staff he sets out to save Krystal and the planet.

The game was released in Europe on November 22nd, 2002, after it had appeared shortly before in the USA, Japan and Australia, among others. A new edition of the game took place at the end of 2003 under the label of the "Player's Choice" series.

action

Figures and location

The main character is Fox McCloud, who has already played the leading role in the previous games. Dinosaurs live on the planet, and unlike the other characters, they move like dinosaurs and not like humans. Prince Tricky, a young dinosaur belonging to the Earthwalker tribe, accompanies Fox on his adventure and supports him in fights and puzzles. The actual team around Fox, which was also involved in the previous games, rarely appears as an advisor and mostly supports Fox's mission from space.

The game world consists of the planet Dinosaur Planet, as well as four large planet pieces that have detached from the planet and float in a planetary orbit. The planet and the planet pieces have different landscapes that are inhabited by different characters. To get to the planet and the individual planet pieces, Fox has to use his spaceship called Arwing.

history

Eight years after Fox McCloud defeated the villain Andross in the game Lylat Wars / Star Fox 64, Krystal lands on Dinosaur Planet in the Krazoa Palace. There she learns that the planet has been attacked by General Scales and his troops. In the palace she meets a soldier from the EarthWalker tribe, who asks her to free the Krazoa ghosts and bring them back to the palace. So he hopes the situation will turn in favor of the dinosaurs on the planet and stop Scales. After Krystal has freed the first ghost, however, she is locked in a crystal in the palace by an unknown force and held there.

Meanwhile, General Pepper alerts the Star Fox team and sends Fox out to save the planet that is about to fall apart. With the team in dire need of cash, Fox agrees to keep the planet going. On the instructions of General Pepper, he flies unarmed to the planet so as not to worry the residents. After landing, he finds Krystals magical staff, which she lost during her kidnapping, and learns of Krystals fate.

He learns from the Queen of the EarthWalker Tribe that General Scales stole the four ancestral stones from the planet. Due to the theft, the planet became unstable and already partially broke apart. In order to save the planet before it completely falls apart, he must find the ancestral stones and bring them back to their ancestral place in their temples. To support Fox on his mission, she orders her son Tricky to accompany and support him.

When he finds the first of the ancestral stones, he learns that he must also free the Krazoa spirits, who protect the planet and watch over it, and bring them to their palace.

When Fox finds the last Krazoa ghost, he discovers that General Scales is personally guarding it. Just before they start fighting each other, the voice of a Krazoa ghost orders that Scales retreat. Fox eventually brings the ghost to the Krazoa Palace and frees Krystal with it. The now assembled spirits are drawn into the large Krazoa statue in the shrine by a force, whereupon this comes to life and transforms into Andross, Fox's archenemy. Fox faces him with his spaceship to fight. Fox's old friend and ex-wingman Falco Lombardi, who had left the team many years earlier, shows up in the middle of the fight and helps defeat Andross. After the fight, the freed Krazoa spirits restore the planet. Falco returns to Fox's team and, like Krystal, joins them.

Game mechanics

Star Fox Adventures is played by one player in single player . This controls the character Fox through a three-dimensional game world, which is thematically divided into different areas. Four areas are on planet pieces that are in planetary orbit. The aim of the game is to find four stolen so-called ancestral stones that control the energy of the planet and to find six Krazoa spirits who watch over the planet and its inhabitants. This is to save the planet from further decay. The player is opposed to hostile opponents who have conquered the planet and want to prevent the player from saving the planet and its inhabitants. The course of the game is linear and the player can only rarely choose how to proceed.

In combat, the player can defend himself with a fighting staff. This enables the player to carry out various attacks and defensive actions. The staff also has magical abilities, which are supplemented by further abilities during the game. The magical abilities can be used in combat and are sometimes necessary to solve certain puzzles.

Fox is accompanied by the little dinosaur named Tricky. This has special abilities and can, for example, dig for objects in the soft ground or, after ingesting certain mushrooms, spit flames and thus, for example, start fires at predetermined points. He also helps the player in the battles by attacking opponents himself.

In addition to the missions on foot, there are also flight missions that have to be completed with an armed spaceship in order to be able to switch back and forth between the planet and the planet pieces. The missions are shoot 'em up sections in which the player must defend himself against approaching enemies and large meteorites with his on-board weapon and bombs.

technology

Nintendo GameCube console with gamepad

The game runs on the Nintendo GameCube and is located on a GameCube disc. The game is controlled with the Nintendo GameCube gamepad . The sound is output in the analogue home theater multichannel sound system Dolby Pro Logic II . The video resolution is 480p and the 16: 9 widescreen format is supported. The display can either be done with a refresh rate of 50 Hz or 60 Hz. As is customary in GameCube, the game status is saved on an external memory card. There are three different storage locations available to the player, each of which can be used to save an individual score. The game supports the Rumble feature for force feedback .

Development and publication

Rare originally planned to release the game on the Nintendo 64 game console , the predecessor of the Nintendo GameCube. The game was then called Dinosaur Planet and was not set in the Star Fox universe. The plot revolved around the main character named Saber, who was also a fox, as well as Krystal, Tricky, the young bird Kyte, who only appears briefly in the final game, and Randorn. Randorn was supposed to be a wizard who was Saber's father as well as Krystals stepfather, but was completely removed from the final game. The player could switch between Saber and Krystal at a specific location during the game.

Shigeru Miyamoto stated in an interview at the E3 2000 game fair that he thinks the game is great and that it would be nice if it used Star Fox characters and could be called Star Fox Adventures. ( " It looks really nice, doesn't it? I wish they would use Star Fox characters so that they could use the title Star Fox Adventures " )

After that, the game was transferred to the Star Fox universe. The name was changed to Star Fox Adventures .

The game was first released in the United States on September 23, 2002 on the GameCube. In Japan the game was released four days later on September 27, 2002. In November it was finally released in Australia on November 15, 2002 and in Europe on November 22, 2002.

In the first two days after publication alone, the game was sold over 135,000 times in Japan. It was officially confirmed to have sold over 200,000 copies in Japan by October 25 of the same year. The VGChartz website estimates 960,000 units of the game were sold in North America, 530,000 in Europe, and 300,000 in Japan. With the rest of the world, this results in a total of around 1,870,000 units.

In September 2003 the game was reissued under the label of the "Player's Choice" series because it is one of the best-selling games on the Nintendo GameCube.

reception

Meta-ratings
Database Rating
GameRankings 80.23%
Metacritic 82 out of 100
reviews
publication Rating
1UP B +
4players 81 out of 100
Allgame
Edge 6 of 10
Famitsu 32 of 40
GamePro 87%
Games world 90 out of 100
GameZone 8.9 out of 10
IGN 9.0 out of 10
Nintendo Life 7 out of 10

The game has generally received good reviews. At Metacritic , an online database for media ratings, Star Fox Adventures has an average rating of 82 out of 100 possible points. In Gamerankings , another online database that uses a different system to calculate the average rating and also uses other publications as a basis, an average of 80.23% was calculated.

Contemporary criticism

IGN Entertainment points out the similarity to the Zelda series. The game offers a lot of variety. Fans who expected a real Star Fox game could be disappointed. Gameswelt writes that Rare offers a brilliant visual and acoustic performance. The innovative story ensures many surprises and always keeps the player happy. Allgame also makes the comparison with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and describes the many similarities. As a Star Fox game, it is disappointing from their point of view and it is Rare's worst game. But even so, Rare's worst game is still miles ahead of other companies' games. According to 4Players , Rare is leaving a little memorable Nintendo legacy with Star Fox Adventures. "While the graphics are in most cases beyond reproach and are always tempting to look, the gameplay remains surprisingly pale for a rare game." GameZone describes the game as an "extremely daring experiment". The result is "a first-class game in which we are not only offered brilliant graphics and well thought-out gameplay, but also an ingenious character design familiar from Rare."

Retrospective review

IGN's Lucas M. Thomas re-examined the game in an article 10 years after its publication. He describes the game, unlike his colleague Matt Casamassina, who wrote the test for the game's release, as a major failure of the Star Fox series. When he said Rare was landing one hit after another, Dinosaur Planet was in development and was well advanced. In his opinion, it was very similar to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time . He describes it as a great misfortune that Miyamoto saw pictures of the game before it was released and saw a strong resemblance between the main character and Fox McCloud. The author further believes that the strong supremacy of Miyamoto forced the Rare team to change characters and incorporate them into the Star Fox universe.

He sees the problem with the game that the game is very good, but does not fit into the Star Fox universe. First, the Star Fox games are always space shooters; something to collect ”just to save a blue vixen he fell in love with at first sight.

In his opinion, the game seems unfinished in many places. So the player was prepared for the fight against General Scales throughout the game. But when it comes to the fight, it is interrupted by the game so that a ridiculous and nonsensical "real" final fight against Andross from the Star Fox universe could take place.

The Nintendo Life website called the game a solid adventure in a 2006 review. It promises so much to the player, but there is a lack of execution of the gameplay. It is a disappointing end to the originally "magical" relationship between Rare and Nintendo.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d Greg Kasavin: Star Fox Adventures Review. Gamespot.com, September 25, 2002, accessed April 26, 2014 .
  2. a b c Star Fox Adventures Metascore. In: Metacritic. Retrieved April 13, 2014 .
  3. Handbook of the game, p. 13 f.
  4. a b Dinosaur Planet - Dinosaur Planet has been terminated as a N64 game and redesigned for Nintendo GameCube. In: IGN. IGN Entertainment, January 26, 2001, accessed April 19, 2014 .
  5. Star Fox Planet? - Unconfirmed reports from Europe allege that Dinosaur Planet has been renamed to Star Fox Adventures. IGN, March 3, 2001, accessed April 21, 2014 .
  6. Starfox Adventures is No. 1 in Japan. In: GamePro. GameStar GmbH, October 8, 2002, accessed November 27, 2015 .
  7. ^ Graphs: Weekly GCN Sales in Japan. In: IGN. October 25, 2002, accessed April 22, 2014 .
  8. VGCartz Star Fox Adventure. In: vgchartz.com. VGChartz Ltd., accessed April 26, 2014 .
  9. Player's Choice Games ( Memento August 15, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
  10. Justin Calvert: Nintendo Player's Choice range grows. In: Gamespot.com. CBS Interactive Inc, September 9, 2003, accessed April 26, 2014 .
  11. a b Star Fox Adventures. In: Gamerankings. Retrieved April 22, 2014 .
  12. a b Star Fox Adventures> Overview. In: Allgame. Retrieved April 13, 2014 .
  13. ニ ン テ ン ド ー ゲ ー ム キ ュ ー ブ - ス タ ー フ ォ ッ ク ス ア ド ベ ン チ ャ ー , Weekly Famitsu No. 915, Pt.2, p. 100, June 30, 2006.
  14. Starfox Adventures - GameCube. In: GamePro. GameStar GmbH, accessed on November 26, 2015 .
  15. Star Fox Adventure . Game Informer , 2002, pp. 130 .
  16. a b Matt Casamassina: Star Fox Adventures - Does Rare's last GameCube title live up to the hype? Our full review. In: ign.com. IGN Entertainment, September 23, 2002, accessed April 16, 2014 .
  17. ^ A b Mathias Oertel: Test: StarFox: Adventures. In: 4Players. 4Players GmbH, November 28, 2002, accessed April 16, 2014 .
  18. a b Starfox Adventures - Review. In: Gameswelt.de. Web Media Publishing AG, accessed April 16, 2014 .
  19. a b Thomas Bowskill: Star Fox Adventures Review. In: Nintendo Life. January 6, 2006, accessed April 26, 2014 .
  20. a b Star Fox Adventures in the Gamezone test - Can you mix Zelda with Starfox? In: GameZone.de. COMPUTEC MEDIA GMBH, November 19, 2002, accessed on April 27, 2014 .
  21. Shane Bettenhausen: Star Fox Adventures (Shane). (No longer available online.) In: 1UP.com. IGN Entertainment, May 9, 2004, archived from the original on May 12, 2016 ; accessed on April 28, 2014 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.1up.com
  22. Lucas M. Thomas: Star Fox's GameCube Adventure - It's been ten years since Fox took his first wrong turn. In: IGN.com. IGN Entertainment, September 25, 2012, accessed April 22, 2014 .