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Fox McCloud lands on the Nintendo DS. Star Fox Command manages to get a lot of things right. The visuals look great, it features the charming Star Fox cast, the touch-screen controls work very well with the game, and it even features support for Nintendo’s Wi-Fi Connection.
The story in Star Fox Command is surprisingly enjoyable. The game begins after Team Star Fox defeated Dr. Andross and foiled his evil plans. With him out of the way, the team goes their separate ways until a new threat appears. Fox decides to try to solve the problem on his own before calling on his friends. In between the missions, you’ll have the option to meet new people although some of the options are unlocked until after you beat the game, which should only take a few hours. Once you beat the game, you can go back and meet new friends (and enemies) and unlock additional endings.
A bulk of the gameplay is the expected dogfights in which you’re shooting other ships before they shoot you. The game introduces a more strategic component as well. In the strategy portion, you’re given a limited number of moves to destroy enemies, fight in battles, shoot down a missile or move your ship. There is a missle-chase minigame that has you flying to checkpoints before being close enough to shoot the target. The goal of the strategy portion, of course, is to defeat your enemies before they take you down. As for the action portion, the game features the tried and true Star Fox formula with some difficult boss fights thrown in for good measure.
The game makes great use of the Nintendo DS touchscreen. In fact, you pretty much control everything with the Nintendo DS. Every action except for shooting will be handled on the touchscreen, which also doubles as a minimap. You simply move the stylus around to have your ship fly in different directions and during the strategy portions simply drawing a path is enough. Even more complicated things like barrel rolls, U turns, and flips can also be done on the touchscreen.
Star Fox Command has a robust multiplayer mode. The game includes local support for up to six players with just one copy of the game. The game also supports Nintendo’s Wi-Fi Connection for online play. The basic multiplayer action tasks you with taking out the ships of your opponent. They will leave a star behind once you destroy them and the person with the most stars wins at the end of the match. The game also includes ranked matches for you to participate in. We found that online gameplay was just as smooth as local wireless and there were always plenty of people to play with.
Star Fox Command looks great. The environments are varied and detailed, the ships are well-modeled and the game manages to run at a stable framerate. This is all partly due to the 3D engine that is powering the game. It’s hard to fault the game’s visuals, although this is somewhat expected with the Star Fox franchise. Star Fox Command is one of the most visually impressive Nintendo DS titles to date.
The sound in Star Fox Command is equally remarkable. The soundtrack fits the game’s space-age theme very well, and the sound effects make the battles seem lively. There is some voice acting in the game although it isn’t in English but rather some gibberish language which makes sense since these characters are animal. Strangely, you can make Fox sound more like you by recording some phrases into the Nintendo DS microphone, which alters the tone of his voice.
Star Fox Command has great controls and introduces a strategic layer that's fairly interesting. However, the random feel of the story battles and the frantic multiplayer mode don't make the most of this game's solid foundation, which might cause nostalgic fans to long for the series' good old days. Fortunately, Star Fox Command still has a lot of good qualities going for it, so anyone looking for an original, portable flight combat game should set their sights on this one. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Oct 13, 2006
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