Compleet
With yesterday's acquisition of Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, I now have every GameCube game I've ever wanted, and can officially declare that tiny corner of the collection complete.
I'm close to wrapping up Chibi-Robo, and I plan to run through Tomb Raider Legend and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles before moving on to brand-new pastures. Chibi-Robo deserves a blog entry all its own, but I haven't finished it yet, so that'll come later. In the meanwhile, here's another game I've been putting some time into lately.
Star Fox Command is the debut of Star Fox on the DS. I've had this game since Xmas, but haven't sunk much time into it until recently. One very, very big reason for this is that it uses the stylus entirely, which means -- if you're an adult -- you will need a stylus large enough to hold comfortably, and not the microscopic stylus Nintendo steals away in the side or top of your DS.
Basically, you steer, map your course, speed up, slow down, and turn around/loop-de-loop all with the stylus, which sounds like a really terrible idea when spoken out loud. In practice, it's not so bad. The big thing with this game is, it's set up more like a tactical strategy game, where shooting and piloting skills really take a back seat to how well you plan your assault. The shooting sections merely require you to defeat certain enemies and collect stars as proof of your actions; again, a concept that sounds worse than it really is. I think Nintendo realized somewhere down the road that stylus-based control would be extremely painful if prolonged, which is why the shooting game play has been compressed into chunks rather than forcing you fly through lengthy stages. Oh, and the game itself is a pretty short run the first time through, but you're given a key afterwards that lets you open up branching paths, ultimately leading a considerably higher number of stages. It's highly story-based, too.
As enjoyable as the game ultimately is, I'm not sure how highly I would recommend it to others. You see, as most long-time Nintendo fans know, the Star Fox series has more or less fallen out of grace. Oh, sure, the first two games were excellent, but Star Fox Adventures took Fox and friends out of their Arwings and stuck them on the ground, where they did not belong, and basically forced them -- and you -- through an obnoxious fetch-quest. And then there was Star Fox Assault on the GameCube, which took the game back to its shooting combat roots, but again forced you to spend the majority of the game on the ground, NOT in the air. Big, big mistake. Needless to say, it's been hard to take this IP seriously after two poor games in a row.
Star Fox Command is a step in the right direction. Though everyone loves Star Fox and Star Fox 64, I don't think it would have been a good idea to go back to that exact same formula. The strategy element gives the game a stronger sense of urgency, and the multiple paths are good, too, though you don't really have to do anything to earn your way off the beaten path, like you did before. I would just prefer a more comfortable, more traditional way to control the game should Nintendo decide to go ahead with a follow-up.
I'm close to wrapping up Chibi-Robo, and I plan to run through Tomb Raider Legend and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles before moving on to brand-new pastures. Chibi-Robo deserves a blog entry all its own, but I haven't finished it yet, so that'll come later. In the meanwhile, here's another game I've been putting some time into lately.
Star Fox Command is the debut of Star Fox on the DS. I've had this game since Xmas, but haven't sunk much time into it until recently. One very, very big reason for this is that it uses the stylus entirely, which means -- if you're an adult -- you will need a stylus large enough to hold comfortably, and not the microscopic stylus Nintendo steals away in the side or top of your DS.
Basically, you steer, map your course, speed up, slow down, and turn around/loop-de-loop all with the stylus, which sounds like a really terrible idea when spoken out loud. In practice, it's not so bad. The big thing with this game is, it's set up more like a tactical strategy game, where shooting and piloting skills really take a back seat to how well you plan your assault. The shooting sections merely require you to defeat certain enemies and collect stars as proof of your actions; again, a concept that sounds worse than it really is. I think Nintendo realized somewhere down the road that stylus-based control would be extremely painful if prolonged, which is why the shooting game play has been compressed into chunks rather than forcing you fly through lengthy stages. Oh, and the game itself is a pretty short run the first time through, but you're given a key afterwards that lets you open up branching paths, ultimately leading a considerably higher number of stages. It's highly story-based, too.
As enjoyable as the game ultimately is, I'm not sure how highly I would recommend it to others. You see, as most long-time Nintendo fans know, the Star Fox series has more or less fallen out of grace. Oh, sure, the first two games were excellent, but Star Fox Adventures took Fox and friends out of their Arwings and stuck them on the ground, where they did not belong, and basically forced them -- and you -- through an obnoxious fetch-quest. And then there was Star Fox Assault on the GameCube, which took the game back to its shooting combat roots, but again forced you to spend the majority of the game on the ground, NOT in the air. Big, big mistake. Needless to say, it's been hard to take this IP seriously after two poor games in a row.
Star Fox Command is a step in the right direction. Though everyone loves Star Fox and Star Fox 64, I don't think it would have been a good idea to go back to that exact same formula. The strategy element gives the game a stronger sense of urgency, and the multiple paths are good, too, though you don't really have to do anything to earn your way off the beaten path, like you did before. I would just prefer a more comfortable, more traditional way to control the game should Nintendo decide to go ahead with a follow-up.
posted by TM520 | 1:05 PM
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