Star Fox: Assault

 GameCube
User Score
8.2

Generally favorable reviews- based on 140 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 108 out of 140
  2. Mixed: 24 out of 140
  3. Negative: 8 out of 140
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  1. BReilly
    Feb 4, 2005
    0
    Worst Star Fox game ever. Huge disappointment.
  2. AB
    Feb 18, 2005
    4
    Recently Namco has been doing very well in making great games for the GameCube, so what happened here? Star Fox: Assault is a devastating disappointment that shouldn't bear the Star Fox name, the Nintendo logo, or anyone's time. The game is short. The game is dull. The game is boring. The only good things about Assault are the good graphics and nice music and sound effects. But, Recently Namco has been doing very well in making great games for the GameCube, so what happened here? Star Fox: Assault is a devastating disappointment that shouldn't bear the Star Fox name, the Nintendo logo, or anyone's time. The game is short. The game is dull. The game is boring. The only good things about Assault are the good graphics and nice music and sound effects. But, then again, those aspects aren't as important as gameplay. Basically, they failed on the parts that mean something and did a decent job on those that don't.… Expand
  3. JoshuaH.
    Sep 15, 2006
    0
    I'm glad I just rented this game. It's an insult to the entire Star Fox franchise in its entirety--even worse than SF Adventures. I completed it in less than 4 hours--and there was no incentive to go back and relive it all again like SF64 (which had multiple paths you could take). I cannot believe Namco. They have let down Star Fox fans everywhere and SF should be totally I'm glad I just rented this game. It's an insult to the entire Star Fox franchise in its entirety--even worse than SF Adventures. I completed it in less than 4 hours--and there was no incentive to go back and relive it all again like SF64 (which had multiple paths you could take). I cannot believe Namco. They have let down Star Fox fans everywhere and SF should be totally forgotten in the closet of bad games (including E.T. for the NES). It's a shame Star Fox Command had to pick up where this storyline left off, because they practically sent it spirally down into a sewage system that smelled of poor gameplay and storyline. Do yourself a favor; screw Namco and pick up Star Fox Command in its stead.… Expand
  4. Bathmat
    Sep 13, 2011
    4
    Bloody hell. This is not good. What started off as a classic space shooting franchise has now turned into half-arsed cross-over attempts. I do admit the graphics are very good and Krystal and Wolf's voices are pretty much bang on, all other voice actors didn't seem to care, even Grant Goodeve, who did a very good job of voicing Team Fortress 2's Engineer. The game is too short, PantherBloody hell. This is not good. What started off as a classic space shooting franchise has now turned into half-arsed cross-over attempts. I do admit the graphics are very good and Krystal and Wolf's voices are pretty much bang on, all other voice actors didn't seem to care, even Grant Goodeve, who did a very good job of voicing Team Fortress 2's Engineer. The game is too short, Panther should die in a fire, somebody should teabag the on-foot missions, the controls in the in-flight modes appear to be made to feel like balsa wood and just simply, it's no fun. If the franchise keeps on going at this rate, another beloved franchise will fall into a pit of lost dreams and hopes. Thanks a lot Namco.… Expand
  5. plotlesviolence
    Jan 1, 2016
    2
    OVERVIEW = 2
    A 3D Corridor Shooter.
    Star Fox 64 is possibly my favorite game of all time. It was the first game to have constant voiced characters talk to you throughout the missions, the first to offer any kind of touch feedback, looked amazing and controlled perfectly. 8 years later, Star Fox Assault is a pile of garbage. Seriously, it’s like a design document for how to ruin sequels.    OVERVIEW = 2
    A 3D Corridor Shooter.
    Star Fox 64 is possibly my favorite game of all time. It was the first game to have constant voiced characters talk to you throughout the missions, the first to offer any kind of touch feedback, looked amazing and controlled perfectly. 8 years later, Star Fox Assault is a pile of garbage. Seriously, it’s like a design document for how to ruin sequels.

    PRESENTATION = 3
    It looks bland, like Metroid crossed with Halo. N64 graphics had a certain charm because the low-polygon count meant developers had to apply aesthetic creativity to construct shapes. Graphics are sharper now, but look worse. And, aside from the space level, all of the environments are boring. There’s nothing as in SF Assault as amazing as the N64’s Solar (i.e., the surface of the sun), no underwater levels, no videogame remakes of famous movie scenes (SF64’s Katina mission was essentially a better Independence Day videogame than the official one). The explosions lack weight and there are no physics.
    The plot is unwatchable but skippable. Star Fox 64’s only flaw was the unskippable entry and debriefing cutscenes before and after each mission, and I’ll grant that Star Fox Assault does at least let you skip these. That is the only way in which Assault has improved upon its predecessor.

    MECHANICS/CONTROL = 0
    Star Fox 64 was one of the few flight combat games I liked, because most games in that genre are all about achieving homing missile lock-on. SF64 was one of the few games where the machine gun manual fire mattered just as much.
    Step 1 of ruining the best game ever made was screwing up the previously perfect vehicular controls. Back in the N64 days, when there were no post-release patches, developers had to get the “feel” of a game right the first time. SF Assault’s movement feels wrong; in particular, the vertical movement speed feels too slow. It gets even slower when you brake, which is bizarre, because you should be turning FASTER when you brake. Even weirder, the vertical movement speed starts off just slightly too slow, and then after the first level it gets even slower even when piloting the same aircraft. It also feels like it takes too long to achieve homing lock-on.
    But that’s just the Arwing spaceship. The Landmaster tank has been totally ruined. You no longer control the left and right jump-jets separately, and the aiming is all off. I would have played an entire game based on just the SF64 Landmaster levels, but the SF Assault Landmaster is unplayable.
    There’s no submarine in this game, a nice change of pace in SF64, but not my favorite.
    But Step 2, the absolute worst design decision possible, was to make most of the game a third-person on-foot shooter. You’re flying only 1/3 of the time (some of the on-foot sections supposedly let you jump into an Arwing, but only in areas without enemies). That wouldn’t be so bad if the on-foot sections didn’t have the worst implemented controls ever coded. You move slow, with tank controls (i.e. turning instead of strafing), and you aim slower. It’s like an early Resident Evil game, except the enemies attack as if it were an action-FPS.
    Star Wars: Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike made the exact same stumble when it redesigned half the missions to have you play on foot with awful, awful on-foot controls, but at least RS3 kept the excellent vehicular controls from SW:RS2:Rogue Leader. The GTA series ruined their vehicular controls when moving from the Playstation 2 era to GTA IV, but at least GTA IV compensated somewhat by making it a decent on-foot shooter, and GTA V now drives okay. Star Fox Assault is just ruined its flight combat for nothing, and added on-foot sections so horrible that those levels are literally unplayable to me. I only got through it by using someone else’s save file and playing only the flight levels.

    DESIGN = 2
    The flight levels are okay at best, never as great as the SF 64 levels. And, sadly, there are only 4 flight missions out of the 10 total levels. The last level is unreasonably difficult, even on “easy”: lots of cheap hits and no healing items. Also, you never get to fight Star Wolf, this series’ main antagonists. They show up, but completing the missions always means ignoring them and going for the critical targets.
    The game is just a mess, through and through. How hard would it have been to make a decent sequel? Take the same exact mechanics from Star Fox 64, without tweaking, and build more levels? Maybe improve the graphics? I realize that sounds like releasing an expansion pack as a sequel, but my point is that that should be your starting point. No one who enjoys video games can hold the Gamecube controller with SF:Assault running and deny that it feels awful compared to its 8-year-old prequel.
    Instead of a true sequel, the world got Star Fox Adventures, a Zelda clone in Star Fox clothing, and then this. Maybe Nintendo keeps rereleasing the N64 classics on modern handhelds because they’ve given up on ever doing better.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

47
#47 Best GameCube Game of 2005
4
#4 Most Discussed GameCube Game of 2005
5
#5 Most Shared GameCube Game of 2005

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
67

Mixed or average reviews - based on 59 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 59
  2. Mixed: 35 out of 59
  3. Negative: 3 out of 59
  1. Weekly Famitsu
    78
    8 / 8 / 7 / 8 - silver [Vol. 846]
  2. Thunderbolt
    90
    While certainly not perfect – the game is short and could have benefited greatly from LAN or online multiplayer support – there really isn't a more versatile arcade-style shooter for the GameCube system.
    Read full review
  3. DarkStation
    70
    Undone by the clunky and unpolished on-foot missions. Star Fox: Assault is a missed opportunity for the developers to resurrect the series, which means you probably should give this a miss too.
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