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Star Fox: Assualt - Feb. 1 Rental Thread
- Thread starter Sanjuro
- Start date
Musashi Wins!
FLAWLESS VICTOLY!
Kind of a bummer. I'm going to rent it at some point. I had the feeling that some of the board hype might be a bit...peaked at first.
FortNinety
Member
SanjuroTsubaki said:
WTF? I played the game at a press function today in NYC and they told me it had branching levels, a la the original/64?!?
BuddyChrist83 said:
Paging Ferrio...
Red Dolphin
Member
ruffles said:
See Australian's accents are usually done wrong or very poorly in films and TV shows and usually come across as sounding British. There is a big difference believe it or not!
All I want to know is if Falco has a good voice actor? His voice in SF64 was perfect and had some great lines. I've heard Slippy's new voice and it's completely different from SF64! Is it so hard to get the same voice actors again? I'll never understand this.
There's only 10 different missions altogther????? Fuck that.
Only three rail shooting stage? Double fuck that.
SF64 probably has 2 times the stages if I remembr correctly. 80% of them are straight forward rail shooting.
Though the space missionsin SF64 were a bit weak, until the last few like Area 6, which was swarm with endless enemies compared to boring emptied Sector X, Meteos.
SF64 had some great tracks like Bolse defend Station stage. The music in Assault is orchestrated from the vids I've seen, that's great.
Damn that LAN is not included. Would love to battle the multi with some peeps on here. I played SF64 death match so much hours. lol
I don't know to rush out and get this or just wait for a freaking price drop.
Only three rail shooting stage? Double fuck that.
SF64 probably has 2 times the stages if I remembr correctly. 80% of them are straight forward rail shooting.
Though the space missionsin SF64 were a bit weak, until the last few like Area 6, which was swarm with endless enemies compared to boring emptied Sector X, Meteos.
SF64 had some great tracks like Bolse defend Station stage. The music in Assault is orchestrated from the vids I've seen, that's great.
Damn that LAN is not included. Would love to battle the multi with some peeps on here. I played SF64 death match so much hours. lol
I don't know to rush out and get this or just wait for a freaking price drop.
A couple of the battlefield stages have rail-shooting segments, but not in the traditional Starfox style. Fox sits on the wing of an Arwing with a plasma canon and blasts stuff as it flies on predetermined course. Kind of fun, but you don't really have any mobility.....you can rack up huge combos though.GaimeGuy said:
Some of the battlefields let you use an Arwing, though more often than not it is just an extra chore.....you fail the mission if your air support gets overwhelmed, so if you're screwing around on the ground too much you may have to take to the sky and help them out every now and again. Sometimes though you'll complete the objectives, there will be a cutscene and then you hope into Arwing Freeflight to fight a boss or play out the rest of the stage.
Well, there might be four and I'm just mis-remembering a little. Still, if you hate the Freeflight stuff then this game will not be particularly enjoyable.
I didn't mind Freeflight + Rails in Starfox 64, but the ground stuff is really what brings the game down. I thought that the tank stages would be on rails like in SF64, but it's all in the battlefield format.
Dark Dragon said:Yeah, I would love for a new stage similar to McBeth (train stage in SF64) and Katina (desert). McBeth was the better of the two simply because you have the sastisfaction of hearing the boss scream after you derailed his track and make him crash into a mine. :lol
The desert level was Titania.
Katina was the independenceday level.
Dark Dragon said:Yeah, I would love for a new stage similar to McBeth (train stage in SF64) and Katina (desert). McBeth was the better of the two simply because you have the sastisfaction of hearing the boss scream after you derailed his track and make him crash into a mine. :lol
Wasn't that his base that you caused him to smash into? Man, that was a great stage. I just hooked my N64 back up after many years, I think I"ll start playing SF64 again...
Namco fucked it up in the same way Yuji Naka fucked up Sonic the Hedgehog in 3D. There's not enough of what fans love, and too much of other bullshit. The classic gameplay is still classic, but it gets outweighed by other stuff.
At least it wasn't totally Naka-nized to the point where we had to play as shitty alternate characters.
At least it wasn't totally Naka-nized to the point where we had to play as shitty alternate characters.
Azure Dream
Member
Beaten two missions, I'm digging it so far. The game seems to have a nice bit of classy polish that'd been missing from some of Nintendo's releases, so it looks and sounds pretty darned good.
Controls? Yeah, things in the air seem to have less "weight" to them, but it kind of fits the look tweak. You wouldn't think of the Arwing as a heavy clunker in this one, more like something out of an anime. It's less, "travel down this corridor and make sure to shoot all four enemies coming at you in a neat little line," and more, "shoot your way through the chaos in this wide open area." The on-foot works a lot better than I expected, it moves relatively fast, although I'm not used to using the radar yet and have had a few times where enemies snuck up on me and got hits in. (
) Thankfully, for all the complaints I heard, the Landmaster is _fine_. No, it's not a graceful gazelle, but it's a tank, so who expects it to be? I wish the boosting was a little less fidgetty, but small complaint.
I was surprised at just how many voices were different from even the E3 videos. Fox's new voice isn't working for me yet, nor is Slippy or Peppy's. (Just totally off on Peppy. Peppy's voice might've been better for General Pepper.) Falco's is alright, and Krystal's is pretty much spot-on. Many of the communications seem to have a slightly odd sound to them, like compression, but I think the way it's done, it's supposed to be intentional. I don't know, it's a bit odd. But in any case, the game got a T as it is, so it's a bit silly to hear Fox yell "Dang!" at something.
I think it kind of fills my void for a new classy Nintendo title for a little while; even if it ends up a bit short, it was worth the wait so they could make sure they did a decent job.
Controls? Yeah, things in the air seem to have less "weight" to them, but it kind of fits the look tweak. You wouldn't think of the Arwing as a heavy clunker in this one, more like something out of an anime. It's less, "travel down this corridor and make sure to shoot all four enemies coming at you in a neat little line," and more, "shoot your way through the chaos in this wide open area." The on-foot works a lot better than I expected, it moves relatively fast, although I'm not used to using the radar yet and have had a few times where enemies snuck up on me and got hits in. (
Also, is that one in the elevator during the second mission intentional? I think it was, and I did run into it since I wasn't expecting it.
I was surprised at just how many voices were different from even the E3 videos. Fox's new voice isn't working for me yet, nor is Slippy or Peppy's. (Just totally off on Peppy. Peppy's voice might've been better for General Pepper.) Falco's is alright, and Krystal's is pretty much spot-on. Many of the communications seem to have a slightly odd sound to them, like compression, but I think the way it's done, it's supposed to be intentional. I don't know, it's a bit odd. But in any case, the game got a T as it is, so it's a bit silly to hear Fox yell "Dang!" at something.
I think it kind of fills my void for a new classy Nintendo title for a little while; even if it ends up a bit short, it was worth the wait so they could make sure they did a decent job.
At least someone else is sticking up for it. I'm not saying its the 2nd coming of christ. But I would give it a solid 8/10. Its another great Nintendo franchise to add to my collection.
Oh and yes, they did fuck up Sonic with 3D. If you play this game however, its nothing like that. Its damn fun.
Oh and yes, they did fuck up Sonic with 3D. If you play this game however, its nothing like that. Its damn fun.
I more or less agree with you, but i''ve been playing Star Fox since its inception and I expected more progression from this game. As much as I am enjoying SFA, I just wish it were more of a Panzer Dragoon Orta-ish experience. I would have preferred it if the game were all rail shooter because that portion of SFA is done so well. The rest seems under-developed and I really think they could have taken it further. I still consider it a solid experience.SanjuroTsubaki said:
Ironclad_Ninja said:
I can't compare the two. Panzer Dragoon's quality was of a different level. That was an amazing experience. Coming into SFA I knew basically what to expect and enjoyed the new additions to the game and uses for the landrover and arwing in the same mission. While it isn't anything mindblowing, its StarFox and he is back!
I couldn't agree more. This is the exact same way that I feel about SFA and how I felt going into the game. I am enjoying this game and I think it is definetly worth a try. It's just that when I think of Nintendo and Namco's development muscle, this could have been so much more. As a Star Fox fan, I must say that I am pleased.SanjuroTsubaki said:
if nintendo's set on farming the starfox franchise out -- and if the franchise is still worth anything -- i bet the former smilebit could do a wicked starfox rail shooter. but honestly i'd rather see smilebit do another panzer game or something original. the starfox world is irredeemably lame, and would in that sense be a waste of smilebit's talent.
As much as I would love to see Smilebit do another PD game, I would prefer them to work on another JGR. No matter what your reservations are on the SF license, I really think that Smilebit could do a smashing job with it. The game would be a rail-shooter to the core and I am 100% sure they would include the original SF and SF 64.drohne said:
One thing I realized today... Nintendo "farming out" the Star Fox franchise isn't a new thing after all, it's the norm for the series. They've only ever developed one installment themselves, Star Fox 64. I guess it was an exception and we can't really expect that level of quality to continue throughout future SF games.drohne said:
I tried to play more Assault tonight and left disgusted. The lack of polish is really disheartening. It's sad when I really can't find this game fun at all after loving the other 2 titles in the series.
I popped in SF64 to make sure it still held up and it does. It really does.
I popped in SF64 to make sure it still held up and it does. It really does.
soundwave05
Member
Nintendo should just friggin' buy out Amuzement Vision and Clover Studios and let those teams handle these franchises if they don't want them.
I have a susupicion that Nintendo knows this game is gonna be a bomb, and that's why they made it a 2-week rental exclusive. This way they can sell a bunch of copies to Blockbuster up-front, and renew their relationship with them. It seems like Blockbuster is pretty down on GameCube these days....and I guess they should be. One of the stores I went to only had 1 copy of Resident Evil 4 and it was STILL unrented, sitting on the shelf. Others had 2 copies, with one in and one out. The situation was kind of similar with Metroid Prime 2 -- stores only got a couple copies, and it still wasn't even in heavy demand. That's kind of pathetic considering that low-tier Xbox and PS2 games like Mercenaries and Playboy: The Mansion had 5-6 copies that were all rented out. Plus I guess Blockbuster has gotten burned on Gameboy/GBA game rentals. You'd think that would be a decent market since the games are so cheap, but every single store I've been to has stopped doing it. Starfox Assault will probably have the highers "sales to rental stores" tally of any Cube title in recent years.....the store I finally found it at had like 4-5 copies of it, but generally even high-profile Cube games only get 2 copies.
Between the lackluster impressions and the "early rental" situation, the sales for Starfox are pretty much poisoned. I worry that this may be the end of the franchise, and that Nintendo will shift it to the backburner like they've done with other "old school" franchises such as Punch Out. I don't like anything Namco has done, so if they're responsible for killing Starfox then they will pretty much join Gearbox on my "hate this company forever" shitlist.
FINAL JUDGEMENT - Rent the game, and play through it on Bronze difficulty. This will open up all the stages for the mode where you can select any mission you want anytime. I've been playing through the rail-shooter missions trying to get gold and silver medals, and have been having a blast. They're still pretty great, even if there's only 3 of them. Only Nintendo diehards should buy that game, but it's definitely a Must-Rent.
Questions:
Aside from Xevious, what else can be unlocked? I can't help but hope that there's an extra rail-mission or two waiting to be uncovered. Maybe a higher difficulty level, too?
In the Mission Select mode, sometimes my score is displayed in white type, sometimes in blue type -- what the hell does this mean? It doesn't seem to have anything to do with score or medals earned.
What is the point in collecting the special S-Flags? Just another thing to unlock?
I didn't get an instruction booklet so maybe some of this stuff is explained there.
Observation:
While I don't think there is really a branching mission structure, some of the rail-missions do have little side areas off the main path that you can go to for powerups and stronger enemies. So far I've only found one in the first mission, at the beginning of the planet-section. Any more extra, undiscovered bits?
Between the lackluster impressions and the "early rental" situation, the sales for Starfox are pretty much poisoned. I worry that this may be the end of the franchise, and that Nintendo will shift it to the backburner like they've done with other "old school" franchises such as Punch Out. I don't like anything Namco has done, so if they're responsible for killing Starfox then they will pretty much join Gearbox on my "hate this company forever" shitlist.
FINAL JUDGEMENT - Rent the game, and play through it on Bronze difficulty. This will open up all the stages for the mode where you can select any mission you want anytime. I've been playing through the rail-shooter missions trying to get gold and silver medals, and have been having a blast. They're still pretty great, even if there's only 3 of them. Only Nintendo diehards should buy that game, but it's definitely a Must-Rent.
Questions:
Aside from Xevious, what else can be unlocked? I can't help but hope that there's an extra rail-mission or two waiting to be uncovered. Maybe a higher difficulty level, too?
In the Mission Select mode, sometimes my score is displayed in white type, sometimes in blue type -- what the hell does this mean? It doesn't seem to have anything to do with score or medals earned.
What is the point in collecting the special S-Flags? Just another thing to unlock?
I didn't get an instruction booklet so maybe some of this stuff is explained there.
Observation:
While I don't think there is really a branching mission structure, some of the rail-missions do have little side areas off the main path that you can go to for powerups and stronger enemies. So far I've only found one in the first mission, at the beginning of the planet-section. Any more extra, undiscovered bits?
soundwave05
Member
Nah, Nintendo will still make Star Fox games in the future.
They continue to make F-Zero games and those have never been big sellers.
Star Fox DS please
They continue to make F-Zero games and those have never been big sellers.
Star Fox DS please
soundwave05
Member
I dunno a Star Fox DS with all the N64 levels, remade SNES levels, and maybe the "lost" Star Fox 2 levels would kick ass IMO.
They could add a WiFi multiplayer mode too. I guess some commands could be mapped to the touchscreen if the six buttons on the DS don't cut it.
They could add a WiFi multiplayer mode too. I guess some commands could be mapped to the touchscreen if the six buttons on the DS don't cut it.
Someone seemed to imply that many stages are broken down into segments... three areas for a stage, for example. Is this true of the flight stages? Are the flight stages LONGER than those in SF and SF64?
Oh, and as far as those "Nintendo knows it's doomed" theories -- most first party Nintendo games seem to sell in droves, and I think that means that they don't rent out very well. This is just my own wacky theory, but I've always assumed that GC rentals do rather poorly as the GC audience tends to buy most of the "big" GC titles. I know that I haven't rented a game in years -- the only games I'd consider renting are the bizarre, obscure titles, and those never appear in a rental place.
Oh, and as far as those "Nintendo knows it's doomed" theories -- most first party Nintendo games seem to sell in droves, and I think that means that they don't rent out very well. This is just my own wacky theory, but I've always assumed that GC rentals do rather poorly as the GC audience tends to buy most of the "big" GC titles. I know that I haven't rented a game in years -- the only games I'd consider renting are the bizarre, obscure titles, and those never appear in a rental place.
just played through the first five levels on silver difficulty. two of these were rail shooting stages, so i expect four total. the rail shooting is good fun. no challenge to speak of, and certainly none of panzer dragoon orta's exquisite design or intricacy. but the controls have a wonderful floaty feel that does suggest panzer dragoon, and the camera somehow conveys a sense of massive space; on a big tv, the feeling of flight is intoxicating. there's plenty to shoot at, and the bosses are enjoyable patterned affairs. a full game of this would have been an entirely worthy starfox sequel.
...though of course it isn't a full game of this.
the on-foot shooting is surprisingly inoffensive. the action and level design are crude and ordinary, but it all moves at a spanking pace, and the dual analog controls are workable. i found myself not hating it without knowing why. this falls apart utterly the moment you hop into a tank. someone on gaf said it handles like a "drunk warthog," which is about right. and sadly the tank's superior armor and firepower are indispensable. it's very trying. and the free-flight segments are nearly as bad. you're restricted to tiny areas, and the arwings wobble impotently. i disliked the free-flight in starfox 64, but i don't remember it being this bad.
the rail shooting in itself would be roughly a 7. i'd be tempted to score it higher cos i'm fond of the genre. the on-foot shooting is perhaps a 5. the free-flight shooting is a 4. the tank debacle is a 1. the total melange isn't as offensive as the average of those numbers would suggest, but certainly you'll pine for a proper rail shooter.
...though of course it isn't a full game of this.
the on-foot shooting is surprisingly inoffensive. the action and level design are crude and ordinary, but it all moves at a spanking pace, and the dual analog controls are workable. i found myself not hating it without knowing why. this falls apart utterly the moment you hop into a tank. someone on gaf said it handles like a "drunk warthog," which is about right. and sadly the tank's superior armor and firepower are indispensable. it's very trying. and the free-flight segments are nearly as bad. you're restricted to tiny areas, and the arwings wobble impotently. i disliked the free-flight in starfox 64, but i don't remember it being this bad.
the rail shooting in itself would be roughly a 7. i'd be tempted to score it higher cos i'm fond of the genre. the on-foot shooting is perhaps a 5. the free-flight shooting is a 4. the tank debacle is a 1. the total melange isn't as offensive as the average of those numbers would suggest, but certainly you'll pine for a proper rail shooter.
Tritroid
Member
I'm not understanding why there are such drastically conflicting impressions.
Some are saying that it's very polished, and then some are saying that the lack of polish is 'disheartening'. For Christ's sake which is it? The same goes for the tank.
Also, Dinosaur Planet is included as a level? Didn't know that..
Some are saying that it's very polished, and then some are saying that the lack of polish is 'disheartening'. For Christ's sake which is it? The same goes for the tank.
Also, Dinosaur Planet is included as a level? Didn't know that..
Tritroid said:
That's why I'll trying renting the game again today. Although I think there seems to be consensus about how average the ground stuff is, so I don't have a lot hope for that. I still don't have clear idea of how much flight is in the game, either (I'm talking totally and not just levels of pure flight.)
Tritroid said:
Yes, the Dinosaur Planet is one of the funnest levels in the game. You have the landrover and arwing at your disposal. While your on the ground trying to destroy all your targets, every now and then you need to hop in your arwing and save your teamates in the sky. On the hard difficulty its really intense.
Jonnyboy117
Member
Oli likes Kirby Air Ride and PN03. When he hates a Nintendo game, I get worried. Of course, my local Blockbuster is a franchise store and doesn't know anything about this game. They also still have late fees. But I'm not nearly as enthusiastic to play this game as I was before. We've been telling Nintendo and Namco that the on-foot and tank stuff sucked for two damn years...so why does it still suck? Surely they had QA and focus testing saying the same things the critics were.
I never even touched Starfox Adventures, and was a bit annoyed that they forced this game to tie into it by including a dinosaur planet level. The baby triceratops thing is the gayest thing that ever gayed (to put it into GameFAQs-speak). Until that point I might have disagreed with drohne's comment that "the starfox world is irredeemably lame"...
IIRC, level 5 is on-rails and after that all the missions are hybrids except for level 10....and even that one has a boss that must be killed in Freeflight mode.
I'm going to have to try and rent this game. I agree that the Starfox world isn't that great, but hot damn the on rails action is so sweet.
I'm extremely disappointed to hear only 3 or 4 stages are true on rails action. Actually, probably more disappointed at the amount of gametime that sounds like it is being spent onfoot. When I first heard an Ace Combat team was developing a Star Fox game I got excited at the possibilities, because the flight battling in Ace Combat series kicks ass. What I see here seems to be somewhat of a shamble of a game. Like the Ace Combat team decided that all on rails wouldn't cut it and they had to force feed some other gameplay styles to mix things up. I realize some of my disappointment stems from my own expectations, but I do think the ball was dropped on what could have been an amazing on rails action sequel.
I'm extremely disappointed to hear only 3 or 4 stages are true on rails action. Actually, probably more disappointed at the amount of gametime that sounds like it is being spent onfoot. When I first heard an Ace Combat team was developing a Star Fox game I got excited at the possibilities, because the flight battling in Ace Combat series kicks ass. What I see here seems to be somewhat of a shamble of a game. Like the Ace Combat team decided that all on rails wouldn't cut it and they had to force feed some other gameplay styles to mix things up. I realize some of my disappointment stems from my own expectations, but I do think the ball was dropped on what could have been an amazing on rails action sequel.
More Impressions:
The controls on ground are fine when in 'Standard' ... in fact they're what PNO3 should've been...
That being said, I can see PNO3 fans really enjoying this game's arcade feel...
But It has a lot in it of what I didn't like Starfox 64 for, those "not on rails" missions .... though I am enjoying the missions on foot this time 'round.
I set the difficulty to the highest, and it's getting way difficult ... I'm thinking of setting it back a notch, 'cause it's like Panzer Dragoon Orta on Very Hard...
I really miss being able to select my missions from a branch of planets ... So the game playes as a modern Sonic, where you're forced to play through some missions in hopes that the next one will be awesome.
The game's plenty enjoyable if you're looking for a quick shooter ... hell, other than Orta, it's the only other rails shooter we get this generation.... I'm going to purchase it because of that.
................................................................................................................................
But playing it, you can't help but wonder what it would've been like if Nintendo took a chance and updated Starfox to the conceptual level that they updated Metroid Prime or Ocarina of Time ...
It's still just a quick shooter ------- I think Starfox Adventures was a step in a better direction (!dodges blows!) ... I'm a shooter fan, and not so much an adventure fan but I liked Starfox Adventures better (as a part of the franchise) .... even if people didn't care much for it, I think the heart was in the right place (just not the flying missions)...
Something of that calibur, done with respect and a sense of adventure could still rely heavily on awesome Arwing level designs .... Something that maintains the feel of Starfox arcade, with the sense of adventure that Privateer or Wing Commander brought.
The controls on ground are fine when in 'Standard' ... in fact they're what PNO3 should've been...
That being said, I can see PNO3 fans really enjoying this game's arcade feel...
But It has a lot in it of what I didn't like Starfox 64 for, those "not on rails" missions .... though I am enjoying the missions on foot this time 'round.
I set the difficulty to the highest, and it's getting way difficult ... I'm thinking of setting it back a notch, 'cause it's like Panzer Dragoon Orta on Very Hard...
I really miss being able to select my missions from a branch of planets ... So the game playes as a modern Sonic, where you're forced to play through some missions in hopes that the next one will be awesome.
The game's plenty enjoyable if you're looking for a quick shooter ... hell, other than Orta, it's the only other rails shooter we get this generation.... I'm going to purchase it because of that.
................................................................................................................................
But playing it, you can't help but wonder what it would've been like if Nintendo took a chance and updated Starfox to the conceptual level that they updated Metroid Prime or Ocarina of Time ...
It's still just a quick shooter ------- I think Starfox Adventures was a step in a better direction (!dodges blows!) ... I'm a shooter fan, and not so much an adventure fan but I liked Starfox Adventures better (as a part of the franchise) .... even if people didn't care much for it, I think the heart was in the right place (just not the flying missions)...
Something of that calibur, done with respect and a sense of adventure could still rely heavily on awesome Arwing level designs .... Something that maintains the feel of Starfox arcade, with the sense of adventure that Privateer or Wing Commander brought.
Warm Machine
Member
How is the multiplayer? It looked like Battlefield was the inspiration.
olimario said:
PNO3's controls are so limiting that you eventually accept them, and take them for the arcade controlls that they are .... Starfox's are so buttery and quick that, yea, you feel like they are a bit clumsy.... but I've hit everything that I've been aiming for in Starfox.
What control settup are you on?
satterfield
BIGTIME TV MOGUL
Teddman said:
I believe that Star Fox 64 was developed by Argonaut with Nintendo's guidance. Yeah, I know. Hard to believe.
Nope, both Star Fox and Star Fox 64 were developed internally at Nintendo EAD. A few Argonaut programmers went to Kyoto to help with the first Star Fox's engine but the game design was 100% Nintendo. The canceled Star Fox 2 was also done by EAD.satterfield said:
Star Fox Adventures and Star Fox Assault are the only outsourced games in the series.