Personally, I think Nintendo needs to stop using Star Fox as a tech demo for their new gimmicks like they did with Star Fox Command on the DS and Star Fox Zero on the Wii U. Star Fox: Assault was a great game for the Game Cube and got way more hate than it deserved. The spaceship levels were great, it expanded the story, enemies and characters, and it was a generally fun game.
My problem with Assault was that I went in wanting to play on-rail shooting like in 64… and it had that.
But it was in a minority, and the all-range mode levels were optimized for on foot or land master, so the Arwing segments were often either underwhelming or you were being herded to play the terrestrial based gameplay.
The game was certainly good, and was by far the best written Star Fox game at the time (IMO), but it didn’t quite scratch the itch I was desperately hoping it would.
But you are absolutely right that it doesn’t deserve the hate it got, and it would probably be an amazing first Star Fox game for someone new to the franchise.
Yeah, there were complains about the third-person shooter stages and the control scheme. I played it recently and you can tell the controllers didn’t age well in those sections. But it’s not terrible, and the game’s still a lot of fun and has a good story.
It was a long time ago, so perhaps I’m misremembering, but at least in my friend group, we were all upset about Star Fox Adventures, and we thought Assault was a return to form. But it seems like Adventures is pretty well liked these days.
That’s my memory of it as well. I remember getting decently far into the game and deciding it was quite fun. It just wasn’t what I was expecting.i didn’t look up reviews or watch gameplay back in those days. I would just get the game.
Star Fox Zero was even close to the end of the Wii U’s life cycle, so the gamepad wasn’t even “new” by that point. They really should have either not used the dual-screen gimmick altogether (realizing that people can really only focus on one screen at a time), better optimized their level design for its use, or where it could have actually worked was to use it only in a 2-player co-op mode where one player piloted the ship with a Wii-mote/nunchuk and the other was the “gunner” using the gamepad to shoot enemies. (I’d also allow the player with the Wii-mote a gunning option, maybe point-and-fire like shooting star bits in Mario Galaxy, or give that player control of the bombs.)
Personally, I think Nintendo needs to stop using Star Fox as a tech demo for their new gimmicks like they did with Star Fox Command on the DS and Star Fox Zero on the Wii U. Star Fox: Assault was a great game for the Game Cube and got way more hate than it deserved. The spaceship levels were great, it expanded the story, enemies and characters, and it was a generally fun game.
Star Fox Armada sounded amazing. Do that!
My problem with Assault was that I went in wanting to play on-rail shooting like in 64… and it had that.
But it was in a minority, and the all-range mode levels were optimized for on foot or land master, so the Arwing segments were often either underwhelming or you were being herded to play the terrestrial based gameplay.
The game was certainly good, and was by far the best written Star Fox game at the time (IMO), but it didn’t quite scratch the itch I was desperately hoping it would.
But you are absolutely right that it doesn’t deserve the hate it got, and it would probably be an amazing first Star Fox game for someone new to the franchise.
Assault got hate? I loved it as a kid
Yeah, there were complains about the third-person shooter stages and the control scheme. I played it recently and you can tell the controllers didn’t age well in those sections. But it’s not terrible, and the game’s still a lot of fun and has a good story.
It was a long time ago, so perhaps I’m misremembering, but at least in my friend group, we were all upset about Star Fox Adventures, and we thought Assault was a return to form. But it seems like Adventures is pretty well liked these days.
Yeah, if you see Adventures as a game starring Star Fox that is not a Star Fox game, you can appreciate it 😬
That’s my memory of it as well. I remember getting decently far into the game and deciding it was quite fun. It just wasn’t what I was expecting.i didn’t look up reviews or watch gameplay back in those days. I would just get the game.
Star Fox Zero was even close to the end of the Wii U’s life cycle, so the gamepad wasn’t even “new” by that point. They really should have either not used the dual-screen gimmick altogether (realizing that people can really only focus on one screen at a time), better optimized their level design for its use, or where it could have actually worked was to use it only in a 2-player co-op mode where one player piloted the ship with a Wii-mote/nunchuk and the other was the “gunner” using the gamepad to shoot enemies. (I’d also allow the player with the Wii-mote a gunning option, maybe point-and-fire like shooting star bits in Mario Galaxy, or give that player control of the bombs.)
Me and my friends spent entire summers playing star fox assault. That game kicks ass.