I mentioned before in my last review I would go over Star Fox Adventures, so I might as well go over just that. Just for reference, Star Fox Adventures is for the Nintendo Gamecube, released several years after Star Fox 64. It changes a lot of things for the Star Fox series, which may or may not translate to a good future.

This picture is misleading; only Fox (and sometimes Tricky) do the real fighting

The game starts off with you playing as an anthropomorphic fox named Krystal. She talks in a different language that is shared among other dinosaurs that live on the planet, and is thankfully translated for convenience. She loses her magic staff weapon, and is forced to travel and sneak around a flying ship and then a spirit temple. She then gets trapped in her namesake, supposedly ending the adventure to save the planet.

Enter Star Fox, minus Falco, trying to look for work, and they get an S.o.S. on Dinosaur Planet, where pieces of the planet’s surface are removed and floating around it like moons. Fox McCloud takes the job solo, flying his Arwing to the planet below while he routinely calls his teammates for advice, saving, and other menu options. Fox is forbidden from using his blaster gun, so he uses the next best thing: Krystal’s staff, conveniently within the area he just landed on. And this isn’t just a magic staff with firebolts and freeze rays he can upgrade later, but a quarterstaff that he can use to beat up evil dinosaurs.

Finders keepers!

It would be best compared to Legend of Zelda in terms of gameplay. As Fox, you travel all over Dinosaur Planet to fight evil SharpClaws with two major arching goals in mind; collect 4 Geostones that are meant to restore the planet’s order, and find the remaining 5 Krazoa Spirits to save Kyrstal (both are treated as different quests but eventually lead to the same result). You can search for underground chambers that will give your staff more mana power or a new spell (similar to the fairies in Zelda), help dinosaurs for hints and/or new puzzle pieces to move along, and even collect scarabs for currency for the shop in the starting area. All that’s different is that everyone’s technically an alien (anthropomorphic animals on a planet full of sentient dinosaurs) but they can speak in full voice acting (which was actually pretty well done).

For anyone used to Star Fox before, this is the first time we have the title character do on-land missions. It at least shows that Fox has more up his sleeve than just good piloting skills, but the combat skills to raid enemy bases to save captive dinosaurs (oppressed by General Scales and his army of SharpClaws). Helping him on his journey is the EarthWalker Prince Tricky, an adorable little quadruped that can dig, fetch, stay and even breath fire like a dog. Well, maybe not the fire thing, but his tricks are helpful in solving puzzles and finding bonus collectables throughout the game. While you find clues and bonus items on the planet itself, you can only find the Geostones on the already floating slabs of land separated and floating into space. They also serve as having major arc bosses.

Houston, we’ve had a problem. But now there’s four of them.

Looking back, I have mixed feelings about this game. It was the second Star Fox game I ever played (the first being 64; I joined in late) so it was kind of fun to have an adventure in a land of dinosaurs with names that would fit a Land Before Time setting (Stegosauruses are called LandWalkers, for example). However, Star Fox Adventures was meant to be an N64 game by the title of “Dinosaur Planet”, giving Krystal a more active role alongside a sword fighting hero named Sabre, and they take turns exploring the planet with their unique gameplay mechanics. As for why this was changed, Sabre got compared to Fox and somewhere down the line, the company Rare got the idea to change it up for a better sale. And then there was the rushed ending, where General Scales wasn’t even fought and they somehow brought Andross back for a classic Arwing boss fight. In a way, I would have preferred the original Dinosaur Planet, but the graphics of Star Fox Adventures are much better than the samples of Dinosaur Planet online (google it).

As a kid, I really enjoyed playing and beating the game, and I still look fondly on it. It might have not been a fancy space-shooter, but it was a fancy space-adventure on a planet full of magic, mystery, and talking dinosaurs. And at least Krystal would forever be a recurring character in the franchise from here on.