|
| 
| From: Nintendo
Category: Video Games
List Price: $29.99
Buy Used: $8.53
You Save: $21.46 (72%)
New (36) Used (34) from $8.53
Avg. Customer Rating:  33 reviews
Sales Rank: 4602
Platform: Nintendo Ds
ESRB: Everyone 10+
Media: Video Game
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Operating System: Nintendo DS
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 0.1 x 0 x 0
MPN: ntr p asfe
Model: 45496737740
UPC: 045496737740
EAN: 0045496737740
ASIN: B000FW64OY
Release Date: August 28, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 21-25 of 25 | | « PREV | | |
 Good game October 9, 2006
1 out of 9 found this review helpful
Pros:
Good story line,
ok graphics,
Multiple storys,
good Lan Multi-player.
Cons:
Gets boring,
Bad Wi-Fi.
 A foxy DS game October 6, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I've always felt that Nintendo treated its Starfox franchise like a lab rat. Even the original, which was released on the Super Nintendo, used the FX Chip, a new 3D technology. Starfox 64, what I consider the pinnacle of the series, was the first major release to use rumble technology and launched bundled with Nintendo's N64 Rumble Pack. Starfox Adventures took things to the ground and ultimately failed as a boring, fetch quest marathon. Starfox Command, the series' first handheld debut, puts Starfox back where he belongs: in the sky. But it does so in a strange, DS-appropriate way that isn't quite great but it also isn't bad, either.
Consider this experiment a success, because it shows that the Nintendo DS can handle a flight action game very well. Starfox Command utilizes only the Nintendo DS touch screen and the L Trigger (or R Trigger, for left-handed players) and it does so very well. Using the touch screen, players control their pitch and yaw, steering the Arwing with precision. Making a frantic scratching motion sends the Arwing into its classic laser-deflecting barrel roll, and there are buttons found on the touch screen to pull off other maneuvers like flips. The L/R Trigger is the only non-touch-based control button, and it allows you to shoot your lasers. Any other button allows you to shoot as well, but the L/R Triggers are definitely the most intuitive.
The touch screen mechanics don't end there. Q-Games had to implement something new into their game to set Starfox Command apart from other Starfox games, so they made the game's battles spread out into a turn-based strategy mechanic. Each mission will throw you out onto a battlefield diagram where you'll direct your Starfox team around the map, engaging in conflict with enemy ships and taking over bases. The goal in every mission is to keep the big, defenseless Great Fox afloat while destroying all of the bad guys and stopping their missiles from reaching Great Fox. On the diagram you can fly over power-ups that give the Great Fox a little defense of its own, as well as power-ups that give you more time on the master clock for each mission. That's right, each mission has a time restraint. What a bummer.
The conflicts (or more appropriately, scuffles) that you'll engage in are over far too quickly, and that's unfortunate because they're where the old-school Starfox charm is delivered. I've actually completed some of these little battles in mere seconds. Sometimes you're asked to take out several different units, and sometimes they appear right in front of you, making it all too easy. Now, near the end of the storyline, I started engaging in much more difficult battles-some that, admittedly, had me frustrated and wondering what to do-but most of the game I plowed through untouched.
The game's over pretty quickly, but Starfox Command offers branching paths and multiple endings, and is also one of the many games these days that takes advantage of the DS's WiFi capabilities. With a trusty wireless Internet connection, players can connect and duke it out in the Corneria skies any time of the day. The wireless battles are fun and entertaining as you'd expect them to be, after all, they're Starfox flight battles. What more could you ask for?
Visually, Starfox Command is a standout as one of the more impressive DS games that runs on a 3D engine. The frame rate is almost always smooth, though it admittedly does slip up from time to time. There is a considerable amount of things moving around at all times and despite some fog issues, Starfox Command looks fantastic. It also sounds pretty good, and the standard Starfox gibberish is a nice addition-especially when you record your own voice to use in the cut-scenes!
Overall, Starfox Command is a pretty successful lab rat. The gameplay holds up pretty well but it has the same old Starfox problem; the thrills are over far too quickly and far too easily. The visuals run smoothly and the presentation isn't bad. The online multiplayer is quite a service for Starfox fans who want to take on the world with their skills. Starfox makes a decent handheld landing, albeit with a few holes in its wings-it's not perfect, but it'll entertain fans of the series regardless.
 Fox Down September 30, 2006
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
With the success of the Nintendo DS system, many delightful franchises have made a splash on the game system, and did it well. From the highly acclaimed adventures of Mario, to the puzzled-maddening addiction of the classic Tetris games, many of them have gone through a great, and driven transition. For the Star Fox franchise, many gamers felt that the appeal of the game series was a diaster from the past few games. Although the game system handled well on the revolutionary Star Fox 64, for the Nintendo 64, many felt the game franchise missed out completely from the Nintendo Gamecube era: 2005's Star Fox Assault, and 2002's Star Fox Adventures. Can Fox McCloud and company reclaim the fame so many thought missed out before?
Star Fox Command for the Nintendo DS, tries to go back tothe original appeal Nintendo captured with it from Star Fox 64, and the original Star Fox from the Super NES system. This edition is all about flying, and plenty of it. The object though this time is you're battling against the clock, and how fast you have to shoot down several enemy combat planes. This time, the manuverability is really all from the stylus, which is unfortunately the biggest flaw of the game. It takes much more time to get used to, especially with trying to unlock missions, and several characters. The music for the game though does have the high-flying action, except for when Fox and company and trying to talk. The combat action though is very challenging, for anybody who wants a challenge, but for others, they might feel this is a turnoff.
All in all, I just wish Star Fox Command could've been a better Nintendo DS title. It is a challenge for die hard fans of the franchise, but for others who've backed away from the Gamecube games, they'd might want to reconsider going back. I suggest you try the game yourself, and let the force hopefully be with you.
Graphics: B
Sound: C
Control: C 1/2-
Fun & Enjoyment: C
Overall: C
Finally, Star Fox gets back to its roots...more or less. September 18, 2006
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Unlike the movies, with a video game franchise the user sometimes wants a sequel to be the old experience enhanced with the new powers of an updated console. With the Gamecube, Nintendo has to do this with StarFox. The Gamecube sequels strayed too far from the core concept of the franchise. Adventures and Assult were both fun games, but I've wanted a real StarFox game for a decade: I want to fly around and blow things up! Is that so wrong? Finally Nintendo has delivered with a sequel that contains nothing but cockpit combat, but the game does have its flaws.
First off, the rail stages are gone and replaced with large free-flight open areas introduced to a limited degree in the N64 game. Back on the N64, I preferred those stages to the ones on rails. The free-range areas were simply more fun, but that doesn't mean that I disliked the rail stages. I think a few rail stages would have spiced up the experience in this game.
Second, the free-flight areas just aren't up to par with the ones on the N64. In that game you sometimes had what seemed like a hundred enemies flying around and it was a blast just flying around enjoying the destruction. In this game the developers introduced an extremely annoying time limit feature that simply spoils the experience. On the DS, these boards are basically have a "get in, get out ASAP" feel that spoils things. I've waited a decade for a StarFox game that will let me fly around blowing things up, and now that I finally have such a game I find that these stages are sometimes completely spoiled by that constantly nagging timer. Imagine that the Arwings are actually cars that can only hold a pint of gasoline and you have to use these cars in a racing game. Since these stages are oftentimes extremely simple and it is sometimes possible to increase the timer during the game, the timer is sometimes non-issue but in those stages with obnoxious enemies that won't die or are impossible to locate, this limitation becomes a real nuisance. The timer limitation adds nothing positive to the experience and doesn't even make any sense. These ships can fly extended distances in the strategy mode but suddenly in combat mode they can only fly a few dozen feet? And if you run out of fuel you suddenly have a full tank again on the next turn of the strategy mode? It's cheap and it's dumb. When I play a game I like to, you know, play the game! If the designers have to make some sort of blatantly obvious timer limitation to increase the player's death count then that just means the actual game isn't challenging enough.
Third, what happened to the character voices? Unlike the Mario franchise that uses some of the worst vocal work I've ever heard, the StarFox vocals actually click. The voices seem to fit their characters perfectly. I was incredibly disappointed to find that the vocal work introduced way back on the N64 were eliminated and replaced with the gibberish vocals used on the ancient SNES. I know there's a lot of dialog in this game and these packs only hold 128MB, but they couldn't squeeze some low-res mono speech? (Oh, sorry Nintendo Marketing Department! I forgot that you prefer using "1 gigabit" because it sounds so much larger) It's more likely Nintendo just didn't want the time and expense of localizing all that content, but surely a Japanese and English version could have been done.
Wow. So much ranting, I really do like the game. Why? Because...
Pros:
(*) Finally! No more missions on foot!
(*) Excellent play control - I was worried, but it works great. I have found complaints about using the stylus to perform the barrel roll to be overblown. It wasn't really an issue for me and when the accidental roll did occur it usually didn't hurt anything. I did find that some fingers on my hand got locked into place an hour or so after starting, but this game is not the play control nightmare that is Metroid Prime Hunters.
(*) Online multiplayer is fun (though I'm usually the one losing!)
(*) The turned-based strategy element works very well and helps mix things up a bit.
(*) Ability to play as different characters. Different characters have different ships, I only wish I could spend more time blasting things with some of those other ships but, you know, that time limit thing....
(*) Big cast of characters. I think nearly everyone from the franchise is shown or referenced in the game and new characters have been added to the mix.
(*) Interesting storyline with multiple endings but how does it really end? How will a sequel pickup on this game? And Slippy's getting married? To a woman? I didn't think he was that kind of frog (Not that there's anything wrong with that)
(*) Supports the rumble pack
Cons:
(*) Short time limits on battles. This is a feature that should have been eliminated.
(*) No vocal work. The ability to record your own voice is a lame replacement and sounds identical to the original gibberish voices to me.
(*) The ships can no longer lose a wing and limp along after an impact. Either the ship is working fine or in the process of being destroyed. I think that weakness of the ships would have been a better way to add challenge than the time limit.
(*) No more powerups to pick up along the way to increase your firepower.
(*) Hit detection is poor when the enemy is in the distance. You can clearly see your weapons going right into the spot with the enemy but it fails to read as a hit.
(*) Stages eventually feel a little monotonous
(*) Most boss characters are too simple - especially the numerous motherships that must be destroyed.
(*) No stages on "rails" scenes like the SNES and N64 versions
Even with its limitations, I definitely recommend this game.
Fox McCloud is back September 13, 2006
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
One of Nintendo's lesser known, but nonetheless fun, franchises has now hit the DS too. Star Fox Command returns the series to it's dog-fighting, space shooting roots that made the series such a hit on the Super NES and N64 years ago, by ditching out of the ship platforming and rail based missions in favor of some pretty wide open environments and some innovative features using the touch screen to help pilot your ship. The graphics are some of the best to be seen on the DS so far, despite some polygonal break up here and there, visually the game still packs a punch. The touch screen features are also some of the best of any game to take advantage of on the DS, and the multiple strategic options and braching storylines help make Star Fox Command a winner. The only real drawbacks of Star Fox Command is that it's ultimately too short and may be too easy for some, but the multiplayer modes are fun enough (only needing one DS card to play with others is always something to be happy about), and the WiFi capabilities are a nice touch as well. All in all, while it's not perfect, Star Fox Command is yet another great, first party DS game that further helps sell the dual screened hand held as the best portable system on the market today.
|
|
|
Web Hosting & Domain Registration | |
