Reviews VideoGame / Star Fox Adventures

I liked it.

A lot of the criticism for this game is that it's a Legend of Zelda clone. And, to be fair, it has elements of a Zelda game - an annoying partner, themed dungeons, and abilities that you find to access new parts of the game. However, just because two games are similar, doesn't infer that the latter is derivative of the first. So, what do I like about this game?

The graphics. Though I don't like to spare too much thought for graphical fidelity - my favourite game is Xenoblade Chronicles after all - I will say that its visual effects looked stunning for 2014, and even look nice now. The dinosaurs look scaly and colourful, the world is bright and sotentatious with nice water effects and pretty scenery (worth a mention is the beach area) and Fox has some very nice looking dynamic fur.

Next comes the aesthetic. This game has a great sense of itself - it's a very alien world, filled with a wide variety of locations, like great palaces, a hidden village and smoky factories. The dinosaur Tribes come off as a very coherent and interesting alien race, with their own tribal ideals and outlooks and ways of doing things, giving great contrast between one another - the easygoing Hightops, the secretive and distrustful Lightfoot, and the proud Earthwalkers. Each of their areas are aesthetically different to one another and yet cohesive as a whole. The whole thing comes off as if a Mayincatec society went through the Industrial Revolution.

The come the enemies. I'll admit, the Sharpclaws are less cool to 20-year-old me than to 12-year-old me, what with their "nyahaha" and Mook Chivalry, but it's fun pummelling their leering faces. The more tactical-type enemies can be fun to take down too, once you figure out their trick. And this game did something that so many have done wrong in the past - the Tyrannosaurus rex enemies are terrifying.

The dungeons are nice. They're not amazing - the puzzles rarely go past the "push this block here", but said puzzles are normally presented in ways that require you to work out that they are simple.

Some of the short scenarios are fun too, like the mammoth riding.

And it has Arwing sections - though painfully short - that I dare say surpass those of Lylat Wars.

So, yeah. It doesn't win over Majora's Mask, but it's still really fun to play through.