Back in the 16-bit and 64-bit era, British developers rare Very good at watching it was almost a parent thing at the time Nintendo Doing it, then developing your own killer. I mean, seriously, look at the evidence — Diddy Kong Racing made Mario Kart 64 run for its money, but full of more content. Banjo Kazooie is in Super Mario 64. One of the best gaming gossip of the ’90s revolved around Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto’s alleged distaste for Donkey Kong Country’s wild success. Rare and Nintendo are on the same side, but in a kind of quiet rivalry that has resulted in some pretty damn good games.
Star Fox Adventures is another game in the pantheon – as I reconsider this unique little tile, which is 20 years old, I realized two things: first, the passage of time is overwhelming, and I feel myself very old. Second: Sadly, this is the last great Star Fox game, at least for now.
It’s funny when you think about it, because Star Fox Adventures didn’t even start life as a Star Fox game. It was originally announced as Dinosaur Planet, an original Rare property that was basically what the company did for the Ocarina of Time formula, much like Banjo-Kazooie did for Mario 64’s 3D platformer. It stars a dual protagonist, a fox and a wolf, but Miyamoto had a suggestion after seeing the game in action: why not just use Star Fox? So the game changed form, then platform – jumping from a surprisingly full N64 release to a massive rework on the GameCube.
At that time, Star Fox Adventure encountered confusion. It scored well, and people spoke highly of its visuals in particular – but for many, myself included, it was a Star Fox game that didn’t have much to make people fall in love with the series. It’s a great little Zelda-like thing, but the thing I actually played with it at the time was the little star fox melee, which occasionally bridges when you’re jumping across the earth.
Then there’s the patchwork nature of the game – it’s a different game, so to speak, ported over to Star Fox. This is most evident in the final stages of the game, where a villain who has established the entire game is quickly dispatched in cutscenes, only to have traditional Star Fox boss Andros suddenly take over. To say it’s a bit broken doesn’t feel unfair.
However, in hindsight Zhuge Liang was a drug, and now looking back on “The Adventures of Star Fox”, I appreciate it even more. One could see it as the start of a worrying trend for the Star Fox franchise — that is, getting Fox and company out of the cockpit — but it’s a damn Zelda clone, and shows once again how Rare is taking Nintendo makes formulas and develops them in unique and interesting ways.
It also does bring something to the series. In my opinion, Adventures Arwing is one of the best looking in the series, likewise I love the idea of Star Fox as a mercenary fighting for a job in a peaceful world after saving the world from past adventures.
This particular setup feels no shame in the Brits: Made in Japan, the Star Fox team is a clever operation using the latest technology. Under the British they were a bit of a shabby company with a dilapidated flagship store that made it difficult to pay the bills. It feels very British. In fact, I like the series’ addition to Star Fox lore in general – Krystal is a decent character, even if she’s the bait of the worst Deviantart. Instead of Falco, she should use Adventures’ crew and their elemental magic in Smash.
Anyway, I like it more now than before, which is curious. It probably struggled at the time, not only because Star Fox wasn’t the best fit for the original Dinosaur Planet, but because it was probably the weakest of Rare’s Nintendo tribute acts. It’s not Zelda – it’s not even close. But it’s fun.
It’s also a fitting farewell to the relationship between Rare and Nintendo – the last Rare game to be released before Microsoft swept through and bought Rare for £375m, including Nintendo’s 49% stake in the company. In a way, Rare offers a powerful clone of the Nintendo formula, while also using Nintendo IP, and it feels like the perfect encapsulation of this industry-defining relationship.
But, sadly, this is the last great Star Fox game, isn’t it? The Assault, made by some of the Ace Combat team at Namco, is a mess. Command is a fun game, but not a particularly good one. Star Fox Zero by PlatinumGames has a decent game that’s trying to get out of the way, but Nintendo wants a crowbar to kill it with a fun WiiU gamepad.
So here we are. We’re 20 years into Star Fox Adventures – the last great Star Fox game, even if it wasn’t even an actual Star Fox game. F-Zero fans might cry, but what’s worse? No games at all, or are you getting three junk games? I think we will always have Star Fox, Star Fox 64 and Star Fox Adventures. It’s a good trilogy.
