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73 of 81 found the following review helpful:
Stunning Handheld Gaming at Your CommandAug 29, 2006
By S. Rhodes The Nintendo DS has enjoyed much success lately. Star Fox Command joins the ranks of being one of Nintendo's better DS games out there. It has a couple of misses, but it excels heavily in the places where it counts. Star Fox Command is a fantastic handheld gaming experience.
The Star Fox team, after defeating Andross, has disbanded. Soon afterwards, a new threat known as the Anglar has emerged. It's up to Fox McCloud to deal with these foes, and there's no way he can go at it alone. When you first go through the game, there's not really a whole lot you can do, and the story doesn't seem very satisfying. In fact, the first time through the game the path you go is completely set for you. The standard storyline is pretty short and easy. The good news is once you complete the standard story you can choose different paths to take, and uncover several different endings in the process. Each character has his/her own storyline. In short, the game will keep you busy for a while.
Star Fox Command definitely sports some fantastic graphics. Perhaps even some of the best the DS has seen. There's no slowdown, and the character models and storyboards are fantastically detailed. It's far superior to Star Fox 64. The graphics are just one of the high points of Star Fox Command.
One of the high points of Star Fox Command is the gameplay. While in the past Star Fox has pretty much been your standard flight/shooter. Before it was to kill everything in sight. Now the gameplay has taken on a more strategic feel. Just about everything you do is done on the touch screen for the game. At first it feels a little strange, but the execution is straight on. You'll have to plot out your ships courses and then fly to them.
This isn't to say you won't be doing any aerial combat. The game has a map mode and a battle mode. When in battle mode it's basically the same as all-range mode on Star Fox 64. This will mostly be used to battle bosses and shoot down enemies. From time to time you'll have to do a "chase" mission. In these mission you'll have to fulfill special tasks, such as shooting down a missile. The only thing the touch screen isn't used for is to shoot. You'll use the face buttons (or directional buttons) for that. Other than that, all your flying mechanics take place on the touch screen.
There are plenty of things to beware in a mission, however. The objective is mainly just to kill all the bad guys, but there are plenty of ways you can lose. If the Great Fox is destroyed, or the time runs out, or you lose all your spare pilots, the game is over. It may seem like a lot at first, but most of the areas to fight your missions in are pretty small, and it's not so hard to deal with everything going on at once. Of all these assets that could cause you to lose a mission, the only one to pay any real attention to is making sure the Great Fox doesn't get destroyed.
Star Fox also has multiplayer. Up to six people can play off of one card. Or you can go online and battle with three other people. Multiplayer drops the strategic ploy, though and instead pits you in aerial combat against your friends (or online opponents). Multiplayer basically consists of you shooting down your opponents and collecting the stars they drop. It's on a time limit, though, so you have to work fast. When the time runs out, the one with the most stars at the end wins. Multiplayer is a blast, but there really should've been a lot more of it to go around. There really aren't enough modes.
There's no voice acting in Star Fox Command. It's mostly the gibberish you heard in the original Star Fox on your SNES. However, the game does allow you to record your voice using the DS's microphone. You can say a few things into your DS microphone and Fox, while in combat, will say these things in your tone of voice. It's really cool, but doesn't really enhance the gameplay any at all. It's just a neat little gimmick.
Star Fox Command is a great game. It has a couple of short-commings, but for the most part, it's a great gaming experience. Star Fox fans should be pleased at the new strategic direction of the game, and the intuitive gameplay.
On the Positive Side
+The game looks absolutely gorgeous
+The strategic gameplay is fairly addictive
+The touch screen controls are great
+Extras after you complete the main storyline
+Different scenarios
+Recording your own voice is pretty cool
+There's Multiplayer
On the Negative side
-The main storyline is rather short
-The game is also rather easy
-Multiplayer is fun, but severely limited
-Even though it's really nice to record your own voice, it's rather sad that the characters don't have real voices, and instead have the same gibberish used in the original Star Fox
11 of 12 found the following review helpful:
Great Space Combat Fun, Few ComplaintsDec 31, 2006
By Lisa Shea
"medieval swordfighting enthusiast"
Star Fox Command DS brings the fun space combat world of Star Fox to your DS handheld. It's actually quite fun, strategizing your order of attack and spinning into action!
Your favorite characters of Star Fox are in trouble, and need to a series of enemies. First, you get the overall top-down map screen. Each character's ship can fly a certain amount of distance in a turn - simply draw a line to say where they go. Use the stylus to wipe out some of the 'fog of war', and your main ship can shoot missiles. You only have a certain number of turns available, so plan your movements wisely.
When your ship encounters an enemy ship, you switch into real time combat. In this mode, you drag your stylus around on the bottom screen to "steer" while the top screen shows you where you're flying. You fly through rings to get power-ups, and shoot at enemies (with the D-pad on the left) to fire. It really is quite intuitive - no up/down, left/right issues. Simply drag your stylus as the ship flies. You spin your stylus in a circle to do the classic barrel roll, and there are two easy-access spots to tap to do a U-turn or a loop.
I love space combat, and it was really fun to have this type of game available on a handheld. I kept expecting to put the game down after a mission - but I'd say "just one more ..." and keep going. Note that these missions aren't easy! Expect to have to replay some of them several times to get through. You do have to learn the strategies and tactics of three dimensional combat.
The game expects you to go through a single pass rather quickly - but the beauty is that you then go back and re-play it, now having new options available at every stage. Instead of just contacting Slippy, now you have other choices you can do instead that are more difficult. You choose at each step what to do, and it affects the types of missions you take on and the endings you get to see. Think of it as built in difficulty levels.
A key element of space combat games are the visuals - with you trying to move and think real time in three dimensions, it's critical that you can see the terrain, your enemies, and anything else that might get in the way. While the DS graphics in general are nice, it wasn't always easy to see what you were fighting. The graphics were sometimes unclear - the ship's faded graphic would blend right in to the background's faded graphic.
Also, your ship is right in the center of the screen, and takes up a fair amount of it. This makes it challenging if you're right behind a ship, to see it. Surely they could have given you an in-cockpit view or at least a transparent ship.
For vocals, they give you the high pitched gibberish that means it's perfect for all languages. No need to do new vocal tracks for this game! Still, in modern times, it would be nice to have a regular vocal track available. It adds a whole additional dimension of enjoyment when you have great voice actors bringing life to the characters.
Still, this is a superb game for the DS, and one I really enjoy. Well recommended!
10 of 11 found the following review helpful:
A Great Game for a 9 Year OldMay 09, 2007
By Penny Shek I purchased this game for my [...] son for our China trip. He started to play the game as soon as it arrived - 2 days before our trip. I was worried about him getting bored of the game during the trip. To my surprise, he had been playing the game during the entire 3 weeks. He was fascinated by it and told me that this was the best game I've ever bought for him!
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Touch screen NOT a negative point!Sep 07, 2006
By D I just thought there might be one big concern (and a few small ones) for almost EVERYONE who was considering buying this game - the touch screen, and how it's used to control nearly every single aspect of the game. Here's the mindset you need: It's gonna be really hard to pull off a really sweet portable flying game. So you get used to the controls, 'cos once you do, you're gonna have a totally awesome flying game in your pocket. And it's not that hard. You get it, and it's worth it - even becomes nearly intuitive.
Graphics - FANTASTIC! IGN and Amazon have some lo-res shots that really didn't convey how beautiful this game is - in fact, in the online screens, the game kinda looks straight-up BAD. Don't be fooled - it's gorgeous.
The story and dialogue - the voice acting, or lack thereof replaced by tweetering and twittering, SUCKS. The dialogue ITSELF, though, is pretty cool - the characters are way more fleshed out than they ever were in the N64 StarFox - Fox's history with Krystal, Flaco's independance and refusal to admit to softer emotions and feelings (that in the N64 game was just a blustery façade), Slippy's insecurity (which was just idiocy in the N64 game), and the dialogue from Star Wolf - it's all way better.
"I hate that frog..."
7 of 8 found the following review helpful:
Poor controls, boring missionsOct 22, 2006
By Justin Ronco Maybe it's just a matter of taste, but I couldn't get into the control scheme. I found it frustrating and painful. That aside the actual missions that I played - though I admit I gave the game away before I got very far - were pretty boring. Fly around in an open environment (pretty much 100% open, no nothing) and shoot 2-6 droids.
I suggest playing the game yourself before buying - you really need to know what you're getting into.
based on 40 reviews
( 40 customer reviews )
