August 26, 2002 - Last week at Nintendo's Gamer's Summit show in San Francisco, we had the chance to sit down with a nearly finalized version of Star Fox Adventures for GameCube. Site editor-in-chief Matt Casamassina spent the majority of one afternoon, some six hours, going through the adventure and enjoying every minute of it. Advancing far further into the game than ever before, Matt has his impressions for readers below.
*** Be warned, there are many spoilers. ***
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Star Fox Adventures doesn't begin with Fox, but with Krystal, the would-be heroine of the game. A cut-scene opens up that highlights Krystal's encounter with, fight and then boarding of a flying ship owned by the tyrant of the title, General Scales. The scene is dark, rainy and cold, and the vessel seems oddly absent of any life as the character explores its inner structure. Control, an obvious import of the Zelda scheme, proves tight and well refined, not to mention quick and responsive. Players can move the beastly female complete with a hairy back to and from with ease, using the triggers to pull the camera behind her in a centering fashion. Krystal eventually meets up with Scales, who delivers a long-winded speech about why he must instill fear in his followers and then grabs the character by her neck and throws her overboard. Needless to say, she survives, flies on the back of an overgrown bird to Krazoa Palace, an ancient temple of sorts, and is challenged to complete several advancing tasks. This is what I like to call the game before the game.
The truth is that gamers play as Krystal for only a brief stint compared to how much they play as McCloud. The heroine is quickly imprisoned fittingly in a crystal casing and levitated to the tops of some strange mechanical device. And then the title fades out and over to Fox and crew in their mother ship somewhere in space. This is all E3 2002 stuff, though -- areas and cut-scenes we've witnessed before. But bear with me as I take you a bit deeper into the adventure.
Fox flies toward Dinosaur Planet, an entire world inhabited by nothing but the prehistoric beasts, and sets down at ThornTail Hollow, a green, beautiful locale with a running stream and lots of thriving plant life. The area is in fact named after the ThornTail dinosaurs that lounge lazily about it. This is the hub world of the game. It leads to all other areas of the planet and is the central location for some key game functions, such as the ThornTail Store in which many necessary items must be purchased, and the WarpStone, an integral part of traveling. The hub is definitely smaller than the huge, sprawling central world in Ocarina of Time, especially if Hyrule Field is to be figured, but it's very well designed and easily navigated.
When Fox lands, his team radios in and tells him that he will not need to use his blaster on the mission, an easy way to explain the fact that the character has essentially been plopped into a different game. Instead, Fox finds Krystal's staff, which possesses magical powers that can be unlocked later in the title. Initially, the staff only offers the most basic of attack moves. Fox can fight with it and perform combos and he can lift up rocks to look for hidden goodies. As I advanced into the game, though, I uncovered other abilities, including one that let Fox shoot energy bolts from the staff, a necessity as it triggered certain doors and such. Another allowed me to propel Fox upward onto ledges, thus reaching previously unattainable areas. Still another enabled the character to shoot an ice mist from the staff, which could put out troublesome fires that played into various in-level puzzles. I even obtained an upgrade that, when used, caused a small shockwave that disabled enemies. All of these additions are normally positioned in an items scroller that can be accessed in-play with the camera stick. Also, if players want, they can map specific functions to the Y button on the GCN controller. I immediately mapped the energy bolt to the Y button, at which point I could shoot at enemies in mid-fight by pressing it -- a very handy, intuitive operation, Zelda-esque or not.
Fox controls well. He's fast. The analog stick moves him around, but players can press L at any time to center the camera. X makes the character roll, Y brings up whatever weapon has been mapped to it, A brings out his staff and B puts it back away. Rare has put an auto target system in place so that if Fox's staff is drawn and he's near an enemy, the game automatically goes into combat mode whereupon the camera remains transfixed on the targeted enemy and players can strafe around it. However, this can be avoided if Fox simply puts his staff away. In my experience, it's often better to run from enemies that can't be killed such as giant, stupid, poisonous mushrooms that spray toxic fumes. There are other control functions too. For instance, McCloud can swim, climb ladders, slide from ladders, hang from ledges, and use a number of other, equally useful items which I've yet to detail.
One of the first useful oddities encountered is a bomb spore plant, an explosive vegetable of sorts. When shot upon with the fire blast from Fox's staff, the plant vomits bomb spore seeds that can then be planted in other areas related to puzzles. For example, players cannot gain access to one of the linked valleys until Fox plants a bomb seed in front of a mountain wall, shoots it and explodes the obstruction inward revealing the path. Later he must plant these seeds all over the place to find everything from staff upgrades to keys that unlock doorways nearby. A bomb spore seed is even utilized to gain access to the WarpStone -- a gigantic, Rock Biter rip whose look also resembles that of IGNpocket's editor-in-chief Craig Harris. Incidentally all three eat rocks. "Why doesn't anybody bring me any gifts anymore?" he cries, a question that only the local shopkeeper can truly answer.
The game really begins as Fox is sent to speak with the ThornTail's queen, who has fallen ill. She pleads for the safe return of her son, Prince Tricky, who has been kidnapped. Fox agrees to find and bring him back and travels to Ice Mountain, a cold, snowy world, by Arwing. The travel takes place in its own level molded after the classic play style of the Star Fox franchise. Fox must fly through space debris, asteroids and more while fighting off enemies and shooting down air mines. If players don't manage to fly through at least one gold circle, a force field at the end of the level remains closed and they will have to go through everything again. It's easy. Super easy. And it seems to last less than one minute. But these portions do eventually increase, somewhat anyway, in difficulty.
This lava world is filled with heat distortion
It isn't long before Fox meets up with Tricky, a smart-mouthed baby dinosaur who I enjoy beating with my staff. The sidekick, at first, is more nuisance than help, as he seems to do little but complain that he's hungry and disobey my requests that he offer up something more integral to Fox's survival. Players have to feed him or he won't listen to Fox's orders. But he doesn't eat continually at least, which is something. One feeding is enough to keep the ratosaur happy for a real-world half hour and sometimes more depending upon how much he's called to do. Like the staff, Tricky is upgraded. Initially all he can really do is whine a lot and dig up secrets. There are various dirt spots around the planet that can be unearthed by Tricky for hidden items, often very useful to the linear movement of the quest. For instance, Tricky must dig up a number of food items for some of the husks, which refuse to do anything until they've been fed. It seems the dinosaurs are very touchy this way.
Tricky can be told to stay or to follow via the camera stick scroller, which has all of his commands. He generally tags along in the back, occasionally calling for Fox to wait up, which I always ignore. If Fox jumps in water, Tricky will swim behind him. If Fox skips across a series of platforms, the dinosaur somehow always catches up and appears by his side. It's best this way. Pausing for the character to play catch up would have proved very annoying. Later in the game Tricky becomes more useful, I've found, as he acquires the ability to breathe fire. This is extremely helpful within the game as there are tons of icy structures that cannot be passed until he breathes upon and melts them. His nasty fire breath is also used to light torches and other areas that pertain to puzzles. Indeed, there is even a point where Tricky's breath defrosts one of the bosses, who then tries to kill Fox. In my play time, I only encountered one area -- a group of moving platforms raised above lava -- that Tricky was too scared to cross. It turned out to be a puzzle. I had to shoot the pillars and stop them from moving, at which point the dinosaur happily crossed them and caught up. It's possible to buy a ball and play with Tricky too, which I believe distracts enemies and such, but I never got around to it. There was also at least one point when I had to simultaneously fight enemies and use the camera stick to given Tricky commands, and that was fun.
The monetary system of Dinosaur Planet is scarabs. The bugs can be found underneath rocks, in pots, and hidden in other various spots around the world. Initially Fox can only hold 10, but after six hours of play he could hold 50. The ThornTail shopkeeper, a reptilian thing with a bad attitude, sells all sorts of wonderful things for a price, including maps, bomb spores seeds, containers, firefly lanterns, energy, and even gadgets such as the scope visor Fox can wear to see far distances and zoom in on enemies. Really, how could I be expected to waste scarabs on a ball for Tricky when I could instead by the visor? The choice wasn't hard.
The game seems more linear than Zelda. Fox immediately has to rescue Tricky. Then he has to bring food to the Queen. Then they have to go to Moon Mountain Pass. Then they have to return a Krazoa Spirit. The different locations open up as Fox makes his way through the adventure and not a moment before. The hub world in Zelda, if nothing else, was more intuitively linked to the sub-valleys, and as a result everything seemed less linear, even if it really wasn't. But on the other hand Star Fox Adventures flows nicely. There is a lot of collecting, but it's paced better than in, say, Donkey Kong 64, which is refreshing. Even when Fox has to collect a bunch of hidden cogs in order to get a machine working, it's not frustrating or tedious, but fun. Also, because the collecting is separated by action, whether it be fighting imp-like enemies or riding on the back of a dinosaur in a fully controllable mission. It moves along at a good run.
Some of the levels I've seen so far are beautiful. The opening hub world has seen an improved framerate from the E3 2002 demo currently making the rounds in demo kiosks across the US. It's not as jumpy but it still doesn't run at a constant 60 frames. Still, given what Rare has achieved visually, that's forgivable. The environment is brought to life with lush greenery, plants, grass; fantastically modeled, animated and texture dinosaurs; running water that reflects, sways and refracts; and a commendable draw distance that never misses a beat. There is no doubting that the game is gorgeous, and the hub world is hardly a judging point for how spectacular some of the other areas look. The depth of field blur as Fox locks onto enemies works brilliantly, and the camera system is top notch, always centered on the appropriate scene with full control in the hands of players.
But some of the later stages I've seen are really what's done it. The first boss fight, which doesn't happen until some five hours into the game, I might add, is breathtaking. The giant, hulking monster which many readers have probably seen in videos is not only a high-polygon beast, but also brought to life with amazing texture work, shadows, and self-shadowing too. It looks awesome and animates flawlessly. It's even a treat when the thing swallows Fox whole, at which point the hero must swim through the fluids of the entity's stomach -- a ghastly undertaking that is a visual stunner, I must note.
Dig up the secret, Tricky, or we'll beat you again
The locales are varied. Moon Mountain Pass is a dusky, icy location that leads into a lava filled world. As Fox explores the hot terrain, heat distortion effects blur the background and really give the impression that it's burning up inside. There are points when McCloud must make his way over tiny cut paths which dangle high over the spitting flames below and it's presented fabulously. There are small ponds that temporarily distort Fox's image when he goes underneath in a realistic fashion. There are space missions complete with lasers that illuminate the underbellies of asteroids as Fox soars by in his Arwing. There are snowstorms that blow white fog across the hero's view, totally blinding his vision beyond a dozen feet. Fox himself is a graphic feat. His model even in-game, is painstakingly detailed, but during real-time cut-scenes players can actually see the individual strands of fur, a semi fur-shading effect, which is eye-popping. The game, all around, is very pretty. And there are some epic music offerings in place that complement the graphics.
Moon Mountain Pass is gorgeous
It's possible to save anywhere and the game then tallies how far complete players are according to the point they last saved. After a bit more than six hours, I had completed 35% of the game, according to its own percentage estimate. For the record, I had only encountered a single boss and added only one upgrade to my life bar. I had advanced Fox's staff considerably, and Tricky and I finally seemed to be getting along. I don't think Star Fox Adventures is going to be a 100-hour game as some Nintendo folks have estimated in the past. It'll probably deliver most gamers 20 to 30 great hours though.
I sat pretty well glued to the television for those six hours, never bored. I would have kept going, too, if I hadn't hit a snag and realized that I had been playing the title for the better half of the day. It's really well designed, absolutely gorgeous, and still epic enough to warrant serious consideration. I already can't wait to get my dirty claws on the final game so that I can see where Fox's latest adventure ultimately leads.
Si ça vous suffit pas ...
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