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Starfox Adventures Review - Gamecube

Starfox Adventures follows the story of Fox McCloud and the Starfox Team. The story takes place after the previous Starfox game, Lylat Wars, on the Nintendo 64. The Starfox team gets a distress call from a planet at the end of the Lylat System known as Dinosaur Planet. The team goes to Dinosaur Planet to investigate and Fox McCloud goes on foot for the first time ever. Starfox Adventures was originally in production for the Nintendo 64 and was to be one of the last games for the system but was later changed to Gamecube format. This is to be Rare's last game on a Nintendo console for Rare was soon bought out by Microsoft.

Gameplay

The gameplay in Starfox Adventures borrows some of the gameplay features from the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the Nintendo 64. It features a lock on system, a fixed camera, and items that will be found and used in other places. One of what I thought was a very original part of the game was the fact that to get to different places on the planet you need to go through flying stages where you must collect a certain amount or gold rings or else the barrier blocking the planet won't be broken and you will have to start again. The planet was protected by the legendary Krazoa Spirits but for some reason they have all lost their power and the planet has fallen apart. There are a number of different places that have been separated from the planet that you will need to go to in order to finish the game. Each of these places is guarded by a 'Gate Guardian'.

There are a number of sacred places throughout Dinosaur Planet known as Krazoa Shrines. In these shrines you must complete a different task and if you complete the task successfully one of the Krazoa Spirits will be absorbed into your body and you must go to the Krazoa Palace, high above the planet, and release the spirit in one of the Krazoa statues.

During the game you will get a little dinosaur sidekick, named Tricky, who is extremely useful but sometimes can be extremely annoying. He can do many things to help Fox in his quest such as digging, breathing fire, and many others. He can actually be quite funny and witty at times but he seems a lot like Navi from Zelda (The fairy).

The boss battles in Starfox Adventures are fun and creative. The first boss fight is quite difficult until you figure out what you have to do, but aren't all boss fights like that? Some of the boss battles aren't actually fights but are races. There are 2 fights in this fashion and they are actually quite fun, but they seem a bit rushed. The actual fighting boss battles are fun and difficult. There are times in the boss battles that you must hit a switch to open (continued next page)