Whenever danger faces the Lylat System, General Pepper turns to the heroes-for-hire Star Fox team to eradicate the enemy menace and restore civility to the solar system. The Star Fox team's battles against the twisted scientist Andross have become stories of legend, primarily because each title in the series has some level of notoriety surrounding it: the original Star Fox brought us the Super FX Chip, Star Fox 2 is still considered "the one that got away", Star Fox 64 rocked our world with the Rumble Pak, and Star Fox Adventures received more attention as the first and last Rareware title for the GameCube than for the actual gameplay itself. Now Nintendo and Namco have teamed up to create the latest installment of the Star Fox saga, Star Fox: Assault, and for the first time Fox McCloud and friends have to stand alone without new technology or nostalgia covering their backs.

Features

• An all-new Star Fox adventure developed jointly by Nintendo and Namco
  
• Single-player Story Mode tears the Lylat System apart with the arrival of a new enemy species: the Aparoids
  
• Take to the sky in an Arwing, roll over enemies in the Landmaster, and blast through enemies on foot
  
• Survival and Mission Modes provide replayability
  
• Multiplayer Mode allows up to four players to blast each other to bits
• Three classic Namco arcade games are included as unlockable content
  

All Hail The New Emperor
One year after the events on Sauria the last of Andross’s troops are attempting to regroup near the planet Fortuna when Cornerian military forces engage the enemy fleet. Andrew Oikonny, the nephew of the late Andross and former member of the renegade Star Wolf team, is attempting to lead his hired troops to glory in a plan to follow in his uncle’s footsteps. The Star Fox team arrives just in time to pursue Oikonny to the planet’s surface where, without warning, a large creature plummets from space and crashes into the would-be emperor’s ship, destroying it. This interstellar visitor is no friend, however. It is an Aparoid, a member of a species of insectoid-like creatures that are devoted to consuming the resources and residents of neighboring solar systems. As the Aparoids invade the Lylat System the Star Fox team springs into action, determined to destroy the enemy menace.

There have been a few changes to the formula, however. Peppy Hare is still retired from active flight duty, instead remaining behind on the Great Fox mothership to offer advice and dispense equipment. Taking his place behind the controls of an Arwing is Krystal, the fox that McCloud rescued on Sauria. She has taken on the role of the team’s telepath, offering up information on the thoughts and intent of incoming enemies. Falco Lombardi is back with the team after a long hiatus, but Slippy Toad is just as helpless as ever under fire. Even the Star Wolf team has undergone some changes: Andrew Oikonny has left the team to take up his uncle’s mantle, newcomer Panther Caroso has taken his place as Star Wolf’s resident womanizer, and former Star Fox member Pigma Dengar has been kicked off the team after betraying his co-pilots.


Take aim and take 'em down!

Split Up And Take It To ‘Em
Star Fox: Assault is, at last, a true sequel to the classic Star Fox 64. Playing the role of Fox McCloud, players are called upon to track down and destroy the Aparoid menace in a series of missions that are split into three basic types of gameplay: Arwing-based “on rails” shooting missions, “all-range mode”-style ground-based assault missions, and 360° blasting missions in which Fox must stand on an in-flight Arwing and shoot approaching enemies out of the sky. Fortunately, taking the controls of the Arwing is like slipping on a familiar pair of flight gloves. Namco has retained the Arwing’s controls from Star Fox 64 for the most part. The control stick maneuvers the ship, the A button fires the blasters (and holding down the A button charges up shots), the B button launches a nova bomb, and the C-stick’s up and down motions engage a loop and U-turn respectively. What has changed is that the R button acts as the Arwing’s brakes, whereas the L button brings the ship into a barrel roll. Press the L button down slightly to tilt the ship or press it until the button clicks to spin the Arwing completely around to evade enemy fire. These Arwing missions involve flying from Point A to Point B, blasting enemies all along the way and engaging a boss character at the end of the level. For instance, at one point the Star Fox team is attempting to track Pigma Dengar to his hideout. After flying through an asteroid field, the team comes across an under-construction base that the Aparoids are in the process of consuming. After flying through the base’s many twisting paths and clanging construction machinery, the team finally encounters Pigma and must engage the level’s boss.

The Arwing-based missions are most likely what the majority of players are looking for in a Star Fox title, but those missions are only half of the game. What stands out in Assault are the ground-based assault missions where Fox leaves the comfort of his Arwing and, blaster in hand, engages the Aparoids on foot. Judging by the criticisms that are popping up around the Internet, many players look down on the assault missions and see them as an unwanted aspect of the game. As mentioned in GCA’s hands-on impressions of Assault, it is important that beloved game franchises continue to grow and change, lest they grow stagnant. Allowing Fox to stand on his own two feet outside of an Arwing is the next phase of evolution for the Star Fox series. Remember, if Mario had never met Yoshi there would have been no Yoshi’s Island, if Samus Aran had never entered the third dimension there would have been no Metroid Prime, and if Hyrule had never been depicted as a side-scrolling platformer world there would have been no Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.