Review

For the new generation of gamers, the name Star Fox doesn’t really mean a great deal thanks to a couple of forgettable GameCube titles. However, anyone who has been around since the days of the SNES has been sat, patiently waiting for the next instalment worthy of the name. Who’d have thought that it would arrive on the DS?

It perhaps not so hard to understand once you begin to play Star Fox Command. The stylus control is virtually flawless as you control the Arwing with gentle movements of the stick. Pressing any button fires your guns and by holding in the fire button for a couple of seconds you can lock onto targets and unleash a more powerful single shot. Commands such as speed-up, slow-down, loop and dropping bombs are all activated by simple button presses on the touch screen itself. Admittedly it takes a couple of tries to get used to but it soon becomes second nature.

The key change to the game comes in the mission structure, which is handled by a surprisingly deep turn-based strategy game. Divided up into “turns”, you are given an unlimited amount of time to position the members of your squadron to both defend your mothership and attack the enemy bases. Usually you only get around four or five turns in which to complete a mission and if you fail to wipe out all the enemies or if your mothership is destroyed then you’ve failed and have to start again.

Initially this all seems rather simple but as the missions get tougher you start to realise that you need to think hard about the best tactical approach. In the main, this is because each member of Star Fox has its own distinct characteristics that make them more effective against different enemies. Add to this the massive variety of enemies that you’ll encounter and you can’t help but admire the time that has been spent on this part of the game. Unfortunately, the lack of a save game option mid-mission almost undoes all the work but on the whole the strategy side works a lot better than I’d have ever thought it could and even though it gets annoying, the quality of the 3D shooting sections keeps you coming back for more.

Another disappointing aspect is the length of the story mode, which ended just as I started to really enjoy myself. Fortunately, thanks to a branching story, there’s plenty of incentive to play through it again and choose the options that were locked the first time around. On top of this there are two styles of multiplayer game to try via either download play (where only one copy of the game is required) or across WiFi.

Star Fox Command is very enjoyable while it lasts but ultimately I can’t see it having the same long-lasting appeal as New Super Mario Bros or Tetris DS to achieve classic status.

About the Review

Platform

Nintendo DS

Developer

Q-Games

Publisher

Nintendo

Released

19th July 2006