Review By

Brad Gallaway

How long is it going to take Nintendo to figure out that the only thing they need to do to revitalize the flagging Star Fox franchise is to make a straightforward shooter like Star Fox 64? Although Fox McCloud and crew have never been Nintendo A-listers, they could be— it's a shame that the series consistently misses the big time due to excessive experimentation that rarely pans out. In Star Fox: Command, once again gamers get something more like a test concept instead of a fully-realized, well-polished game. In fairness, some of the new ideas applied to this anthropomorphic air force turn out fairly well, but the overall experience leaves a lot to be desired.

Star Fox: Command takes the spaceship combat that the series was founded on and combines it with a light strategy framework requiring players to analyze battlefields and dispatch pilots for maximum efficiency. Upon arriving in a new area, the Great Fox mothership parks itself while Fox, Falco, Slippy and a menagerie of aces fly small strike craft in a series of sorties. The goal is to make sure that no enemy ships or missiles attack the Great Fox. If they do, the battle is automatically lost. At the same time, hostile bases must be captured and points must be collected by downing bogies in order to progress.

At first, the tactics system seemed like a brilliant stroke, and a welcome direction after the last few Star Fox titles failed to come together. Vaguely like an Advance Wars-lite, strategically moving pilots around a map to intercept foes and capture installations is all-new territory, but the game quickly gets back to its roots. After engaging a target, the actual dogfighting takes place in a small, free-roaming environment. A handy map helps point out objectives, and the stylus is used to fly. Pushing left or right on the screen turns in that direction, a double tap at the top is a speed boost and a double tap at the bottom are the air brakes. A fast side-to-side motion triggers a defensive spin that repels shots and attracts power-ups.

I can understand how this control scheme might have seemed like a good idea on paper, but actually flying an Arwing fighter with only the stylus (there are no options for other control configurations) feels unresponsive and sludgey, making a fast and reflexive process into something awkward and diluted. The worst part is that the critical spin maneuver becomes hard to pull off reliably and even harder to do while maintaining accurate positioning— moving the stylus side-to-side inevitably steers the craft when it's not wanted. Like some other DS games, this is a case where utilizing the touchscreen comes off more like an obstructionary gimmick than a way to implement effective controls. At the very least, an option to use the D-pad and shoulder buttons should have been included.

Being restricted to only a stylus is frustrating, but what's more frustrating is the game's lack of balance. Star Fox: Command can go from ridiculously easy to maddeningly difficult within moments. Most of the targets are brainless sitting ducks, but a few are highly mobile and very tough to hit due to the sluggish control. Additionally, Q-Games felt the need to include time limits in nearly every aspect of gameplay. Each sortie has a timer where "fuel runs out" after it reaches zero, and each level has a limit on the number of turns that can be taken regardless of which side is in tactical control of the board. Oftentimes, success boils down to memorizing hotspots and replaying levels several times in order to get the correct sequence of events. Throw in the fact that all progress in a level is lost if a single enemy touches the Great Fox, and Star Fox: Command quickly becomes a game whose brief lifespan is lengthened by repetition.

I might not complain about the need for perfect performance in each level except that the heart of the game— the airborne sorties— are simplified to the point that little enjoyment is derived from completing them. All missions come in three varieties; shoot down enemies, shoot down an incoming missile, or capture a base. Once I became accustomed to reading the radar and learned how to fly "in the slipstream" of a missile, Star Fox: Command became less about ace piloting and more about doing unimaginative production work. Kill two enemies in this stage. Kill two enemies again, in another stage that looks just like the last. Use a bomb and kill twelve enemies at once, for the fifth time. Take down another four missiles and don't miss or be forced to repeat everything… again.

The game's combat and level design become monotonous within minutes, and Q-games' decision to trade in Star Fox's linear forward motion for a series of identical wide-open flight zones proves to be unwise. I haven't even mentioned that it's possible to complete the game in about two hours or so, and although multiple storylines and new zones are unlocked after the first completion, there's little incentive to play again since it's so flat and tedious the first time.

I liked StarFox before Nintendo started handing off development to outside studios at random, turning it into an expendable, guinea pig series which now counts more flops than successes. Every lackluster sequel further diminishes its value, and it's a shame that it gets treated more like a proving ground than a valuable asset. I hope that Nintendo sees the error of its ways soon and pulls Fox & Co. out of this interminable nosedive.