It was about seven years ago when I first saw the game. My mom and I went into a lottery, where many prizes were sitting on a table that stretched across the whole room. As I was observing each prize, I saw; a black Nintendo GameCube with a special game packed inside the clear box. I didn’t know what the game was, (I was only six at the time) but the cover of it seemed to be catch my attention. “Star Fox Adventures,” I said to myself with admiration. I immediately reacted, and begged my mom for the game. She answered saying that our name needs to be picked from the box, but I knew we had no chance. As the host of the lottery was grabbing names from the little brown box, prizes began to disappear quickly. All of a sudden, my mom’s name was called up and she received the game system, along with the game I begged for!

After the lottery, we went home and I immediately set up the GameCube. The dialogue of the game was very awkward, because all the characters began speaking another language that doesn’t seem to be spoken anywhere in the world. It was as if they were speaking gibberish. But as I played on, the game began to get exciting. As a six-year old, I didn’t really think much of the plot. Instead, I thought about the actions that were occurring between my character and the enemies.

In September 23rd, 2002 my favorite and most beloved video game for the Nintendo GameCube was released. Star Fox Adventures was the last game created by a British game company called Rare, and was the fastest-selling video game during that time. Although the game is very old, it’s action-adventure game play and amazing plotline has convinced me to play it even more than I used to.

PLOT

The game begins with a mysterious fox named Krystal, who is searching for the solution of her planet’s destruction and her parent’s death. After receiving an unknown distress call, you (playing as Krystal) travel to a sacred area called Krazoa Palace in Dinosaur Planet. On the way there, you meet up with a madman named General Scales who has an identical appearance to a Tyrannosaurus, except with a green-color. Once you arrived at Krazoa Palace, you discover a tribe of wounded Earthwalkers that were ordered to guard the palace from the SharpClaw Army. Afterwards, you discover that the only way to stop the war is to capture mystical beings called Krazoa Spirits. You later become the main character of the whole Star Fox series, Fox, and this is where most of the fun begins!
GRAPHICS AND GAMEPLAY
The game play of Star Fox Adventures is much similar to the game, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (An action-adventure game created for the Nintendo 64 console) where both had unbelievable graphics during that time. But this game was a lot more detailed, and had a more advanced engine since it was made for the newest console, the Nintendo GameCube. The game allows you to see the textures of the characters, which caught my attention. I thought it was pretty cool that a game this old was this detailed. I was also impressed by the appearance of water in the game. If you in the water, it will have that realistic movement and by looking through it, you can see the ocean floor!
The game also brought a day and night feature, where it made the game much more challenging. The game was very difficult at night because you cannot see any of the dirt pads where items were hidden. Though, I admired Rare’s attempt to make the game more fascinating, and I thought this method required the player to do a lot of mental thinking. If you just ran around aimlessly in the night, trying to find dirt pads that missions require you to receive, there is no way you can pass levels; you’ll be lost.
But what makes this game so unique and different from the other Star Fox series is that you don’t get to fly Fox’s ship and go into space battles with other enemies as much. Instead, Fox’s blaster is now replaced with Krystal’s staff, which she had dropped on the planet after a battle between General Scales and her. This weapon allows you to gain powers such as fireballs, iceblasts, a rocket booster, and many more. It really amazed me of how much fun it could be to use a new weapon than the ordinary blaster rifle that Fox used in previous Star Fox games. If you run out of power, you can always restore them by hitting plants that contain jewels.
When fighting against a SharpClaw enemy, the target is automatically locked; making the battle scene seem like it is a movie. I thought this feature made the game a lot intense, creating the way you fight your enemies different from any other. It’s not like your ordinary Super Mario game where you jump on mushrooms to kill them. Instead, this game has many different moves to kill your enemies. There is one move that allows you to spin your staff at a large number of rotations and finish off with a kick. I was surprised by the move, but Rare didn’t let you off that easy. There are other monsters such as the “Moon Monster Spitter” located in Moon Mountain pass, and the only way to kill it is by using a move called the “Ground Quake.”
Another reason why I thought this was a fun game is because during the campaign, you fight alongside with a partner. Most games such as Crash Bandicoot: the Wrath of Cortex, has a solo-campaign, but in Star Fox Adventures you and the Prince of Earthwalkers complete each mission with each other. The Prince of Earthwalkers, or Tricky, is apparently an adolescent Triceratops. He can be very helpful throughout the game. Rare has allowed you to use Tricky as if he were your construction tool. You are able to command Tricky to dig holes if you have discovered a dirt pad or want him to create a passageway, and you can also use him to breathe fire among enemies. Just like any other living thing out there, he begins to get tired. To restore Tricky’s energy and get him back to work, you must capture mushrooms that roam around Dinosaur planet and feed it to him.

What makes the campaign of the game interesting is that you have to capture these mystical beings called Krazoa spirits, which are scattered around the planet. But the only way you can capture these spirits is to take a test. These tests can be anything from trying to stand up to what you fear the most, or locating the right spot where the Krazoa spirit is hidden.
RESULTS

Overall, I thought the game had a fantastic plot which was easily to follow. After beating the game at the age of six, I knew what the situation Fox was in and how he needed to save Dinosaur Planet from General Scales. It’s like any other story of a good guy trying to save the world from some evil villain. As for the game play, the controls are fairly simple, but the game itself is very challenging. You could be using a move over and over again on an enemy, and win the battle. But after figuring out puzzles and finding the next Krazoa spirit is when it gets a lot harder. If I were to rate this game out of ten, then I would rate it a nine. This game has brought a lot of good memories, and I recommend it to anyone who loves to play action-adventure video games. If you are interested, then Star Fox Adventures is the game that is made for you.