Box Art
Game: Star Fox Command
First Released: August 3, 2006, Nintendo DS
Developers: Nintendo, Q-Games
Platforms: Nintendo DS
Rated: E-10, for Fantasy Violence
First Released: August 3, 2006, Nintendo DS
Developers: Nintendo, Q-Games
Platforms: Nintendo DS
Rated: E-10, for Fantasy Violence
How I Came To Play This Game
Anglar Mothership
I got Star Fox Command for Christmas one year. The graphics it had amazed me since it was on the Nintendo DS. I had never seen a Nintendo DS do 3D graphics before. I later found out the graphics of the DS were a lot like the Nintendo 64, just more detailed. However, this game did not live up to any of the previous Star Fox games.
Story
Anglar Emperor
Star Fox Command takes place two to three years after the events of Star Fox: Assault, and tells the story of the Anglar Blitz, as well as the recently separated Star Fox. According to the prologue, every member of Star Fox, except for ROB and Fox McCloud himself, have disbanded from the team. Fox broke off his relationship with Krystal and forced her to leave the team for the sake of her safety. Slippy Toad found amphibian love with a frog named Amanda. Peppy Hare was made the general of the Cornerian Army as a result of General Pepper's forced retirement due to illness, and Falco Lombardi became somewhat of a loner, and simply drifted from job to job. There are also new characters such as Dash Bowman, who is the grandson of Andross. Throughout the course of the game, however, the team can reassemble and thwart the Anglar Empire, or take entirely different paths. Several other characters make playable appearances, such as Wolf O'Donnell, Leon Powalski, and Panther Caroso, who want to remove bounties from their heads, and Katt Monroe, who usually appears when Falco needs a hand. Other familiar, but unplayable, characters are also present, such as Andrew Oikonny, who had joined forces with the Anglars.
Pros And Cons
Story
Meteo Map Screen
From the start, I never really liked the story. There were a few parts that I did like, but the fact that Star Fox disbanded was a huge disappointment. Also, there are nine endings to the story, the one you get depends on which path you decide to take. Which one is the real ending? How could the series go further in the story from here? I fear that this may be the last new Star Fox game to come out. Star Fox and F-Zero both seem to be screwed, which is bad because I like both those game series.
Characters
The Star Fox Team
One thing that was decent about the game was that it brought back all of the old characters from Star Fox 64. Characters such as Katt and Bill are playable in some levels. You even get to play as members of Star Wolf such as Wolf, Leon, and Panther who each have their own personaly modified Wolfen. Also old enemies come back such as Oikenny and Pigma, and several enemies and bosses from the original Star Fox show up such as the Monarch Dodora. Seeing all of these return was satisfying.
Gameplay
Shooting An Enemy
Another thing I hate about this game is the controls. Their horrible. They're even worse than Superman 64. To turn the ships, you move the stylus on the touch screen. That is terrible. It's like the Wii Motion controls, it's never going to do exactly what you tell it to. The Nintendo DS has four main buttons, two shoulder buttons, and a D-pad. Do you think thats enough to make the game like the console ones? I do! A button should shoot, B button should shoot bombs, X button should break, Y button should boost, the D-pad should control the ship, and the L/R buttons should turn harder and do barrel rolls if you double-tap them. The only buttons on the touch screen that should remain where they are are the Loop and U-Turn buttons because they are easy to hit with your thumbs. The shoot button is any button, and the controls are touch based. That is a bunch of crud. It's even worse than Skyward Sword, which had to put in a centering button for when the screen cursor got out of whack.
Graphics
A Wolfen On Solar
The graphics are very nice. It reminds me more of the original Super Nintendo game than Star Fox 64, because of the returning enemies. One thing thats better, is that the 2D surfaces are more detailed. There even more detailed than in Star Fox 64. It is really weird that the DS has the same polygons but can do more detail in the 2D surfaces. I like it.
Music
The music itself is very good, however, there is one problem. The music from the old games isn't kept, sort of. The music is actually new with bits and pieces of the original musics thrown in. That is a big disappointment because I really liked the old music. They did a really good job orchestrating the Star Fox 64 tracks for Star Fox Assault. I've seen a Nintendo DS do better remixes. check out Final Fantasy IV for DS. That music was well remixed. It seems though that the Gameboy Advance will always be better at remixes than the Nintendo DS. Oh well.
Releases
Box Art
Star Fox Command has only been released for the Nintendo DS. It was first released in Japan on August 3, 2006. Then it was released in America on August 28.
My Rating
I give this game a 7/10. The story was a bit disappointing, and the graphics were okay, but the one thing that ruined it was the controls. It should have been the buttons, not the touch screen.