Mythinks #13

Star Fox Assault - Bugzapper

I promise not to get too in the weeds about the future of the Star Fox franchise in this article; after this bit, I'll simply go back to writing as if future games in the series just don't exist like I usually do. But I do feel like a significant reason I hold this game to a decently high regard, and in turn why I have such a hard time grappling with the idea that Fox McCloud is trapped in a purgatory where he's forced to relive the events of the Lylat Wars over and over again, is in part because this game starts off in almost the same manner. Definitely not a remake or retelling of a previous title, but definitely setting up the idea that you'll be encountering familiar enemies, and that familiarity going out of its way to present itself as very non-threatening.

The opening of Star Fox Assault sees you coming up against the remnants of the late Andross' military, lead by his nephew from the previous game, Andrew Oikonny, a premise that definitely sounds aggressively by the books, short of just finding a way to say Andross just got better after he blew up in Adventures. Which wouldn't even be outside of the realm of possiblity, given he already blew up in 64 as well.

This setup especially coming off as half-baked given Oikonny elicits the hype moments and aura of, well, a nepobaby nephew who, as far as we're aware, isn't even ever directly acknowledged by their uncle in any way. With how your first interaction with him is the monkey immediately turning tail and running, hiding on the planet below.

Even further reflected in the way Oikonny pulls out a trump card; an Andross-like mech suit, thinking he's such a hardass to the point where he's taken off guard when Falco voices how unimpressed he is. He puts on the clothes of a big bad final boss, but is pathetically felled in seconds. All of the first level crescendoing not into a grand reveal that has anything to do with Oikonny himself, but rather one of the hardest rug-pulls I've ever seen out of a mainstream Nintendo title.

Via dramatic reveal, this game's true antagonists become evident: the insectoid, bio-mechanical menace known as the Aparoids. An entity presented as far more dangerous, being leaps and bounds more menacing than anything encountered in the series up to this point. That on top of one individual among this new invading force being a kaiju-size moth monster.

All I'm saying with this extended intro is that I don't think it's as hard to make a Star Fox feel fresh as the heads of the franchise, and some of the series' fans make it seem, what with this being a journey across even familiar Lylat System locales, but still utilizing the setting in new ways thanks to the new threat presented with the Aparoids. I'm not asking for Star Fox to never ever get rebooted; I'm fairly comfortable with saying this particular timeline ends with Star Fox Command. I just think that if you're going to hit the reboot button on Star Fox, that it doesn't mean Andross has to be the focus. You could, just as easily present some new invading force that offers not just a fresh face to be fighting against, but also puts a new twist on old planets we're familiar with. That approach worked for Donkey Kong, at least until we brought that particular series' "Andross" back, too.

Though, hell, for that note, it's not even like you would just have to present an alternate universe where Andross doesn't exist. Just save him for a hype return or something after he's been absent for a few games, I'unno.

Though one thing that definitely seems to plague Star Fox games, even ones that can be considered "old" now, whoof, is the fact that they'll bring in and remove features controversially. Because the narrative of the game has a more cinematic, story-driven approach to it, it kind of necessitates dropping the feature of having branching, multiple paths based around finding secrets and beating the harder win conditions of a level. But, you know me, in saying that openness nor linearity beat one or the other, but it's what you do with those structures. But for Star Fox Assault, that question has a bit more nuance to it than just saying it's better or worse for this game's approach.

A Star Fox game with a linear, rigid track of levels isn't inherently a bad idea. The primary question I would have in mind would be what features within those levels up the ante enough to warrant and overall smaller level count than the previous game? Are the set-pieces in each level more exciting and detailed, the spectacle overall higher? Is each level a little meatier than previous titles? Are the settings more detailed and intricate than before? And the answer to those questions aren't all an unambiguous "yes".

The first level starts very typical for what you'd expect out of a Star Fox game, an arcadey on-rails shoot-em-up with a prominent focus on constantly throwing new setpieces at you, never letting there be a dull moment. Especially with enemies and elements that exist essentially in this stage alone, yes, because this villainous force is about to be overthrown by a bigger threat, but it still throws plenty of assets and unique enemies at you all throughout the level, some even for only one segment of a level, like the stealth missile squadron that show up near the end of the space segment to at least make the Andross remnant seem a little convincing as a force.

And while the other pure Arwing levels have more dynamic action happening, mission 1 here feels like it could very well give off the wrong first impression by almost essentially being two levels in and of itself, the first half taking place in the space battle in Fortuna's orbit before chasing Oikonny down to the planet's surface, which is also basically itself a second level. It definitely makes sense to put on your best face at the beginning, but the other levels do also tend to be a lot closer to the expected length of a Star Fox flight level. Not to mention that no single level is as visually varied as this one is, having the first half happen in space, while the second half happens on a planet's surface, each level after this very solidly staying put on its one stated goal with little else to vary it, individually.

Though this level does definitely put forth its best face in the way that it reintroduces what's formally familiar to the rest of the series, a rather straightforward action shooter level, though what it does present is the thematic parallel with its new gameplay style, which comes in immediately after the introduction of a new, vile threat that just upended the familiar, villain that we're already privy to. That new addition that Assault brings to the formula of the rest of the series are the ground levels, where you play as Fox on the ground, equipped with a blaster. And, in something that feels like a genuine hot take, I think they were actually cooking, here.

Not that I think it's quite as polished as the pure Arwing levels, a point of friction I usually feel with the game is that aiming usually demands you stop dead in your tracks and stand your ground while you move your cursor around. Controlling much the same way Metroid Prime does, but I think that game gets away with it fine, because you both have a way to lock your view to the sky, even without a lock-on target, and that game is much more tame in terms of its pace, so stopping in order to aim upwards doesn't feel like a hard ask. In Assault, you'll have to defend your airborne allies, flying around in unhelpful loops with antsy targets jittering around behind them, but Fox and the Landmaster's aim will level back down to the ground the moment you let go of the R button, which makes shooting those targets down feel like more of a hassle than it's really meant to be.

Other than that, though, I think the only thing Assault's ground levels are the victim of is that it's one in an at the time dying breed, before every shooter game got homogenized into being a Halo or Call of Duty, but still sitting alongside the rise of those kinds of games. Sure, its shooting mechanics aren't quite as tight as those games, but given Star Fox's series background as a game series that leans into the arcade feeling, it DOES fit right in with a much looser, forgiving combat system for a shooter that's more about racking up combos and taking out a room full of enemies as quickly as you can with the tools you have available.

Halo it is not, but it's also very clearly not trying to be that, it's a little too spry and quick to be something like that. Less of a played-straight campaign shooter and more along the lines of an action arcade game that's more suited to dispatching the giant swarms of enemies that litter the game. Something that kind of makes the Aparoids the perfect adversary for a game like this, being the insectoid creatures that can pass for having these absurd numbers that are more about overwhelming than being individually powerful.

With this combat system, the on-rails aspect is left behind in favor of being a bit more like a classic shooter, where you're given a map to explore and various objective points to find within said maps. Which is almost always a type of thing to blow up. In what order you tackle these in is largely up to you, but if you want the best endscreen results, you'll have to route out your path in a way that ensures you don't run out of enemies to blast, and thus your combo meter slowly depletes. Which can make the encounters with the odd larger enemy really sting, since they occupy so much of your time, so taking them down quickly is crucial for keeping that combo alive.

That said, it's not that I think these on-foot missions are always firing on all cylinders. While the setup of the stages are clearly more about a puzzle of how to handle individual rooms, the actual objective variety isn't where the game shows its more creative side. With how often this game asks you to destroy X amount of enemy spawners, or some other specialized enemy type with very little variation. One level will force you to take out the enemies with a target on their back with a sniper rifle in particular, but that alone doesn't make the level any more exciting.

But I do think what definitely pales is the weapon variety. The amount of them is perhaps fine for a game of this caliber, but I'm sitting here, looking at this sci-fi shooter full of space furries and can't help but think to myself, are some of these really the best that could be come up with? A machine gun makes a bit of sense, there's tons of swarms in this game, to a point where it definitely feels like the go-to for dealing with a big fistful of enemies in your way. But otherwise, we've got a gatling gun, which is largely the same idea, just bigger and Heavier. A rocket launcher. Grenades. The aforementioned sniper rifle. Proximity mines. And that's kinda it.

JINX:

i already feel like a lot of sci-fi shooters do nothing but kneecap themselves by always falling back on "here's your assault rifle, shotgun, and sniper rifle" and what have you, rather than actually using that sci-fi setting to get more creative with the armaments. at least halo gets away with it cause, while the human weapons are largely familiar fare, the alien covenant weapons tend to get at least a little more unorthodox. it just sticks out extra hard here in a setting like star fox, the same universe that has water-skiing mechs and rocket thrusters stuck to asteroids that hurl themselves at the closest enemy has nothing but basic firearms in it.

-------------------------------------------------------

This game also have a couple of control schemes, and as much as the second control scheme would fix my issue with the aiming, making it control more like a traditional shooter, it also makes controlling the Landmaster very unintuitive, and you can't mix and match control schemes if you'd like strafing and free-aiming for being on-foot, but are okay with tank controls when you're in, well, a tank.

Though what definitely was a godsend was the realization that the dodge-roll button was also a strafe button so that helped. Fox is a surprisingly resilient little canid, though the abilities to play around cover a little more effectively definitely did help a lot in the harder difficulties when you'll inevitably have to apply more caution to your approach.

IONO:

The Landmaster is arguably in its best form to date, here. In Star Fox 64, it always did kind of just feel like an Arwing with its wings clipped, but here it actually feels like a proper tank, sporting a strong cannon that can deal with even the enemies that are immune to normal peashooter fire, has a bit of an easier time shooting down the bugs in the sky, which feels satisfying to do, even with the charged shot. But Most importantly, you can use its boost to ram into groups of smaller enemies, sending them flying like cheap plastic toys in a way that feels comically gratifying. Doing so still applies a little bit of contact damage, so you won't be able to simply just run everything over without eventually doing some serious damage to your Landmaster, but in a pinch it's definitely an option to simply swat an enemy that's getting too close.

-------------------------------------------------------

It's also sporting a surprisingly decent breadth of mobility, for a tank, having the same hovering and rolling moves it did in 64, and they definitely expect you to use it to your advantage more often, with the amount of elevation on each map, and the (unfortunately sole) boss fight where you're expected to use the Landmaster utilizing both the roll and the hover.

And as much as you are repeating the basic objectives a lot, thankfully they don't replicate a lot of stage-specific elements, like Fichina's gimmick where it makes you rely on the radar because a lot of your actual vision is obscured through the thick blizzard. Corneria tries to be the opposite, where you can't rely on your radar until the radar-jamming eyeballs are killed, but I can't think of too many times outside of Fichina where the radar is regularly helpful.

A repeating trend. And by repeating I mean it comes up twice. Is the concept of the air superiority meter, which shows a general gauge of how overwhelmed your air buddies are getting up in the skies, and if the meter gets too high, you'll have to get into an Arwing to help out. Feeling like an interesting idea that sits a little half-baked or half thought out, given you kind of want to do this to raise your score anyways, so it only really feels like a formality.

Not to say that they don't do anything with it; the third stage on Sargasso Hideout features your main objective on the inside of the space station, but if the gauge gets too high, you'll have to put a pin on what you're doing to take to your Arwing to shoot down enemy reinforcements. Which in itself, causes friction with keeping your combo going, since you'll have to climb the interior section of the space station again. And the other mission with this mechanic, Sauria, does feature a usable Arwing, but you can also pretty reliably fire on sky enemies with your Landmaster in a pinch. Though given it's version of the gimmick that causes the least friction, it's a surprise it comes up in Mission 6 compared to Sargasso being Mission 3.

All of that to say, I can definitely understand wanting a pure on-rails shooting experience when it comes to a mainline Star Fox game, Assault not even really having the excuse Adventure had in that you could say at least that one was a spinoff. My way of mentally finagling this isn't just simply based in my usual "take every game as an individual work", but is even minding the series' arcade stylings, and in that sense, I think the third person shooter elements are better than at least most give it credit for, even if it wouldn't be one of my first go-tos.

The pure Arwing levels lack in overall variety, but make up for it by having, in my opinion, a stronger track record for more memorable individual setpieces. Gone are the levels like from 64 that stood out on their own better, like Zoness's searchlight gimmick, or Solar's heat hazard. But it still keeps up with a lot of unique elements and enemies that almost show up exactly once for a quick few-second-long segment before never being seen again, and in that way, never letting the action of those Arwing levels get too dull. In fact, I would say they're some of the strongest individual Star Fox levels in the whole series.

CELESTE:

The Meteo stage goes hard compared to its already pretty kickass 64 counterpart, having ongoing storytelling throughout the level. Starting on the outskirts of the asteroid field, closing closer and closer to a secret base Pigma's apparently been operating from, only to find that the Aparoids he's openly invited have started infecting the station itself, forcing its machinery to move, the assembly line robot arms swinging to try and swat you, the Aparoids covering more and more of the base as you get deeper inside of it. It's pretty ace stuff.

-------------------------------------------------------

CHIAKI:

I'd go so far to say that the final level, the tunnels within the Aparoid homeworld, are some of the strongest Star Foxing in the series. Me always kind of bemoaning a bit that 64 only sort of had a "final level", at least on the "hard" version of the game's routes. Here, the Aparoid Homeworld level is brutal, and still caps off with the final boss fight. Constantly throwing new obstacles at you, and only really having one part of it that feels a little too slow. It feels like a suitable ending to a pretty intense story, all things considered. And I don't think it's any coincidence that they do save these pure, on-rails, classic Star Fox action for the most pivotal story moments.

-------------------------------------------------------

Not to say it's a masterclass of video game storytelling, or anything. But it almost does feel like one of the darker stories in a Nintendo game from a series that you could. Still? Kind of? Call? One of? Nintendo's main series? Sort of? As stated, the main antagonist this time around pulls a fast one simply by not being related to Andross whatsoever, instead being these giant insectoid aliens that, at first, seem to be on a very basic goal of "wreck everything in sight", but as Pigma starts messing with them in attempts to get them to do his bidding, he ends up revealing that the Aparoids are capable of infecting machines like a virus, as an Aparoid ends up possessing one of the silos near Fichina's climate control center. But shortly afterward, it ends up turning out they're not so mindless, after all.

As if one vibe check wasn't enough, the end of Meteo then also reveals that the Aparoids are capable of infecting living organisms, in this case, Pigma himself. Which assimilates them into their collective hivemind. Basically presenting these things as incredibly grim, given Pigma seems to be so far gone that all you can do to him is just mercy-kill him. Yeesh.

This is definitely the point where the stakes just go off the rails. Sauria feels a bit like a filler level, but then in Star Fox's absence, the Aparoids launch an attack on Corneria, utterly decimating the capital of the Lylat system before General Pepper death flags as hard as he can before the mission actually starts. Only for the boss of the level to be General Pepper himself, infected by an Aparoid.

After being a little ambiguous about whether or not he makes it, a tussle at the orbital gate, acting basically as a repeat of the 64 mission where you have to defend the Great Fox from oncoming missiles, just much easier with plenty of time before missiles strike the gate, and with Star Wolf helping. Oh yeah, they're in here too. Not necessarily inconsequentially, but they do have a tendency to just plain turn up like it's nothing. This time, acting more as anti-heroes than rivals with how much they help the cause. Definitely raises the stakes a bit with how old enemies are joining you to fight a more dangerous opponent.

It really increases the gravity of the situation that a weapon to counter the Aparoids in one fell swoop is being constructed in the middle of a battlefield, it seeming like the Aparoids are just not allowing a single moment of levity before putting on the pressure again. Especially this coming immediately after the level that wrecked Corneria and the guy who's more or less the president of the Lylat system.

And see. I don't wanna overstate things and act as if this game's storytelling is a master of the artform, but I do genuinely think it carries its emotional tension decently well. Barring some perhaps stiff facial animation that mid-2000s mo-cap has to make up for, during the mission briefing cutscenes. But it still keeps tensions high with the Aparoids becoming a bigger threat over time, more about their infectious, assimilating nature becoming known, and even going so far as to put beloved Nintendo characters in some very real mortal danger. Like, sure, Oikonny and Pigma come back in sequels, but for all kid-me was concerned when playing this game for the first time, this game was over here killing named characters one by one, so who knew when they might actually put one of the main cast's life on the chopping block?

It almost feels like a bit much, at least when you're playing this at the age range I did when this first came out. And again, really matches the emotional heaviness of it with the absolute ferocity of the level that it precedes.

This is when you finally meet the brains of the entire Aparoid swarm, the core of the hivemind collective, the Aparoid Queen, who poorly imitates the voices of all the victims she's supposedly slain, using the information she's absorbed from her many, many extremities. Using their voices to at least suppose a narrative that, if anything, she's helping lesser life forms by forcing them to take the next step of evolution, which naturally must be the Aparoid collective itself, because what else could it be? Maybe Star Fox Assault isn't one of the most thematically deep and twisted game out there, not even one of the most thematically deep Nintendo games, but the Aparoids being posed as a villain with a stated goal to be a desire to achieve perfection by erasing the autonomy of all other beings is certainly one of the grimmest Nintendo adversaries.

LUNA:

And. I'm far from a Lorehead as it were, but. What the heck IS up with the Aparoid Queen, anyways? Like, why does she look like that? This isn't her true form, it's a facade fake underside hiding the actual monstrosity beneath it. But like, why does it look so human? Saying this fully aware the out-of-universe explanation is simply that they wanted something called "Queen" to still evoke some bit of femininity, but in order to keep it abstract so it stays obscure and creepy-looking, they just gave it the face of a porcelain doll. But it just has funny, slightly unsettling ramifications for why the Aparoid Queen, a being that clearly attempts to lull its prey into a false sense of security via mimicry, would even have the need to evolve a humanoid face. Especially given the Aparoids have no doubt already swallowed an unfortunate race that had no chance of defeating them or two; they would've very easily overrun the non-space-faring Saurians had Star Fox not intervened.

-------------------------------------------------------

One genuinely pretty tough battle later, pulling off a lot of the stops I like about climactic final boss battles, with big multi-stage fights that turn into a gauntlet as it comes down to the wire. Especially minding this comes after such a difficult level. But at last, the blow-up-the-Aparoids disease is transmitted and all the Aparoids blow up. And does it deflate the danger everyone went through when it turns out both Peppy and Pepper turned out fine? Maybe a little, but I think there is still a punch to just barely eeking through a crisis by the skin of your cartoonish buck teeth.

And if having no branching paths in this game meant we could get this more intense Star Fox story, I would easily say that alone makes it worth it, even if the overall level count is slightly less than the previous game. And I do think they make up for the lack of secret paths in other places.

Once you're finished with the game, naturally, its longevity is how much you'd like to actually practice it, and I'd say it's decently fulfilling to go chasing after gold medals and the like. Plus the elusive S bonus flags you can find throughout a level, which, there only really being a prize for getting all 50 in the game, that being a special weapon for the versus mode, feels a little anticlimactic for the effort it takes to find them all on no guide.

CHIAKI:

Something I'm actually decently impressed with is that the various difficulties are more than just increasing numbers, here and there. Not that it's anything major, but Bronze mode Katina, for example, has less Hatchers hiding in the buildings, while later difficulties have more Hatchers in more dangerous locations. Sadly it's not a courtesy extended to the on-rails stages, those seem to be more or less normal, the only difference being you take more damage. But still neat that they bothered to make objectives themselves a little harder for the on-foot levels.

-------------------------------------------------------

All that said, I think on top of just being a good game, Star Fox Assault also comes in at an interesting point in time, right before every shooter was kinda just going after that Halo of Duty-Life 2 sauce. And these days, even in the indie space, it feels hard to find a 3D shooter that's cooking with precisely these sorta of ingredients. The kind where a game still feels really gamey and arcadey, but will nonetheless have a story that takes itself seriously enough to be gripping, at least in the heat of the moment.

Like yeah, sure, there's plenty of Star Fox clones out there these days, but I can't say I know of any that take Assault's more unique approach to being an action, arcade shoot-em-up. So don't let yourself be offput by all the comments about the on-foot sections and come at it with an open mind. You might just find it aged better than people say.

-------------------------------------------------------

VIXI SCORE: 8.5/10

Far from perfect, but I was very pleasantly surprised to have actually enjoyed the on-foot levels after the years and years of nodding along and quietly agreeing. Don't get assimilated into hiveminds, kids.

LUNA SCORE: 8/10

I still mostly wish it was Arwing levels, but the on-foot levels really do show off the scope of the Aparoid invasions, getting up close with all the destruction they cause. And it was decently fun, too!

JINX SCORE: 7/10

was very surprised this revisit warmed me up to the on-foot levels, because i mostly remember their weaker aspects from back in the day. still, a pretty solid shooter, for how much i still kind of feel its shortcomings.

IONO SCORE: 7.5/10

The three on-rails levels are the sickest Star Fox has ever been. The rest? Pretty okay. Clunky on occasion, even. It balances out to more positive than not, but I personally can't help but think about what could've been if this was just a straight shot of pure Star Fox.

CELESTE SCORE: 8.5/10

A fun blast-em-up! I definitely wouldn't mind revisiting this every now and then, a bit like we used to do to 64. Still miss the more classic Star Fox action, but I enjoyed this first-hand more than I thought I would.

CHIAKI SCORE: 8.5/10

I didn't think I'd feel all that compelled to practice these levels, but I did, actually! So that's pretty cool. 64 is still one of my favorite games ever, so this one would have a tall order of ever topping it, but it gets there. Maybe not close, but it gets there.

OVERALL SCORE: 48/60