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Even as Nintendo’s popularity has waned in the home console arena,
no gaming enthusiast has been able to discount the release of a
game from any of Nintendo’s stable franchises. Titles such the
The Legend Of Zelda series and, of course, the ever present
Mario conjure fond memories not just from Nintendo’s
 heyday, but
also the groundbreaking 3D imaginings of the Nintendo64 era.
Although these franchises, together with
Pokemon, could be
considered Nintendo’s strongest, there is a long list of mascots in
the Kyoto game company’s stable, each featuring in some truly
stellar productions. Amongst these are F-Zero,
Advance
Wars and the 3D Shoot-‘Em-Up, StarFox. The latter
originated on the SNES and has since made an appearance in its
original style on all subsequent home consoles. With so many key
Nintendo Intellectual Properties coming to NintendoDS, it’s hardly
shocking to see StarFox arriving in the form of StarFox Command.
With the apex of the series, Lylat Wars, appearing as
one of the Nintendo64’s many classics, expectations for a title
made for such similar hardware are unsurprisingly high.
In StarFox Command, players take control of team StarFox in
an attempt to protect the Lylat System from yet another set of
invaders. StarFox Command is quite dissimilar from its
predecessors, however. Although large parts of the game fall under
the 3D Shoot-‘Em-Up classification, the game is no longer as linear
as it was and features an interesting strategic element. Instead of
the story-driven Level Structure of it’s forefathers, StarFox
Command allows players to choose their path through the game
through dialogue options at the start of each Level, albeit after
completing the game once in the default manner. Each Level consists
of two main phases, a turn-based strategic element and user
determined Real-Time Space-Combat Missions. At the start of the
Level, a Map is displayed on the Touch Screen. The Great Fox - the
StarFox Mothership - the various fighter craft available, Power-Ups
and enemy craft and installations are all shown. In order to
complete a level, the player must destroy all of the enemy ships,
bases and missiles. To engage the enemy, the player draws Flight
Paths for each fighter craft on the Touch Screen. If a fighter
crosses paths with an enemy unit, a battle will commence at the end
of the turn, with the player taking control of each allied craft.
Battles are Arena-based, and essentially one of four different
types; against enemy
 spacecraft, against enemy installations,
intercepting missiles and Boss battles. The most common, against
fighters, involves shooting down a specified number of designated
craft and collecting Cores from the wreckage. Battles against enemy
installations are almost the same, except that when all Cores are
collected, the player must take out a Mothership by flying through
a course of Square Beacons before performing a Spin Attack at the
end. A similar set of Beacons is used for missile-interception; the
player must fly through each square at increasing speeds, shooting
at the missile in an attempt to destroy it. Missing a Beacon in
either of these Modes will result in failure. The final battle
type, against Bosses, usually occurs at the end of certain Levels.
Similar to the older StarFox games, each Level’s Boss is only
defeated by locating its weak-spots and exploiting them in a set
sequence. If the player’s ship is destroyed, or if they run out of
time in a battle, a craft is lost, however the Mission continues
with the enemy allowed to continue their advance. The Mission is
lost if any enemy craft or missiles reach the Great Fox, or if the
player runs out of turns.
All craft control is done via the Touch Screen, with all other
buttons and triggers, except Start and Select, firing. The game
uses a similar analogue-emulation as
Super Mario64 DS, with
moving the Stylus about a point achieving analogue control. Double
tapping the top of the screen initiates a Boost, whilst doing the
same to the bottom half causes the craft to Brake. Quickly moving
the Stylus from side-to-side causes the craft to spin, useful from
deflecting enemy fire and taking out Motherships. Loop-The-Loops
and turning 180 degrees are initiated by touching their respective
icons; with area effect Bombs used by dragging-and-dropping the
Bomb Icon to the location desired on the Map displayed on the Touch
Screen. Various different craft are available to the player
depending on the Mission, with traditional characters; Fox, Slippy
and Falco, featuring the most. Each craft has different Boost and
Life values, Lock-On Modes and weaponry, allowing for slightly
different tactics and giving a sense of variety to the proceedings.
StarFox Command also features Single Card Download and Wi-Fi
Multi-Player. Up to six players may compete from a single Game Card
locally, whilst Wi-Fi Multi-Player allows four players to fight
online. There are a few arenas available featuring various
Power-Ups, including Twin Lasers, Stealth Mode and
life-regenerating Supply
 Rings, which heavily dictate play.
Dogfights are fast and hectic, but ultimately highly enjoyable. The
Wi-Fi Mode also features a Ranking System based on kills; a feature
likely to appeal to the more dedicated gamer.
Whilst not featuring anything particularly flashy, StarFox
Command sports decent visuals for the system. All playable
craft are well rendered, as are enemy bosses. General enemy craft,
along with the arenas in which battles take place, are fairly
uninteresting, however, and it is now blatantly obvious that the
NintendoDS is vastly inferior graphically to the PSP. That being
said, there are few flaws in the 3D Engine and all the 2D features,
such as the Cut-Scenes and Maps, are bright and colourful in true
Nintendo fashion. As you might expect from a Nintendo franchise,
presentation is of a great standard throughout, including the well
fleshed-out story which changes drastically depending on the path a
player takes through the game.
The sound quality is offered as a comparable to that within the
graphics. The various zaps and bleeps required by a game of this
type are all perfectly adequate; never amazing, but serviceable.
However the star of the show is clearly the voices of the
characters. Initially these sound very similar to the Babalese
language of
Animal Crossing: Wild World; however StarFox
Command features a rather novel, if ultimately totally
pointless, option. By recording various words spoken by the player
via the Microphone, StarFox Command will modulate the
players’ voice to sound like the Lylat language. A bizarre feature,
but an amusing one nonetheless.
Although, occasionally during fast-and-frantic battles, an Analogue
Stick might be desirable, the controls in StarFox Command
are actually quite responsive and easy to pick up. There is a
wealth of variety to the story lines and Maps, although
unfortunately the arenas, Mothership battles and
missile-interceptions do get a little stale. Boss battles are
heavily reminiscent of Lylat Wars, which, given the quality
of that title, is clearly a good thing. The generous Single Card
and competitive ranked Wi-Fi Multi-Player Modes are well
implemented and add a great deal to the longevity of the title.
Once again, Nintendo have delivered yet other trademark franchise
to their multimillion-selling handheld with great results; another
must have NintendoDS game.
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