Todd Vanderwerff

I should be reviewing Half-Life 2 right now, one of the most revolutionary games since… well, the original. I’m not because hackers stole a third of the source code for the game, and now Valve software has to rewrite it all. Don’t get me started. God willing, you’ll see that review in April. APRIL!

Anyway, since I was saving my money for that one, I’m going to review a slightly older title. Today, for my first review ever, I give you StarFox Adventures, for the GameCube.

Many of you may recognize this as the sequel to StarFox 64, itself the sequel to the original StarFox for the venerable Super Nintendo. The key development in this latest installment is that you don’t fly. Well, that’s not entirely accurate, you do occasionally fly, but the previous games were all flying. In this one, you run around with a stick. And you pick things up; a lot of things.

I’ve compiled a list, and so far I count forty-one different sorts of objects you have to find: various stones, gems, spirits, roots, twigs, spores, seeds, and bafmodads. Yes, bafmodads, it doesn’t surprise me at all that ‘bafmodad’ isn’t in my spellcheck. (Neither is ‘spellcheck!’)

The thing is, despite this, the game is pretty fun. First of all, Fox and his ladyfriend he’s trying to rescue are distressingly hot, especially for anthropomorphic foxes. And since your only weapon is a staff, there’s no shortage of crazy kung-fu stick fighting action. The best part, though, is that Fox shares your exasperation at the outlandishness of the entire situation. He rolls his eyes as much as you will.

I give this game a 1 (out of 1. The scale is binary). Rent it first, buy if you like.