29-Jun-2002 The face of the future of handhelds. Just the wrong thumbs The face of the future of handhelds. Just the wrong thumbs
Remember Star Wing on SNES? You were McCloud, a fox pilot leading an elite wing of woodland animals in a titanic space battle with a megalomaniac scientist. Using polygons and 3D scaling, it was properly cool, and 'inspired' developer Graphic State to make Star X.
Indeed, this looks like Star Wing and superficially plays like Star Wing and its N64 sequel. The difference is, in Star X you play an Aussie bloke. Called Rob. Rob MacKenzie. A clue, if ever there was one.
STAR (FO)X See, while Star X's impressive polygon engine really does take 3D gaming lightyears ahead of most titles yet seen on Advance, it's a game lacking soul and, crucially, control. Massed waves of alien ships pepper your fighter with laser bolts as you turbo-boost to avoid collapsing columns, or hit the retros while diving under moving barriers to grab power-ups. Sounds mint, except over-sensitive controls mean you're careering all over the screen trying to aim.
It's so imprecise that the boss battles at the end of every couple of on-rail levels seem random and unrewarding, while battling the clock to blow up objectives in the arena levels is just frustrating. The complete opposite of Star Wing, in fact.
The Lock-on feature doesn't help much, taking too long when the screen's crawling with enemies. You may even be shamed into restarting in Easy mode. Even then, level difficulties swing all over the place, and when you do complete levels, there's the frustration of the Save feature. Your exact status is saved, so you may have to redo some earlier levels to get better saves.
The storyline is thin and the few uninspired characters aren't fleshed out enough, so frankly you don't give much of a toss. Sigh. Bring on Star Fox Adventures on the Cube.
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