I tracked down a copy of this for a similar reason to Viva Pinata DS, as it is held in high esteem in the DKVine community. It’s the final game that Rareware made for a Nintendo home console, the final one while before they were sadly bought out by Microsoft. Like many Rare games, especially later ones, it had something of a troubled development. It started as a new IP that, while a spinoff of Diddy Kong Racing through Tricky the Triceratops, was much more loosely connected than Banjo or Conker. The tone is very different, a more serious adventure story. After finishing the game I had a great time looking through an archive of prerelease material relating to the original story and game of Dinosaur Planet. You can check some of that out here.

But Miyamoto intervened, as he so often does, and suggested changing one of the protagonists to Fox McCloud, as they bore a resemblance. Now hardcore Rare fans and Star Fox fans both will see this as a mistake, the Rare fans because it caused delays and cuts to the N64 game, resulting in a more content-light Gamecube final product, as well as undermining Rare’s original vision. Star Fox fans see it as a big anomaly in the series and a disappointing change of pace compared to the SNES original and N64 classic. Me, well, I don’t mind so much. I like seeing a different kind of adventure in the Star Fox universe, and what we got is what we got. You can’t complain too much, it’s not too different to what DP was intended to be and it sure looks nicer.

I knew not to expect a Star Fox game proper, but what I didn’t expect were segments of Lylat Wars-style scrolling shooter gameplay shoehorned in between areas of the 3D adventure action platformer. The comparison is not nice: the structure, design, sound effects, control, all are pale shadows of what the N64 game accomplished.

Thankfully, the original Dinosaur Planet-style stages are more well-developed. While the world is a little small, it’s populated by fun characters, mostly dinosaurs, with outrageous British accents of all stripes. This is fun and I dare say part of the “Rare charm”. I had flashbacks to their previous fully-voiced game, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, in a good way. The more affected accents of the principal Star Fox team are more grating, though. David Wise’s soundtrack on the other hand, fantastic as always.

Oh I was talking about the gameplay. It’s a bit like Zelda, a bit like Beyond Good and Evil. You get lots of consumable items mostly, as well as magic staff powers. The C-stick menu is a great way of sifting through all these actions and objects while still running around. Lumping some actions onto your sidekick Tricky is also cool because you develop a bond with the little guy. He’s so cute following you around, and he’s so integral that it’s only natural he feel a part of the team. It’s good to see Rare finally deliver on the partner gameplay they’ve been toying with since Conker’s Quest 64. Just a shame that the proposed Krystal half of the game was cut or reworked, in the end she’s a very underwhelming character.

Knowing about what was cut does undermine my retrospective view of the game, although you can tell while playing it that it’s a little lacking some areas. Parts of the world and gameplay feel bolted together and there’s not always a consistent feeling of progression. The plot is a little barebones too. It’s all about what goes on in your head though, so if possible I’d recommend reading a bit of Dinosaur Planet info and supplementing your experience of this game with that, to build it up a little more. That’s helped my view of the DP-SFA thing as a whole.

I’ve heard lots of criticisms of SFA: disappointing final chapter, tedious backtracking, dumb minigame-type sections, mediocre combat. I’d agree with all of them. However, I still look back on my playing of it fondly, and had a good time. It has got the Rare spirit, despite what some people may think. It also adds a lot to the Star Fox universe, especially in terms of Krystal who is very important to the next two games. I’m just playing Assault now and going back to Sauria briefly is just so joyous. I guess you could say it’s not easy to enjoy, but I’m glad to like some controversial games if they have some redeeming elements, and I think this does.