Well for starters its weird going two "now playing" articles in a row, but this is kind of a celebration for me. Finally got everything together to play Starfox Adventures! Sure I've still got AC2 in mind and I was just playing it as soon as today. Likewise there's also something I didn't mention last time: pix the cat. freakin' pix the cat is like some casual addiction,, but I've got an article about that and general "fun-ness" down in the plans. Meanwhile lets talk starfox adventures, because that's something I'm playing now and hope to keep up because its a damn good representation of the sort of thing I loved and played before. Well... sort of.
SF:A (because I'm already tired of writing it out) is truly a weird game with a feeling of good Rare quality mixed in with a zelda influenced project. B&K, or DKC64 this is not, its rather more linear and focused on upgrading and proceeding on an adventure that seems intent on increasing in scope. Its a game about reading text, solving light level puzzles, enduring odd but solid combat in between destinations, and collecting an inventory of gear to do all this with and some of it upgrades as necessary per design. The thing that it gets right though, similar to Okami, is that it capitalizes on trying to lose the feeling that you're on rails. Sure you've still got traces of that giant key quest where thing A goes with set piece A, and you'll end up learning to use this with combinations of B and C, etc. However there's a lot of open and branching paths, a lack of intrusive level designs or barricades, and the setting and mechanics really has me immersed in a way that lives up to the idea that this is an "adventure" game. Oh yeah, and lets not forget this is Rare and it really does feel like it. There's this strange warped feeling to the quality that leaves its clear mark this wasn't directly nintendo. Its less afraid of adventure, less afraid of fortifying a range of mechanics that fit on top of a fluid scope (rather than keeping closed up ones among a predictable plan), and its just got that Rare tone of mixing up something slightly adorable with something dark. Ultimately though it never leaves that Nintendo land of gamey and fun-ness, as well as throwing in buckets of tried and true but awesome gaming cliches. Basically this is Rare's big answer to Zelda, and it strongly resembles that as you would expect. The only non-rare thing is the fact that they're stuck with restrictions to make things a starfox game. The world clearly shows an influence from a far different, far more original IP. However Starfox is still there, and he had to impact it as a starfox game. I'm not hating on it for that, just pointing out its a weird mix for Rare and I can't help but wonder if a couple things feel awkward not by design but by constraints due to the likely time consumer conversion of Dino planet to StarFox Adventures.
Actually screw it, I love the weird possibly shoehorned inclusion of Starfox, and I love the game's total result so far. Sure most of it is Dinosaur planet and Rare's lost gem covered under the label, but when suddenly the scene cut to a space ship full of a cartoony crew rocking out to a jukebox (which I didn't consider at the time, but what the heck is a jukebox doing on a space ship!?), it just cemented how awesome everything as a whole was. A world full of reptiles and lizard people, tribal tone mixed with culture clashed, elements of sci-fi slipping in with an ancient world full of magic, said magic coming from crystals and staffs, and a gamey plot that is loud and proud about you having fun inside of a video game adventure. My 10-year-old imagination would be as excited as it could be, save for maybe the lack of dragons. It hasn't been since like my introduction into warhammer 40'000 that I felt like a world just suited my liking so well. Sure some of the voice acting is kind of dumb or silly, or some of the logic to stuff like why you can't use lasers is dumb, and the gamey-ness might be a little too much when big important characters are actually telling you to "press the B button if you want to cancel so I can go back to sleep", but its all so fun and awesome never the less. I don't know how all this would have panned out under the Nintendo 64 as Dinosaur Planet, and who knows maybe that'd have meant more sequels or maybe at least an xbox exclusive reboot that would break me on wanting one alongside sunset overdrive. However whatever the case is, I like what it is in reality. I liked how they handled Fox's intro, and how they tried to adapt him into their old design. Its given a pretty fun even if a bit silly and clumsy of a game.
The game has a strong feeling of familiar and new because of all that I've covered. The characters all feel like a great kids cartoon cast, even if Peppy Hare's tone is hard to get used to here. The gameplay reminds me faintly of platformers, or older game cliches that you just don't find, and there's just that drive of adventure. However there's also no jump button (GRRR!), its still a zelda-ish adventure game even if just an inspired not cloned type, and the game's ongoing pacing and gadgets all bring a mixture of delight and frustrations that are of course unique to this adventure. A lot of my positive comparisons though are towards the platforming adventure and rare allusions I find within the game. The upbeat music, fun world, emphasis on exploring, and strange pacing gaps that actually drive me forward rather than repulse me are all making it a comforting experience inside of something that is ultimately quite different. Of course a lot of that different to is what keeps me going. I remember finally buying something from the shop merchant, and despite fixed initial prices there's an actual haggle system that had me shriek out loud "Oh, that's soooo cool!!!". That's just a light example, but of course its those small awesome moments that add up and make the adventure worth having.
This is all just day 1. I've already beaten the prologue, goofed around, got stuck and then unstuck a couple times, intentionally went the wrong way and loved it, accidentally went the wrong way and felt confused, and came around to racing, sliding on ice, losing and winning gambles, and smacking plenty of lizards down. As you can tell, I do love the experience so far. Even though this is no platformer, it feels like its serving my dose of fun with that genre for the year.... in a year where there really is no new answer for that. I'm glad to have stumbled onto a cool little old gem from a console's history I was never part of. I really want to beat it and hope to get Assault as well, even though that's a totally different beast. For now though I've got to get back to this game, its only on pause and I don't plan on putting it up for the night just yet.
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