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Star Fox: Assault

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Computer & Video games

               Star Fox: Assault
   North American box art for the game.
    Developer(s)   Namco
                   Nintendo
    Publisher(s)   Nintendo
     Designer(s)   Shigeru Miyamoto
                   Takaya Imamura
                   Tsuyoshi Kobayashi
       Series      Star Fox series
   Release date(s) ^NA February 14, 2005
                   ^JP February 24, 2005
                   ^PAL April 29, 2005
      Genre(s)     Action, Shooter
       Mode(s)     Single player, multiplayer
      Rating(s)    ESRB: T (Teen)
                   PEGI: 7+
                   CERO: All Ages
                   OFLC: G8+
     Platform(s)   GameCube
        Media      1 × GameCube Optical Disc
        Input      Gamepad

   Star Fox: Assault (スターフォックス アサルト) is a video game for the Nintendo
   GameCube and part of the Star Fox series. Co-developed by Namco and
   Nintendo, Assault was released in 2005. However, it was available for
   rental exclusively at Blockbuster and Hollywood Video stores beginning
   February 1 as a promotion. During development, the game had the working
   titles Star Fox Armada, Star Fox 2, and Star Fox.

   Assault returns the Star Fox series to its space-combat roots after the
   previous game in the series, Star Fox Adventures, took a more
   action-adventure approach. Taking place one year after the events of
   Adventures, Assault introduces a new enemy: The Aparoids, a race bent
   on the assimilation of the Lylat system into their collective mind.

   When Assault was initially announced by Nintendo and Namco, there was
   also word of an arcade game under development. However, no more details
   of the arcade game have yet been made public, so it is unknown whether
   the game was to be the same as the GameCube version, a companion game,
   or something completely different.

Gameplay

   The gameplay of Star Fox: Assault is broken up into three distinct
   types. The player can fly an Arwing as in the original Star Fox games,
   but in some levels is also required to drive a Landmaster tank and/or
   perform certain tasks on foot. All three play types are available for
   multiplayer (though some multiplayer levels do not allow certain
   types). The game follows a completely linear track, unlike its
   predecessors Star Fox and Star Fox 64, which allow the player to choose
   his/her path through the game.

   Arwing missions in Assault are very similar to those of the first two
   games in the series: The player flies in space or close to the ground
   and shoots down enemies. Some levels are on rails, while others allow
   full freedom of movement in a relatively small area. As in previous
   games, some of Fox's wingmates occasionally call for help when they're
   being chased by enemies. Also, in some levels, the player has the
   ability to hop in and out of the Arwing at will.

   While in the Landmaster, the player has complete freedom to move about
   the level, shooting or running over enemies and assisting their
   wingmates when necessary. Playing on foot essentially turns the game
   into a third-person shooter — the player starts armed with a blaster
   pistol and can acquire a variety of other weapons, including a machine
   gun and a homing rocket launcher. In two shooting gallery levels, the
   player rides on the wing of an Arwing or a Wolfen-Class Fighter,
   shooting enemies on the ground and in the air with a plasma cannon.

   The game has been criticised for the "sloppy" control scheme on the
   ground, however, this can be remedied by changing the options to
   two-stick control on the options screen.

   As an added bonus, the player can unlock a playable version of Xevious,
   a classic scrolling shooter arcade game, by collecting all silver
   medals throughout the game.

Weapons and items

   Assault features a number of handheld weapons, most of which are
   frequently seen in first-person shooters, such as the blaster, machine
   gun, Homing Launcher, sniper rifle, and hand grenades. Also used is the
   Plasma Cannon, a rapid-firing gun with unlimited ammunition. This,
   however, is only used when wing-riding during the single player
   campaign. The game also has a number of special items, including
   personal force fields which deflect enemy attacks. The usual rings seen
   in other Star Fox games, that restore a vehicle's shield, are also
   present.

Plot

Setting and characters

   The setting of Star Fox: Assault takes place in the Lylat System from
   previous games. All of the planets visited in the game, with the
   exception of the Aparoid Homeworld, have been seen in previous
   incarnations. Dinosaur Planet, seen in Adventures, has been renamed "
   Sauria", and Fortuna is shown in its original form, as a separate
   planet from Fichina. Venom, prominently featured in past installments,
   is not seen.

   Assault features the core Star Fox team, with Falco Lombardi having
   returned, and Krystal taking over Peppy Hare's former spot. Peppy has
   retired from flying, and now resides in the Great Fox with ROB
   overseeing the missions. Star Wolf, absent from Adventures, returns as
   well, with Pigma Dengar and Andrew Oikonny having been kicked out and
   left, respectively. In their place is newcomer Panther Caruso.

   The game marks the introduction of the Aparoids, which are insect-like
   creatures that are part machine and part life form. The Aparoids are
   capable of infecting other life forms and machines and transform them
   into Aparoids. The game calls this infection Aparoideation. Large
   Aparoids contain a core memory that contains instructions as well as
   information on contacting the Aparoid Homeworld.

   The Aparoids are led by the Aparoid Queen on their home planet. The
   Queen believes that all things in the universe exist for the Aparoids
   to infect and that becoming an Aparoid is not infection, but evolution.
   Beltino Toad created a program that took advantage of the fact the
   Aparoids cells are created using apoptosis, and Fox used this program
   to destroy the Aparoid Queen. All Aparoids are networked together, as
   once Fox executed the self-destruct program in the Aparoid Queen, all
   of the Aparoids and their home planet were forever annihilated.

   The Aparoids seem to draw heavy inspiration from Star Trek's Borg,
   which assimilate other life forms. The appearance of the Aparoid Queen
   who serves as the leader also reinforce this.

Story

   Star Fox: Assault takes place one year after the events of Star Fox
   Adventures. Andrew Oikonny, Andross's nephew, assumes leadership over
   his dead uncle's army and starts a rebellion against the Cornerian
   Army. The Star Fox team, consisting of Fox McCloud, Slippy Toad, Falco
   Lombardi, Krystal, and Peppy Hare (who has retired from piloting),
   quickly fly in to assist them. Once they fight their way through his
   forces, they follow Andrew to Fortuna, where he attacks them by
   transforming his ship into an imitation of Andross's final form, albeit
   much weaker. Before his battle with the team is through, however, his
   ship is destroyed by a strange, bug-like creature, which then attacks
   Fox. Fox destroys it, and takes a partial "core memory" from it for
   research.

   Once back at the Great Fox, Fox and team learn from Beltino Toad that
   the attacking creature was an Apariod, one of a powerful species
   capable of destroying entire Cornerian fleets with little effort. The
   team also learns that a distress signal is being sent from Katina, and
   suspect Aparoid involvement. Fox investigates the planet on foot, only
   to be trapped inside the base with the Aparoids. With the help of a
   Landmaster, he is able to fight them off. After defeating a large
   Aparoid boss, resembling a giant saucer with four legs, he recovers
   another Core Memory, which is quickly stolen by Pigma Dengar, who sent
   out the distress signal himself and believed he can become rich from
   the Core Memory's sale.

   Fox and crew track Pigma to the Sargasso Space Zone, a popular hideout
   for bandits, overseen by Wolf O'Donnell. After infiltrating the base,
   they discover Pigma is not there, and the Star Wolf team shows up (with
   Panther Caroso as their newest member), soon after their discovery.
   They engage the Star Fox team in a dogfight, which they subsequently
   lose. Panther, attempting to flirt with Krystal, tells her that Pigma
   is on the planet Fichina. When Fox and crew quickly rush over to the
   planet, they discover that Pigma had deactivated its climate control
   center, turning it into a snowy wasteland. After defeating an Aparoid
   that threatened to destroy the control centre reactor, the team then
   follows Pigma through an asteroid belt. Once they catch up to him, they
   find that Pigma had been taken over by the Aparoids and had no control
   over his actions. He is assimilated into a large spacecraft with large
   tentacle-like metal arms as weapons. Fox fights and destroys Pigma, and
   retrieves the core memory, which has the information that will lead the
   team to the Aparoid Homeworld.

   Just before the team is about to go after the Aparoid Queen at their
   homeworld, Krystal receives a distress call from the planet Sauria,
   which is under attack by the Aparoids. Fox quickly lands on the planet
   and destroys the Aparoid hatchers before the dinosaurs there are wiped
   out. After the battle, Fox and Krystal reunite with Prince Tricky, now
   a teenaged EarthWalker. While the team was on Sauria, however, Corneria
   City was hit with a full-scale attack by the Aparoids, leaving it
   devastated. Fox, with the help of Star Wolf, who arrived to assist in
   defeating a common enemy, is able to take out most of the attacking
   Aparoids. They soon find out, though, that General Pepper's ship had
   been taken over by the Aparoids, and has started to attack Fox. Fox is
   able to take down the ship with his plasma cannon, but before the
   General crashes into the ground, he is saved by Peppy, who suddenly
   arrives in an Arwing and softens the General's ship's fall. After the
   battle, the Star Fox team heads for a large space station above
   Corneria, the Orbital Gate, which is used for warping to other planets.
   Before they are able to travel to the Aparoid homeworld, they are
   forced to defend it, with the help of Star Wolf again, from a series of
   Aparoid missiles. They manage to destroy all of the missiles, just in
   time for Beltino Toad to finish creating a program that will destroy
   the Aparoids.

   Once the Star Fox team reaches the Aparoid Homeworld, they realize that
   the entry to the core of the planet is blocked by a base and a large
   shield. Though Fox is able to infiltrate the base and destroy a large
   amount of Aparoids, the shield continues to hold up. He suddenly sees
   Peppy and ROB ram the Great Fox, which is covered in Aparoids, into the
   shield and open it long enough for the team to get through. The Great
   Fox subsequently explodes, leading the team to believe that Peppy and
   ROB were killed in the explosion.

   Fox and crew enter the core of the planet, with Star Wolf showing up
   again to help them. Right before they reach the queen, they are
   attacked by a seemingly indestructable swarm of Aparoids. Wolf, Leon
   and Panther decide to distract them to allow Fox to proceed onwards to
   the queen's lair. The team confronts the Aparoid Queen, who uses the
   voices of Peppy, ROB, General Pepper, Pigma, and Fox's father in an
   attempt to deceive them into joining her. The team ignores her, and
   blasts her armor away until Fox is able to shoot the program inside of
   her. However, the queen is able to repress it, and attempts to escape.
   Slippy informs Fox that if he does not destroy her and launch the
   program, the queen will create an antibody. Once the team defeats the
   queen, the program launches, and the Aparoids are permanently
   destroyed. The team escapes from the core of the homeworld, and soon
   discover that ROB and Peppy survived the explosion by finding an escape
   pod just before the Great Fox blew. It is unclear whether or not the
   Star Wolf team made it out or not, but Fox believes they also somehow
   survived.

Development

   Star Fox: Assault was first announced on May 8, 2002, then simply known
   as Star Fox, had a tentative release date of April 2003 for Japan, and
   would be developed by employees who worked on Ace Combat 04: Shattered
   Skies at Namco. Along with this announcement was the news of an arcade
   version, although this was the first and only time that it was ever
   mentioned. News about the game would not come about until a short video
   montage at 2003's E3 in Los Angeles, which showcased the game's
   first-person perspective. According to Electronic Gaming Monthly, the
   video was actually booed by viewers, and EGM itself said the video was
   "remarkably unimpressive".

   Throughout 2004, the game would go under control and graphics changes,
   and the name itself was changed to what it is today. It missed it's
   targeted November release date, and was pushed into early 2005. At the
   year's E3, EGM wrote a follow-up that said the game looked "much better
   than...a year ago".

   Many new voice actors were hired for Assault. Main character Fox
   McCloud, voiced by Steve Malpass from the fighting game Super Smash
   Bros. Melee until Star Fox Adventures, was replaced by Jim Walker.
   Another Rare employee, Estelle Ellis, the voice of Krystal, was also
   replaced, by Alesia Glidewell. The game engine, although unspecified,
   does use middleware provided by the Japanese company CRI Middleware.
   The Tokyo New City Orchestra provided Assault's musical score.

Multiplayer

   The game features multiplayer with support for up to four players.
   Players are able to fight on foot or in an Arwing or Landmaster, though
   some stages prohibit certain modes of travel. Playable characters
   include the entire Star Fox team (including Peppy), as well as Wolf
   O'Donnell. Multiplayer has a number of specific items and weapons, such
   as an upgraded sniper rifle and rocket launcher that can kill with one
   hit. A "Stealth suit" is another type of item available that can make
   the player invisible for a short period of time.

Reception

   Star Fox: Assault, by critics, was the least well-received game in the
   series, which currently holds a 70% average at Game Rankings. Many
   complaints were aimed at the control scheme during on-foot portions, to
   which IGN said that the "ground missions suffer from sloppy control".
   GameSpot noted that the multiplayer portion of the game has little
   lasting value, which was also shared by IGN, who said the design of the
   levels were too simplistic. However, IGN noted that being able to
   switch between the Arwing and Landmaster at will was a "welcome
   addition". In Electronic Gaming Monthly, two of the reviewers gave it a
   favorable 8.0 out of 10. Kevin Gifford said that "the game is aimed
   less at the Mario club and more toward the hardcore crowd". EGM also
   noted that Assault had an epic feel, helped by a great soundtrack.

   The game has sold well enough for it to be included in Nintendo's
   Player's Choice line in North America, which also includes Star Fox 64
   and Star Fox Adventures.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Fox:_Assault"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
