E3 2006: Star Fox is Back

Seeing as that Star Fox 64 was and still remains one of my favorite video games of all time, nothing can measure the level of excitement I experienced upon hearing that the long running rumors were true. Yes, the Star Fox series is DS bound. Surely Nintendo wouldn't do the unthinkable and tamper with the tried and true control formula that worked oh-so-well, but of course they have to justify the use of the DS for one of their flagship franchises, right?

Right. Upon first playing the game's easy mission mode, I experienced all sorts of trouble attempting to adjust to Star Fox DS' control scheme. Essentially, the stylus and touch screen are your main courses of input, controlling everything from flight speed, to barrel rolls, and mid-air reversals. In a nutshell, gamers can control the ship's throttle by tapping near the top area of the touch screen, and conversely, you can slow down by tapping the bottom area of the touch screen. The touch screen can also be swiped horizontally to perform a barrel roll, and you can tap various icons to perform other well-known maneuvers like reversals. It's definitely something that'll take more than 15 minutes to fully adjust to, and in my opinion, there are some improvements to be made when it comes to the touch screen's sensitivity levels.

The mission modes deviate heavily from the Star Fox series that we all know and love, with strategy elements tosses in before the action even begins to come into play. Before each mission, you're asked to map a course to take, prior to engaging in battle. Players utilize the stylus to draw out a course line in an attempt to establish the least difficult path to victory as feasible. After you engage an enemy on the touch screen, you're warped to the corresponding action level, RPG-style, and proceed into battle. Long time fans of Star Fox may or may not welcome this odd change in the series, but I believe it's good that developer, Q-Games, is attempting to breath new life into a somewhat stagnating series.

There's also local wireless, download play, and up to 4 people can participate in the fun on Nintendo's Wi-Fi connection. All in all while I'm thankful that the series appears to being going back to the things that made it so popular in the first place, I can't deny that this new method of control somewhat concerns me. Here's hoping Fox, Slippy, Falco and the rest of the crew come through in the clutch, and hopefully there will be a way to adjust the sensitivity levels on the final build.