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STARFOX (GC) was really early. In a bad way. While it's nice to see the Namco logo on the title screen, it's not nice to see the game so choppy. I love me some Starfox, as you might know. So it pains me to see it available only as a multiplayer competitive shooter. So far, the animations are choppy. Only five characters are selectable (including Dinosaur Planet's Crystal. It doesn't feel like an arcade game. Which is okay -- yet, something makes me think it should feel like an arcade game.
Call this one "maybe-promising." If I had to give it an award -- hell, let's give every game an award -- I'd give it the multiplayer-only demo that should have let me play single player, damn it award.
You press the R button to move forward when you're on foot. You can jump into a tank or an Arwing ship with a tap of the X button. Flying is a little hokey -- there's no acceleration button. Firing is hard -- targeting with the C-stick, while maybe-satisfactory to Halo fans, feels odd and indescribably . . . clicky. There's no lock-on. There is, however, fog. And frog. I played the game against three Capcom executives, and they ripped my Slippy ass off. I want more -- and I want a one-player mode. Really. I just want to see what it's like, at least. Because the four-player mode doesn't quite cut it. Maybe it's the split-screen.
Mario Kart: Double-Dash (GC) doesn't have a split-screen. Well, I guess it can have a split screen. If you have more than one GameCube and a couple copies of the game, though, you're up for some rocking. I played the game against Doug, Eric-Jon, and five people I've never seen in my life.
Yes, that means eight GameCubes were linked together. On eight TVs -- big ones. Low chairs met the comfortability quota quite well. Charles Martinet, voice of Mario and Wario and Donkey Kong and Waluigi -- I'll stop right there -- provided real, live, running commentary. Which was amusing. You can hear him in the background of my F-Zero videos up there.
Man, listening to that video (God knows you can hardly see it) makes me wish F-Zero had a LAN mode, too. I hope it will. I hope STARFOX will, too. Hell, I hope a lot of things have a LAN mode. I'd give the LAN mode, as used in Mario Kart: Double Dash, the best new technology-ish thing that I'd rather see in other games award. I'm not overly excited about it in this game. And I'll tell you why: it's just Mario Kart, man. Yeah, so you have two characters on each car. So different combinations form different teams with different "special" weapons. So you still have lightning bolts and blue shells that make the game tighter for inexperienced players. It's still Mario Kart, with all the same drifting physics and whatnot intact. Which is to say, if you like Mario Kart, you'll buy this game. Hell, I'm going to buy the game. I already know that much. I just wish for something really innovative. Being able to switch drivers on-the-fly is one thing. It's just not enough. And I'm not even sure what it does. I mean -- each character can hold multiple items. Just . . . isn't there something else?
F-Zero's something else is extremely hellish speed. STARFOX has . . . vehicles and . . . promise? I'm not sure where I'm going with this. That said -- this game looks really good in motion. And if you have eight TVs lying around, you're in for something.
[next: Something Else]
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