Star Fox Command In Stock Now On The DS - Classic Gameplay And Online Multi-Player

News from Lik Sang

Nintendo's Star Fox returned to its roots this week with an all new DS title. Developed by Q-Games, a company founded by Dylan Cuthbert who worked on the first Star Fox team, this new shooter is perfect if you didn't like the FPS gameplay of the two GameCube sequels. Locked onto aerial dog fights, the Japanese edition arrived early and is in stock now. The US port comes later on August 28th, but don't forget like all handhelds, the DS is region free so this game will work on every unit worldwide.

The first Star Fox (a.k.a Star Wing in Europe) was released in 1993 and brought 3D graphics to the SNES through a "Super FX Chip" and an extra math co-processor. Four years later Star Fox 64 (Lylat Wars in Europe) unleashed rumble packs on the videogames industry, then it was followed up by two GameCube sequels. Now the series has made its first appearance on a portable, and true to form, it works with the DS Rumble Pack.

Set after last year's Star Fox: Assault on the Cube, the planet Venom was revealed not to be as barren as first thought. Hiding in acidic oceans are a race known as Anglors, the leader of which intends to destroy the Lylat System. After previously splitting up, the Star Fox team re-unites here to fight over 30 missions, battling it out across vast oceans, flaming caves, deep space, dry deserts and more.

There's 15 characters to choose from including Fox, Falco, Krystal, Slippy, Wolf, Leon, Panther, Lucy, Amanda, Peppy and more. Each have their own ship and unique attributes like the type of Laser they have, how many enemies they can lock on to at once, the number of bombs they can carry, how powerful their shields are and how much boost they possess to pull off special moves. In a nice touch, each ship also features different graphics down on the touch screen.

Supporting up to four players online with the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, or up to six players if you're all together locally, there's both co-op and competitive multi-player modes. Through single player and co-op choices, it's your mission to prevent any enemies slipping by you and attacking the mother ship. Adding some strategy to the mix, the map to each mission in shown on the touch screen, along with each of your team mates. Using your stylus you plot the route for each of them to follow, then let them fly. When a pilot encounters an enemy the game switches into combat mode.

Inside of a set space you'll need to shoot down a number of enemies before the timer runs out. Here the touch screen becomes a radar, and bombs for example benefit from letting you drag the icon onto the position it'll explode on. Your stylus also controls your ship, while the face buttons, or d-pad depending on whether you're left or right handed, fires weapons. Only one of you can take the same ships on at a time, so if there's two or more of you in the same area, you must decide who goes in for the battle. With each ship having unique abilities it's up to you to think about which person is best suited to handle the situation. Each pilot can also only go so far, but with power-ups you can increase this, or likewise in battle mode it'll lengthen the time you have to take out all the ships.

So once again Lylat needs you, but for the first time in almost 10 years you can save the day with old school air to air combat.

Screens and Movies at Link Above