Star Fox Command
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| Star Fox Command | |
| Developer | Q-Games, Nintendo EAD |
| Publisher | Nintendo |
| System | Nintendo DS, Wii U Virtual Console |
| Release Date | Nintendo DS JP August 13, 2006 US August 28, 2006 AU September 21 2006 EU January 26, 2007 Wii U Virtual Console US June 25, 2015 PAL August 6, 2015 JP September 28, 2016 |
| Gallery | GH Gallery |
| Rating | ESRB: E 10+ |
Star Fox Command is a 2006 space fighter game for the Nintendo DS that is the fifth game in the Star Fox series and the first to appear on a handheld platform. It was also the first to play over Wi-Fi, making it the first online Star Fox title.
Story
The game takes place 2-3 years after Star Fox Assault, after the team has gone their separate ways. Fox McCloud had forced Krystal out of the team due to his worries she would be in danger. Slippy Toad had went to pursue his own interests and met Amanda Toad, resulting in less time with the team. Peppy Hare had taken the role of the Cornerian General due to an ailing General Pepper no longer being fit to command. Once again, Falco Lombardi left to go find a more thrilling lifestyle, reducing the team to just Fox and ROB64.
It is during this separation that the Anglar Emperor launches his invasion from the planet Venom. His attack catches the Cornerian force off guard, forcing Fox into action and intro trying to reassemble his old team, try to find new allies, or work with Wolf O'Donnell and the rest of Star Wolf. What ultimately happens is left to the choices of the player.
The game features a branching storyline with nine possible endings. The first playthrough forces the player onto one particular ending path, but after completing that path, the player gains the ability to choose their own path to try and try to unlock all of the endings and consequently, all of the characters.
Gameplay
The game marks a change in the usual rail shooter familiar to previous titles and is instead played solely in all-range mode where the player is given full control of where to go. The game is primarily controlled using the touch screen for the use of aiming where to shoot and the direction to go.
A new twist is the inclusion of a strategy map outside of flight. Each mission is broken up into several maps that take on a turn-based strategy game theme. The player controls a maximum of four ships and the Great Fox. The individual ships can traverse the map, sometimes through Fog of War effects, where they can engage in All-Range battles with enemy ships or sometimes find items, such as bombs or missile that the Great Fox can fire.
Individual All-Range maps have a variety of objectives. The most common is the defeat several generic enemies and collect a predetermined number of stars. Each map has a time limit that carries over to other battles. Other battles might be boss fights where the objective is to defeat the enemy. Balancing between the strategy mode and map mode with the time limit makes for a challenging game, especially since if enemy ships reach the Great Fox, it's game over.
Development
Although developed by Q-Games, it had a large influence from Nintendo EAD. A lot of the features were taken from the canceled Star Fox 2 for the Super Nintendo. This is because the founder of Q-Games was Dylan Cuthbert, who had helped create the original Star Fox and worked on Star Fox 2 before it was canceled. The game itself was originally built off a puzzle game called Digidrive that was expanded into a Star Fox game with special Nintendo DS features.
Legacy
To date, this game remains the last game in the original version of Star Fox canon. It has never been established which of the game's endings are supposed to be canon, if any. In fact, some of the game's developers once implied that a new Star Fox game would start off in the middle of Command rather than follow any of the game's existing endings. Regardless, instead of choosing to continue this game's storyline, Nintendo's only Star Fox offerings since then have been Star Fox 64 3D in 2011, which is a 3DS remake of Star Fox 64, and Star Fox Zero in 2016, which is set in a new continuity.
Ports/Remakes
- In 2015, it was released for download on the Wii U through its eShop as part of the Wii U Virtual Console.