Star Fox Command is the latest in a series that has never quite gotten the coverage it deserves. Fox has always been in the shadows of the better-known Nintendo mascots, Mario, Samus and Link and has made it through these years with a following that has had to endure some disappointments as of late. Where Adventures and Assault failed in my eyes Command boldly takes the Star Fox series to new heights. While still lacking the rail missions that made Lylat Wars such a blast to play Command introduces new elements that will be sure to surprise and make you wonder why Nintendo had never thought of this before. Star Fox Command takes so many years after Assault in which Fox has once again disbanded the fabled Star Fox crew. He has crudely dumped Krystal and sent her packing and told our favourite green Frog Slippy to go because he was an annoying co-pilot anyway. No, not really. Since then Krystal has done something none of us would ever expect in a million eons, Slippy has gotten engaged, Peppy is now a General and Falco is doing what he normally does, travelling the galaxy for chicks. All silliness aside the story, like all Nintendo games is hardly the strong point.

The gameplay is a mix of standard free-range dog fights with a new addition that allows you to strategically move your units around an RTS style map before engaging in the short, repetitive dog fight. That should be noted, while this game has 9 different endings and multiple paths to take it is very repetitive, the only thing that spices it up are even shorter Chase the Missile sequences. There are the occasional boss fights as well but these are hardly anything to right home about, especially when the difficulty here is aimed toward young children. Merely a warning to the wise, if youre expecting a lengthy Single Player then go elsewhere. Your first play through will take just a little over an hour.

Dogfights consist of you destroying an enemy or enemies and collecting its core while avoiding chaotic laser fire. Each enemy varies in which the means to destroy it. Some you simply have to aim and shoot at while others require you to hit a hit point, which can easily be locked onto using the lock on feature. Barrel rolls are expanded in Command. Not only will they deflect laser fire but for each laser sent in the opposite direction a couple of seconds will be added to your time. Another thing that should be mentioned is that each Mission has a Timer or as the game calls it, the amount of fuel left in your tank. Normally you start off with 100 seconds to complete the mission but with Time Boosts scattered throughout the RTS map and Dogfight maps you probably wont have to worry about time at any stage. The ultimate goal of every mission is to destroy every last enemy as well as neutralising Enemy Bases where once again the Barrel Rolls are used to complete the mission.

After several play throughs I openly admit that the story mode can be incredibly frustrating as movement of the A.I on the RTS map is erratic. However this is a good type of frustration. This means that every time your strategy will have to change depending on the movement of A.I units and makes for some interesting replays. Also with over 15 unique Starships featured in the Single Player campaign this game has a vast variety to keep you entertained for some time.

WiFi will be discussed in depth when our review is posted later this week. However I will comment on it briefly. From what Ive experienced so far its your next Mario Kart DS. While some skill comes into play because the winner is decided by amount of stars collected rather than kills anyone could possibly win just by waiting for the moment to sneak in and steal a star. Dont expect this to hinder your offline and online experience though. More than likely once theyve revealed themselves to make the steal a skilled player will just blast them to pieces.

From my time playing Star Fox Command I openly confess I like it unlike my first stale impressions when concerning Assault. While still not as impressive as Mario Kart DS or as robust online as Metroid Prime Hunters, Command has taken a step in the right direction to earning Foxs spot as one as Nintendos hottest properties. With the launch of the Wii imminent this writer hopes we will see another incarnation sometime in the future where we can once again immerse ourselves in the continued conflicts that seem to plague the Lylat System like $ony attracting bad third party games.

Star Fox Command launches in Australia on September the 21st and will have a R.R.P of $69.95. Vooks hopes to have a review by the end of this week so keep an eye out and see you in the skies later this month.

On the 22nd of September Vooks will be holding a special event to celebrate the release of Star Fox Command in Australia. Visit our forum for more information.