Rare has done a lot of work on this game since E3. Who am I trying to kid here. All I really care about is the fact that I could fly an Arwing again. I tried in every way possible at E3 to try to fly an Arwing, or get to an Arwing stage with no luck. Now it’s finally playable, and rest assured…it’s a total blast.

Controls are a lot cleaner with the GameCube controller. A=fire, B=bombs, Y=boost, X=brake, and shoulder buttons angle the ship as well as control barrel rolls just like the original. I couldn’t figure out how to do the loops like in the N64 version, but everything else felt really tight.

The Arwing levels are fast and furious to say the least. You can shoot everything, and there are plenty of enemies that are shooting at you. The rings are still there to fly though for weapon upgrades, and now there seem to be green balls to hit that replenish your health. The level that we played had massive asterioids to dodge, and lots of flying enemies to shoot at. There weren’t any wingmen in what I played, so it’s still unknown if you’ll have to protect them in any of the levels of Star Fox Adventures. Basically the Arwing level that I played was like a much improved version of Star Fox 64.

For it’s time there was quite a bit of voice in Star Fox 64, but now all the cut scenes have full voice from Colonel Pepper, and even (the whiny bastard) Slippy has a lot to say. At least it’s a lot more voices than the N64 version. Voice makes me happy.

If you thought Rare could manipulate graphics well on the N64, you will be absolutely blown away with what they can do on the GameCube. It looks like Rare has used almost every color in the book to create the environments in the Arwing levels. The lighting effects and shadows looked fantastic, and the explosions…..Word. I was drooling the second I laid eyes on this game.

As far as the land levels are concerned, Rare has done a lot of work on it since E3. I wasn’t all that impressed at E3 due to the fact that I already played Dinosaur Planet on the N64 the year prior, but now the game really looks good. Animations are clean and fluid, and it’s just as graphically impressive as the Arwing levels. One thing that really grabbed my attention was the shadows cast on the ground from the the clouds above. It’s an excellent effect.

Star Fox Adventures is shaping up to be an excellent title. It’s a shame we won’t get to play this game until 2002, but I want Rare to take their time with it. Games that mix flying elements with action RPG elements rarely (no pun intended) are good. Take Shadows of the Empire for example. Only a few of the levels were actually decent. But so far, Star Fox Adventures is a game to keep your eye on.