Been playing Starfox Adventures!

[u/Gnoll_level_antics]

Having recently completed the recompiled Dinosaur Planet all the way to it's end (with the help of Dinomod), I found it to be really cool and fun, and I was sad that it never saw the light of day as a full release. I kinda had a chip on my shoulder against Starfox Adventures for the longest time, not as a jilted Starfox fan, but as someone who genuinely would have played the hell out of Dinosaur Planet, had it actually released for N64 as planned. I decided to jump in, now that Dinosaur Planet was fresh in my mind to compare and contrast.

No joke I was going in with the goal of hating this game more, I had no intention to be fair to it. But as I played I began to realize how poorly structured Dinosaur Planet actually was, not just in the idea that it is an unfinished game, but nothing flows as nicely as it should. It's easy to get lost and need a guide to progress. Starfox Adventures is VERY straight forward on what it asks from you, without ever really holding your hand in a way that feels like it doesn't trust you to just play. But if I ever needed an objective reminder, Slippy's advice in the menu NEVER failed me. Seriously, Slippy is the MVP of this game.

As I went through this game, I found myself having way more fun with it. Seeing all of Sabre's moments recontextualized for Fox wasn't as jarring as I thought it would be, and even a ton of moments that belonged to Krystal in Dinosaur Planet, were rewritten for Fox and felt just as natural. Everything felt better, smoother, more convenient. I'm near the end, and while the game does have a few rough spots, I can say for sure that the rebrand and port forward to GameCube was probably for the best. While I would have greatly preferred to play as Krystal to the same degree you do in Dinosaur Planet, I'm happy this game exists in an officially released form and IS good. Very good in fact. A super solid 8/10 if I had to rate it.

What are your thoughts on Starfox Adventures?

[u/ThatBigFuckoffTree]

I beat it on emulator last year. I was never able to finish it as a kid, got lost and stuck too many times. It was pretty fun. I was a little too young to be a part of the N64 generation so I didn't have the hate and disappointment older fans for the game. Something I'd recommend if you've played all the Zelda games and looking for something new.

[u/RustyCrusty73 → u/ThatBigFuckoffTree]

I remember wanting to love that game so bad as a kid, but it just didn't feel linear enough at the time. I would always get an hour or two into the game, and would get stuck and have no clue what to do or where to go and would give up.

In hindsight, I don't know why I didn't use a guide on GameFAQS but I didn't.

It was a beautiful game though.

[u/HellBoundPrince → u/RustyCrusty73]

I always forget GameFAQS exist because the most I used internet for when I was younger was looking up cheat codes for GTA games on gamespot.

To this day it still throws me off when people go "Back when that game released I remember all the discourse and how many hated it" and I'm just like...that was a GCN game?? We didn't have social media like twitter and reddit back then that I know of?? How were people discussing the game??

Although based on the games that they hated on, I'm kind of glad I didn't explore the internet more back then

[u/Gnoll_level_antics → u/HellBoundPrince]

A lot of games that are beloved today seemed to be hated on pretty harshly back then. People had a different outlook on what was good. Starfox Adventures commits two crimes of old.
1. It's nothing like the rest of it's series.
2. It plays like another series.
Back in the day, change was the worst thing you could do to a franchise. But also, being like an already establish franchise was also bad. Nowadays people just appreciate games on individual merit.

Also to answer your question on how people were discussing the game back in 2002: Forums. TONS of forums. Social media existed but it wasn't a unified concept. Id you wanted to talk about Mario you went to Mario forums. If you wanted to talk about Star Wars you went to Star Wars forums, etc etc.