May 23, 2002 - Even with all the rumors going around about Rare leaving Nintendo's side to do some third-party work, it was clear that one game would be on the show floor. That game is Star Fox Adventures, one of the most highly anticipated GameCube titles that's been in development since the mid-years of the N64, seeing many changes including its Star Fox makeover and platform switch. Following are site editor Fran Mirabella's impressions.

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Last year Nintendo officially unveiled Star Fox Adventures: Dinosaur Planet, and it was extremely early. It still retained a lot of the N64 coding, textures, and the like, which led to loading problems and some less than impressive animation. Over the past year, Rare has totally revamped the engine, smoothing out animation, including intensive texture effects, improved lighting, and so much more.

When I returned to Nintendo's booth this year I was shocked to see how gorgeous Star Fox Adventures is. It has seen a complete overhaul since we last saw it, and is now looking better than ever. Star Fox Adventures is without a doubt one of the most visually dazzling next-generation titles of E3 2002. Character models, now fluidly animated, are painted with sharp textures, further complimented by effects such as specularity. Worlds feature magnificent attention to detail with moody lighting, bump-mapping, and vibrant texture design. It makes the version we saw last year look like a dirty rag, and it does so at 60 frames per second. Well, for the most part. Nothing's perfect, but for all the particle effects, high-res textures, and real-time lighting it's jaw-dropping.

The demo version let you select from a few areas including a boss fight, exploration, and flying, but I chose to play the "full game," as it was called. Sure enough, it's all there. The story begins with Krystal flying through a downpour of rain and lightning, but the evil General Scales isn't far behind her in his flying ship. Scales bumps into her, knocking her magical staff out of her hands. This was not a particularly good idea for Scales, as Krystal possess vast magical powers.

	Very pretty rain effects, don't you think?

I promptly began firing blasts of energy at the propeller of his ship in an effort to take it out, but Scales responded by slowing down to near the sharp blades of the propeller into Krystal's path. With some fancy dodging, I made it out okay and eventually did quite a bit of damage to the ship. I don't want to ruin it all for you, so let's skip ahead, shall we? Once on the bow of the ship I was free to walk around for the first time. As noted, animations are smooth and natural. Walking is analog, so as you tilt the control stick farther in a direction Krystal will animate slightly differently as her pace increases. Characters have momentum as well, so if you turn 180 degrees you'll see her whip her arms around and skid slightly. It's very slick.

To push along the storyline, Rare has real character dialogue. Interestingly, Krystal speaks in her native tongue, so the scenes are subtitled. It's a lot of attention to detail, and definitely speaks for the game's extended development period.

	SFA is a visual stunner.

Aside from presentation, I didn't get to see very much of Star Fox Adventures. Even after about 20 minutes of play, I've only scratched the surface. Controls are very much Zelda-inspired, letting you lock onto enemies to circle strafe around them as you fight. Items are toggled with the C-stick, making them very easy to use. Also like Zelda, there is no jumping mechanism. To jump, climb, and you simply walk into the direction of your destination. It's all automatic and intuitive.

So, as you might expect, Star Fox Adventures is still well on-track to a must-own GameCube adventure for 2002.

Look for more impressions soon.