Starfox Adventures

At the far edge of the Lylat system, a lush planet is in turmoil. Once a primordial paradise, Dinosaur Planet has been torn apart by an evil dinosaur named General Scales. This monster has caused sections of the planet to be ripped up and flung into low orbit, and his legions of mutated dinosaurs are running wild. It's been 8 years since the best pilot in the Lylat System, Fox McCloud, defeated Andross, and Fox's team has since disbanded. So when word of Dinosaur Planet's plight reaches General Pepper, it's Fox alone who must shoulder the burden. Fox McCloud is back, but he’s left the on-the-rails, shoot-'em-up larks of his previous two games behind--this all-new Star Fox adventure sees the super furry animal in a very Zeldaesque bid to save Dinosaur Planet.

Although the control system is very similar to The Legend of Zelda's, Star Fox Adventures is no simple clone. It’s your job as the mercenary mammal to find all the spellstones that will rejoin the splintered planet and defeat the evil General Scales. This entails much exploring of ancient temples and completing of subquests to help everything from Yorkshire-accented woolly mammoths to pterodactyls who've lost their babies.

The game may lack the epic scale and endless invention of Zelda but it has plenty of new ideas of its own, including a fully interactive dinosaur sidekick, some cool shoot-'em-up sections in Fox’s spaceship, and lots of ways to upgrade a magical staff--your weapon of choice when out of your ship. To add some icing to the cake, the graphics are absolutely amazing, particularly the superrealistic fur effects. --David Jenkins, Amazon.co.uk