‘Star Fox Adventures’: The Best Zelda Game That Isn’t Zelda

Nintendo has a habit of branching out in interesting ways. The Wii, Zelda II, Metroid Prime, and Hyrule Warriors — just to name a few. But the wildest of these departures was the Rare-developed GameCube classic (yes, CLASSIC), Star Fox Adventures. 

It’s actually the last game Rare would ever make for a Nintendo console because Microsoft’s acquisition of them happened the day after it was released. Which has been annoying for me as a Nintendo fan because how have we not gotten more Banjo-Kazooie? But that’s a discussion for another day.

YOU GOT ZELDA IN MY STAR FOX

My favorite thing about this game is the chance it took with the Star Fox IP. Fox is a cool character, and being a pilot who can do more than just fly gives Nintendo a lot to work with. 

The story, environment, and gameplay style lent themselves well to expanding the Star Fox lore. Speaking of gameplay, yes, it’s Rare taking its best shot at replicating the Zelda style. And they did a great job of doing so.

It’s the perfect style for an action-adventure game, and Fox’s mobility makes it even more fun to play. Especially with a staff in his hands. And that staff is for more than fighting. Some puzzle-solving elements, honestly, are up there with quite a few Zelda puzzles. 

tAKING A TRIP TO DINOSAUR PLANET

So, the elephant in the room. This was never meant to be a Star Fox game. It was known as Dinosaur Planet, and through some maneuvering from both Nintendo and Rare’s sides, the game became what we know now as Star Fox Adventures.

And there are places where it’s obvious. Such as the entire ending. We somehow ended up with Andross being involved because it’s a Star Fox game — of course Andross would be in it. Does it feel shoehorned in? Sure. Is it awesome despite that? Absolutely. Sometimes, things don’t need to be perfectly laid down to be incredible.

Honestly, it adds to the quality of the game. This game was already in development in one form, and for Rare to pick up an existing IP and merge it with Star Fox (going as far as adding Arwing sections) speaks to the quality of game they’re capable of putting out under any circumstance.

I love this game. It’s another one that remains in my collection to this day. I wish we got a sequel. I know Rare doesn’t work with Nintendo anymore, but the Big N knows how to do this. After all, one of their most famous properties inspired this collaboration. A Star Fox Adventures for the Switch or its successor would be pretty cool to see and could open possibilities for other games like it.