There are a couple stages where you control Fox on the ground while the rest of the Star Fox team fights a battle in the sky. Occasionally, they begin to get overwhelmed, forcing you to drop what you're doing, hop into your Arwing, and take off into the sky to backup your buddies. Once you've cleared the skies to a more manageable level, you land your ship and continue your primary mission. This juggling of responsibility is fun and gives these stages a terrific, hectic feel, but whenever I was forced to land my ship, I couldn't help but think, "Great, now I gotta run around again."

Crazy like a Fox

I was reminded of LucasArts' awkwardly named GameCube release, Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike, which also featured great flight missions mixed with not-great-at-all foot-based levels. Assault's foot levels aren't nearly as bad as those in Rebel Strike -- in fact, they can even be somewhat fun if you can adjust to the slightly loose control. They just never end up being anything more than "OK."

Namco even saw fit to base Assault's multiplayer mode around these foot missions. Up to four players can compete in deathmatch-style contests set in the arena-style stages where the foot missions take place (they're unlocked for multiplayer when you beat the stage in single-player mode). You can even have Arwings and Landmasters in the matches, as well, insuring plenty of mad dashes to get into vehicles before the other players. As an incentive to play lots of multiplayer, new goodies such as new maps, customizable options, and additional multiplayer modes are unlocked as you play more matches. Unfortunately, the multiplayer mode is only decent at best, so it may be a while before you reach the couple hundred matches required to unlock some of the extras.

For a game called "Star Fox," you spend an awful lot of time away from the stars.

You're gonna need the multiplayer mode to extend Assault lifespan, however, since the game is rather short. With only 10 missions, you can easily plow through it in an evening. For you hardcore players, there are a few extras to add some replayability. Survival mode challenges you to complete the game without saving, and mission mode lets you replay any of the stages on any of the three difficulty levels. Depending on how well you perform during each mission, you can earn badges and find hidden flags, which unlock surprises like Namco's classic arcade game, Xevious. So if you're the type who must dig up every secret in a game, there are lots to find here.

Looking Pretty Foxy

Namco also didn't skimp on the game's presentation. As one would hope/expect, it looks significantly better than it did when it was first shown two years ago at E3 (when it was called Star Fox 2). Although it doesn't look quite as lush as Star Fox Adventures (and yes, there is a stage that takes place on Adventures' dinosaur planet of Sauria), it still looks plenty slick, especially during the flying missions. The music is also outstanding, with both new tracks and remixes of classic Star Fox themes.

Star Fox: Assault is a great example of a "good" game. The not-so-good parts (the foot missions) aren't bad enough to weigh the entire package down, but the excellent bits (the flying chunks) just aren't enough to counter the rest. It's been a while since I've seen a game that's more perfectly suited for a rental than this one. GameCube owners should definitely check it out and have some fun with it, but I won't blame you if you don't want to add it to your library.