Star Fox: Assault (スターフォックス アサルト Sutā Fokkusu Asaruto) is a third-person shooter video game for the Nintendo GameCube developed by Namco and published by Nintendo. It is the fourth released title in the Star Fox series. It was released on February 14, 2005 in North America, on February 24, 2005 in Japan, on April 29, 2005 in Europe, and on June 16, 2005 in Australia. The game was available at Blockbuster and Hollywood Video stores starting February 1, 2005 as a promotion.^[1]

Assault returns the Star Fox series to its space-combat roots after the previous game in the series, Star Fox Adventures, took a more action-RPG approach. Assault takes place one year after the events of Adventures and introduces a new enemy named the Aparoids, a race bent on the assimilation of the Lylat system into their collective mind.^[2] Assault contains remixes of music from Star Fox 64.

When Assault was initially announced by Nintendo and Namco, it was also rumored that an arcade game was under development.^[3] However, the arcade game was never heard about again in the public.

The gameplay of Star Fox: Assault is divided into three distinctive types. The player can either fly an Arwing (a spacecraft), or drive a Landmaster (a tank), or perform certain tasks on foot. All three play types are available for multiplayer mode although some levels on multi-player mode are specific. For example, Level 1, "Fortuna: A New Enemy" is specifically Arwing. The game follows a completely linear track, unlike its predecessors Star Fox and Star Fox 64.

Gameplay:

Arwing missions in Assault are similar to those of the first two games in the series. The player flies in space or close to the ground and shoots down enemies. Some levels are on rails, while others allow full freedom of movement in a relatively small area. As in previous games, the wing mates of Fox, the main character, occasionally call for help when chased by enemies. Additionally, in some levels, the player has the ability to hop in and out of the Arwing at will.

While in the Landmaster, the player has complete freedom to move about the level. They are free to shoot or run over enemies as well as assist their wingmates when necessary. Playing on foot essentially turns the game into a third-person shooter—the player starts armed with the blaster, a type of gun, and can acquire a variety of other weapons, including but not limited to a machine gun and a homing launcher. In two shooting gallery levels, the player rides on the wing of an Arwing or a Wolfen fighter, shooting enemies on the ground and in the air with a plasma cannon.

As an added bonus, by collecting all silver medals throughout the game, the player can unlock the NES port of the scrolling shooter arcade game,

Story:

Star Fox: Assault takes place one year after the events of Star Fox Adventures. Andrew Oikonny, Andross's nephew, assumes leadership over his dead uncle's army and starts a rebellion against the Cornerian Army.^[5] The Star Fox team, consisting of Fox McCloud, Falco Lombardi, Krystal, Slippy Toad, and Peppy Hare (who has retired from piloting, and instead stays in the Great Fox with ROB to Guide the Star Fox team through missions), quickly fly in to assist them. Once they fight their way through his forces, they follow Andrew to Fortuna, where he attacks them by transforming his ship into an imitation of Andross's final form, but much weaker. Before his battle with the team is through, however, his ship is destroyed by a strange, insect-like creature, which then attacks the team. Fox destroys it, and takes a partial "core memory" from it for research just before a large number of insects identical to the one just destroyed arrive.

Once back at the Great Fox, Fox and the team learn from Beltino Toad that the attacking creature was an Aparoid, one of a powerful species capable of destroying entire Cornerian fleets with little effort.^[6] The team also learns that a distress signal is being sent from Katina and they suspect Aparoid involvement. Fox investigates the planet on foot, only to be trapped inside the base with the Aparoids. With the help of a Landmaster, he is able to fight them off. After defeating a large Aparoid boss, resembling a giant UFO with four legs, he recovers another Core Memory. This is quickly stolen by Pigma Dengar, who sent out the distress signal himself and believed he can become rich from the Core Memory's sale.^[7]

The Star Fox team tracks Pigma to the Sargasso Space Zone, a popular hideout for bandits, which is overseen by the Star Wolf leader, Wolf O'Donnell. After infiltrating the base, they discover Pigma is not there and the Star Wolf team shows up with Panther Caroso as their newest member, soon after their discovery.^[8] Wolf, Leon, and Panther engage the Star Fox team in a dogfight, which they subsequently lose. Wolf then told Fox that Pigma was no longer part of Star Wolf.^[9] Panther however, attempting to flirt with Krystal, tells her that Pigma is on the planet Fichina. When Fox and crew quickly rush over to the planet, they discover that Pigma had deactivated its climate control center, turning it into a snowy wasteland. After defeating an Aparoid that threatened to destroy the control center reactor, the team then follows Pigma through an asteroid belt. Once they catch up to him, they find that Pigma had been taken over by the Aparoids and had no control over his actions.^[10] He lets himself be assimilated (to avoid capture) into a large spacecraft with large tentacle-like metal arms as weapons. Fox fights and destroys Pigma, and retrieves the core memory, which has the information that will lead the team to the Aparoid Homeworld.

Krystal receives a sudden distress call from Sauria - formerly known as Dinosaur Planet - which is under attack by the Aparoids.^[11] Fox quickly lands on the planet and destroys the Aparoid hatchers before the dinosaurs there are wiped out. After the battle, Fox and Krystal reunite with Prince Tricky, now a teenaged EarthWalker. Back on the Great Fox, General Pepper informs that while the Star Fox team was on Sauria, Corneria City was hit with a full-scale attack by the Aparoids, leaving it and its fleet devastated.^[12] Fox, with the help of Star Wolf, who arrived to assist in defeating a common enemy, is able to take out most of the attacking Aparoids. They soon find out, though, that General Pepper's ship(with the General inside being taken over as well) had been taken over by the Aparoids, and has started to attack Fox. However, General Pepper insists that Fox destroys the ship and himself.^[13] Fox is able to take down the ship with his plasma cannon and Peppy saves Pepper by using his Arwing. After the battle, the Star Fox team heads for a large space station above Corneria, the Orbital Gate, which is used for warping to other planets. Before they are able to travel to the Aparoid homeworld, they are forced to defend it, with the help of Star Wolf again, from a series of various Aparoid missiles. They eventually destroy the missiles, just in time for Beltino Toad to finish creating a program that will destroy the Aparoids.^[14]

Once the Star Fox team reaches the Aparoid Homeworld, they realize that the entry to the core of the planet is blocked by a base and a large shield. Though the Star Fox Team is able to infiltrate the base and destroy a large amount of Aparoids, and the first shield, a second shield is formed and laser power is useless against it.^[15] However, the Great Fox - damaged by the Aparoids - appears and destroys the base.^[16] Peppy and ROB ram the Great Fox into the shield and open it long enough for the team to get through before it explodes.^[17]

The team enters the core of the planet, with Star Wolf showing up again to help them. Right before they reach the Queen, they are attacked by an extremely durable swarm of Aparoids. Wolf, Leon, and Panther decide to distract them to allow Fox to proceed onwards to the Queen's lair.^[18] The team confronts the Aparoid Queen, who uses the voices of Peppy, General Pepper, Pigma, and Fox's father in an attempt to deceive them into joining her.^[19] The team ignores her pleas, and fight her until Fox is able to shoot the program inside of her. However, the queen is able to repress it, and attempts to escape.^[20] Slippy informs Fox that if he does not destroy her and launch the program, the queen will create an antibody.^[21] Fox drives a missile into the queen's heart which then explodes, killing her. The program launches, and the Aparoids go into self activated meltdown and are killed. The team escapes from the core of the homeworld, and soon discover that ROB and Peppy are still alive in an escape pod.^[22] Fox mentions the possibility of Star Wolf's escape.^[23] The game ends with Fox thanking the team for their efforts.