Star Fox: Assault

The gameplay of Star Fox: Assault is divided into three distinctive types. The player can either fly an Arwing spacecraft, drive a Landmaster tank or perform certain tasks on foot. All three play types are available for use in the game's multiplayer mode, though the available gameplay types are restricted based on the chosen map.

Arwing missions 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, main character Fox's wing mates Falco, Slippy and Krystal occasionally call for help when chased by enemies, requiring the player to save them.

The game stars the members of Star Fox, a team of spacefaring mercenaries: Fox McCloud (Jim Walker/Kenji Nojima), Falco Lombardi (Mike Madeoy/Hisao Egawa), Slippy Toad (Mike McAuliffe/Kyōko Tongū) and their newest member Krystal (Alésia Glidewell/Aya Hara) participate in combat missions, while Peppy Hare (Henry Dardenne/Tomohisa Asō) and ROB 64 (Dex Manley/Yūsuke Numata) provide tactical support from their mothership, the Great Fox. Star Fox frequently clash with rival mercenary group Star Wolf, made up of Wolf O'Donnell (Grant Goodeve/Mahito Ohba), Leon Powalski (David Scully/Shinobu Satouchi) and new recruit Panther Caroso (Scully/Tetsu Inada); former members Pigma Dengar (Lev Liberman/Daisuke Gōri) and Andrew Oikonny (John Hugill/Numata) have since been kicked out of the team. Other supporting characters include Cornerian commanding officer General Pepper (Gray Eubank/Michihiro Ikemizu) and Slippy's scientist father, Beltino Toad (Scott Burns/Hirohiko Kakegawa).

The Star Fox team's primary opponents are the Aparoids, a race of cybernetic insectoid creatures. They are capable of controlling machines and life forms through an infection process known as "Aparoidedation". The Aparoids operate as a hive mind under the control of the Aparoid Queen (Glidewell/Hara), who believes that all things exist for the infestation and seeks to assimilate everything in the universe under her control.

Star Fox: Assault was first informally announced on May 8, 2002, several months before the release of its predecessor, Star Fox Adventures. The initial press release gave the game a tentative release date of April 2003, while also claiming that it was being developed by the same employees who worked on Ace Combat 2 at Namco; neither of these came to pass, with the game receiving multiple delays until 2005 and also being produced and directed by other Namco staff members outside of the Ace Combat development team, particularly those that worked on the Klonoa series, such as Tsuyoshi Kobayashi and Toshiyuki Nakanishi.

Star Fox: Assault was meant to be a return to the series' roots, after Star Fox Adventures being a notable departure from the series' usual 3D rail shooter gameplay in favor of an action adventure styled title. According to Star Fox series creator Takaya Imamura, Shigeru Miyamoto had requested prior to development that he wanted to see "a Star Fox game that was cooler and slicker than ever before". The game's development, unusually, began with its multiplayer battle mode, as Imamura desired to improve upon the battle mode that was present in Star Fox 64, which was described as being a last-minute bonus. Namco handed Nintendo a handful of planning documents titled "Vehicle-Swapping War Action game", and it was decided that this concept, of being able to change freely between vehicles such as the Arwings and Landmasters, would be the starting point for Assault's development.

Star Fox: Assault received "mixed or average" reviews, according to video game review aggregator platform Metacritic. GameRankings gave the game an average score of 71%. Some complaints were aimed at the control scheme during on-foot portions; IGN worded the complaint as "ground missions suffering from sloppy control". GameSpot noted that the multiplayer portion of the game has little lasting value, an annoyance that IGN felt as well.

IGN went on to say the design was too simplistic. However, IGN noted that being able to switch between the Arwing and Landmaster at will was a "welcome addition". In Electronic Gaming Monthly, two of the reviewers gave it an 8 out of 10. Play magazine gave the game 8 out of 10.