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Starlink: Battle for Atlas

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    Starlink: Battle for Atlas

    I actually purchased a Starter pack for this one in the Black Friday sales but after further reductions on the physical ship, weapon and pilot packs decided to go for a complete collection.

    What appealed to me was the Stafox link and the fact some people had called it the best Starfox game in years...which is probably accurate. However as I don't have a Switch and the Xbox starter kit was cheap I doubled up - although this also means you have a complete collection of all the ships and weapon toys (note the Zenith ship is included with the Arwing on the Switch version but as a digital item only).

    I've played the game for 2 hours or so. But have been through the first bits and off the first planet into space. I do need to invest more time with this, but there is a lot on my backlog currently.

    The physical bit including the toys

    Based off playing with the starter stuff and Scramble Ship and weapon (from Argos) - which was the only extra pack I had at the time.
    • OK although not great. The figures have some detailed paint application for their smallish size (just under 2 -inches tall) but aren't as polished as something like the Amiibo figures.
    • The Weapons are probably the weakest link - mostly chunky with a lack of detail in relation to the ships and usually just one paint colour in addition to the plastic. I think this is intentional as they are probably the bit that will be swapped out most.
    • The ships are the best part. Some more so than others. I really like the heavier ships in particular the Nadir ship. It has weathering on the paint, a skull on the back and teeth with fangs at the front. A real mis-mash of parts. Although there are 8 ships overall the two exclusives (to Argos and Smyths Toys) are just repaints with different wing parts from the other ships. The ships are hollow though to allow room for the figures to be inserted below.


    Apparently you don't need to buy anything other than a starter pack and I believe this. Although the additional ships, pilot and weapons do add more special abilities or options etc.

    The starter ship has a light on its tail (and I think most do). I did note the fire weapon with Scramble (the Argos exclusive ship) also lights up at the back.

    The mount you attach to the Xbox Box one controller is an irritation. Apart from the pad feeling silly with a great big ship hanging off it, I find the right analog stick can hit it. This might be less of an issue with the Switch or PS4 mount. However I was able to have two controllers switched on and use the controller without the mount on and still able to play the game. The PS4 version seems to use a USB lead and therefore might be able to have near you rather than on the controller.

    You can't mix digital and physical ships. As soon as the mount is on it expects things to be plugged into it. That said you get everything in the starter pack as digital versions. The game remembered Scramble and it's included weapon and apparently does so for 7 days. So you can plug everything in and then hammer the game without having to use the mount.

    The game

    As noted everywhere - it is very reminiscent of No Mans Sky graphically and in the way it plays. Strong deja vu. It does have a story, characters and quests tho. That said this is obviously a different type of game although it just as seamless being able to lift off planets into space etc.

    To me it feels like a third-person shooter where you just happen to be in a vehicle. Combat is quite good fun and there are collecting elements along with materials to gather as well. I’ve encountered smaller enemies as well as mini-boss.

    Loot wise it seems to be all about mods as you never find any ships, pilots or weapons. Mods can be used on the weapons and ships to boost or buff stats on them.

    Space combat didn’t feel great to me. Ships can ‘wizz’ about too much and therefore you just need missiles to finish to auto cannon stuff. The game so far has felt better when it’s been grounded. I sense that even though there are quests everything is going to get repetitive very quickly. Everything is quite simple rather than an in-depth game - although that's probably as much about it's target audience. It’s has that expand the map and collectathon element to it. It is fun though and certainly at the current prices for the starter pack a bit of a bargain.

    Now I’ve got all the ships and that I do need to sit down with this one properly.
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    #2
    We've got enough to play it 2-player co-op for the Switch over the weekend, so we'll try it.

    We got the base kit and the red ship pack. I then hunted around for the second dock for player-2, but in the end they were £17 and the base pack was only £20, so I just bought it.

    On reflection that means I have a spare physical copy of the game; I may stick that in trading.

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      #3
      What a flop this has turned out to be, even on the Switch with Starfox cynically tied into it.

      Nintendo should now just hurry up and get to porting a higher-res version of Starfox Zero to Switch (minus the utterly craptacular motion-controls that nobody ever wanted or asked for in the first place, of course).
      Last edited by Nu-Eclipse; 04-01-2019, 21:56.

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        #4
        A SF0 port will never happen. A new game is more likely, but even that is very far in the future. It'll happen in between a new F-Zero and the translation of the entire Mother trilogy.

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          #5
          Originally posted by briareos_kerensky View Post
          A SF0 port will never happen.
          You absolutely sure about that? At worst, Starfox Zero pretty much fits the failed-on-Wii U-so-ideal-for-a-Switch-revival criteria just like many other ports that have come before it.

          At best, it would get a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate-style makeover. There's literally no downside to this.

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            #6
            Originally posted by briareos_kerensky View Post
            It'll happen in between a new F-Zero and the translation of the entire Mother trilogy.
            I honestly don't think that anybody wants a return for F-Zero on this forum more than I do. But even I have now resigned myself to the fact that it is one Nintendo franchise that definitely isn't coming back, especially when Nintendo ignored its 25th anniversary back in 2015.

            Starfox Zero for Switch will happen before either F-Zero or Mother trilogy do - bet that.

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              #7
              Originally posted by Asura View Post
              We've got enough to play it 2-player co-op for the Switch over the weekend, so we'll try it.

              We got the base kit and the red ship pack. I then hunted around for the second dock for player-2, but in the end they were £17 and the base pack was only £20, so I just bought it.

              On reflection that means I have a spare physical copy of the game; I may stick that in trading.
              I was thinking about getting a second mount, and atm basically the starter pack is the cheapest way to get one. I imagine they didn't produce anywhere near as many spare mounts.

              Originally posted by Nu-Eclipse View Post
              What a flop this has turned out to be, even on the Switch with Starfox cynically tied into it.
              Tbh I like the tie-up here. I think the Arwing being worked into this as a toy, playable character and missions actually works well. The game might be a commercially unsuccessful but I certainly don't think it's a critical miss: (OpenCritic - 76 - Strong). What I have played of it so far is a fun game.

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by Nu-Eclipse View Post
                You absolutely sure about that? At worst, Starfox Zero pretty much fits the failed-on-Wii U-so-ideal-for-a-Switch-revival criteria just like many other ports that have come before it.
                At best, it would get a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate-style makeover. There's literally no downside to this.
                My reasoning behind this is that SF0 hasn't sold well, while other WiiU-Switch remakes/ports have been of games that were surefire successes. SF0 also made heavy use of gyro and gamepad, so they'll need to restructure those parts to port it on the Switch...although I'd love to see people violently flaying around their consoles in public to play SF0

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                  #9
                  Originally posted by briareos_kerensky View Post
                  A SF0 port will never happen.
                  I might've agreed with you, but these days it's weird. After Guardian Heroes showed up on Xbox 360 I started to think we're reaching a point where practically anything could show up anywhere. These days I honestly wouldn't be surprised if we saw a Halo title on PS4 or a re-release of OutRun 2.

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                    #10
                    Originally posted by briareos_kerensky View Post
                    My reasoning behind this is that SF0 hasn't sold well, while other WiiU-Switch remakes/ports have been of games that were surefire successes. SF0 also made heavy use of gyro and gamepad, so they'll need to restructure those parts to port it on the Switch
                    Thing is, I don't think any of what you mention would be impossible for Nintendo to re-work for a Switch port of Starfox Zero. I don't even think that it would take that long to do, tbh.

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                      #11
                      Originally posted by Nu-Eclipse View Post
                      Thing is, I don't think any of what you mention would be impossible for Nintendo to re-work for a Switch port of Starfox Zero. I don't even think that it would take that long to do, tbh.
                      This is going a bit out of hand for this thread, but...I'm sure it's not impossible, but Nintendo would have to put some coders, graphic designers, testers, and all the money involved into a port for something that might not get the expenses back.

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                        #12
                        Originally posted by briareos_kerensky View Post
                        This is going a bit out of hand for this thread, but...I'm sure it's not impossible, but Nintendo would have to put some coders, graphic designers, testers, and all the money involved into a port for something that might not get the expenses back.
                        It's not that out of hand - Starfox are in the Switch version of Starlink, after all!

                        Yes, any general videogaming development, port or not, is going to take time and money. The amount of time and money that this would take is debatable imo - it's not like the documentation and resources on how Zero was originally built wouldn't be there to begin with, surely?

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                          #13
                          Without being rude though, it is. A first play thread should be for those interested in playing this Ubisoft game or relaying their experiences with the game.

                          A lot of this thread has descended into a different conversation with people's opinions of this game (having not played the game), the future of Starfox or indeed whether Nintendo should port Starfox Zero to Switch. Arguably new thread topics.

                          Last edited by Digfox; 05-01-2019, 13:26.

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                            #14
                            The whole point of Starlink is the toys and their modularity. I didn't think it really stands up very well as a game in its own right because of the lack of content, activities, and story (here's hoping the ongoing updates can beef it up a bit like NMS). In this regard, I really don't consider the Switch starter pack to be sufficient to properly enjoy the game. Why they give you two pilots but only two guns is beyond me. The only reason to Switch out the pilots is to get their abilities, which is not enough of an incentive. All of the pilots should have had their own unique missions and story, like Starfox. The fact that they all chip in with dialogue regardless of whether you own them makes swapping them out pointless. I'd have been inclined to buy more characters to hear them say more than some generic one-liners in combat, like Levi (sue me, I liked him, he was like Tom Holland as Spider-Man).

                            Since you can't equip digital guns to a physical ship, the only way you're going to be doing any exciting on-the-fly weapon swapping (the point of the game) is if you never use the toy so you can use the third, digital weapon it came with. The starter pack should come with a gravity gun, not Mason.

                            I had fun with the game but I am bitter because NONE of the weapon packs were available in my country until months later, and of course there's no reason to buy them now because there's nothing left to do in the game! I really have my fingers crossed that E3 will bring us toys of Samus and her ship and new campaign DLC for her. The disappointing sales performance really puts that in doubt though. I would have assumed it was a dead cert otherwise...

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by noobish hat View Post
                              The whole point of Starlink is the toys and their modularity. I didn't think it really stands up very well as a game in its own right because of the lack of content, activities, and story (here's hoping the ongoing updates can beef it up a bit like NMS). In this regard, I really don't consider the Switch starter pack to be sufficient to properly enjoy the game. Why they give you two pilots but only two guns is beyond me.
                              Originally posted by noobish hat View Post
                              The starter pack should come with a gravity gun, not Mason.
                              Agreed that the Switch starter pack would be better without Mason and including a weapon instead. You don't get the physical Shredder Ship either so there is no point to the Mason figure.

                              As an aside I do think Ubisoft do deserve credit for putting out digital-only versions of the packs from day-one. There is nothing stopping you buying a starter pack and then picking up the other packs as digital. But I think they implemented it badly not allowing you to mix the two types of physical and digital 'add-ons'.

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