Fox McCloud is back, but he's left the on-the-rails shoot-'em-up larks of his previous two games behind--this all-new Star Fox adventure sees the super furry animal in a very Zelda-esque bid to save Dinosaur Planet.

Star Fox Adventures is the first, and sadly last, GameCube game from Nintendo stalwarts Rare, who previously created such N64 classics as GoldenEye 007 and Conker's Bad Fur Day. It's their last game for the GameCube because Nintendo have recently sold their shares in the company to Microsoft, which has caused an unholy stink from fans around the world and created even more anticipation for this game.

Although the control system is very similar to The Legend of Zelda's, Star Fox Adventures is no simple clone. It's your job as the mercenary mammal to find all the spellstones that will rejoin the splintered planet and defeat the evil General Scales. This entails much exploring of ancient temples and completing of sub-quests to help everything from Yorkshire-accented woolly mammoths to pterodactyls who've lost their babies.

The game may lack the epic scale and endless invention of Zelda but it has plenty of new ideas of its own, including a fully interactive dinosaur sidekick, some cool shoot-'em-up sections in Fox's spaceship, and lots of ways to upgrade your magical staff. To add some icing to the cake the graphics are absolutely amazing, particularly the super-realistic fur effects.