yeah not hard to tell this was originally a completely different game and the end result we got is a horribly stripped-down and retooled version of what said original game would've been

i could go on for ages about SFA's history and its orginal Dinosaur Planet incarnation, but SFA by itself is an Okay zelda-like. yes, the combat is repetitive and terrible. yes, the arwing sections were obviously just there to attempt to make the game more "Star Fox"-y. yes, the pacing shits the bed hard in the latter half of the game. and yes, the Test Of Fear is awful and the final boss was a huge letdown.

but the first half of the game is fairly solid, and the locales and visuals are some of the best of early gamecube.

am i biased? yeah i'd probably blame that on researching dinosaur planet for years and slowly growing a fondness for this weird child of the star fox franchise. but SFA's an Okay game even with its flaws. you're still better off playing an actual zelda game, though.