Does anybody out there even know of this game by its various alternate titles? Lylat Wars? What even is that? This is Star Fox 64 - always has been, always will be, and like pretty much all Nintendo 64 titles on this 1001 list, I'm playing it for the first time twenty years after its release.
Following the Star Fox team on their mission to stop scientist-turned-psychopath Andross from destroying the Lylat system, we're going to play as Fox McCloud, barrel rolling through enemy fire in his Arwing.
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| Fox McCloud |
That's right, him.
Fun Times
Star Fox 64 aims high in its attempts to be a grand space opera full of character and drama, and while the brunt of the backstory is delivered in a text dump, the introduction to the game does a good job of pulling you in.
You're a pilot on a mission, and you and your wingmates, Falco, Peppy and Slippy, better pull things off, or the entire star system is at risk from the advances of Andross and his band of ne'erdowells intent on ne'erdowelling.
Yeah, I didn't really follow the plot much, opting to just hop in and get things going, and Star Fox 64 doesn't disappoint, throwing you into the fight armed with lasers, bombs and wingmen in distress.
The near constant chatter from the other Star Fox pilots keeps you informed of their status, as well as what they think of your actions, which is a nice touch. It distracts you from the basic backgrounds through which you are flying.
Star Fox 64 is largely a tunnel or corridor shooter, where you are locked into going where the developers want you to go, but you can move your ship around the screen, as well as boost a little into it, and pull back a little from it.
Pull off a couple of loops and rolls and the freedom of movement is certainly enough to enjoy your ride, especially when hunting down enemy craft, blowing them up before they take out your wingmates.
Your primary guns can do the job and can be charged up for a more powerful, homing missile-like shot on a locked-on target, but power-ups will upgrade your weapon a few times in order to increase its power. Bombs can be chucked out and detonated at will, or whenever they hit something, which often deals with whatever you can see on the screen.
In terms of defence, as well as moving out of the way, collecting silver and gold rings will restore and increase your health/shields, ensuring you stay in the fight. Star Fox 64 isn't complicated in these respects, playing like a fully 3D arcade game, complete with level-ending bosses.
After this first mission, you really get an idea where Star Fox 64 wants to take you, as the main map of the Lylat system starts to make sense - branching paths depending on your success in a mission mix up the levels from planet skimming skirmishes to deep space dogfights.
Assuming you actually fly through the check-point, levels don't have to be played again from the start when you die for any reason. Unfortunately, I found that out the hard way, after this Monkey looking fella goaded me into some really stupid piloting.
Take two resulted in success, and the game opened up once more, with the next mission removing the corridor and having you fight it out in the skies above your base.
Frustrations
By this point, I was starting to think I'd seen it all. The feel of flying the Arwing was fine, but irksome things were adding up. The view you have isn't bad, and the targeting markers do a good job of showing you the angle at which you're attacking something, but that something has usually blipped past the edge of the screen or has already exploded by the time you realised what you were doing.
Screen real-estate is tight, and the likes of the character chatter and radar take up a fair chunk of it, and the radar reveals the extent of the fun you might find yourself having in dogfights.
At the end of this mission, the Star Wolf team appeared to face us, pitting like-for-like ships against each other. Ships that aren't made of paper and would take a little shooting to down for good. They flew one way. You flew to follow. They kept flying. You kept flying. You're just going in circles here. Slow down. Do a somersault or something. Now you're flying the wrong way, but don't worry, because the radar says they're coming into view... now!andthey'vegone.
After what felt like somewhat floaty flying against drones, a sluggish, amateurish battle in the skies doesn't give the impression that I'm a great pilot - and clearly, I'm a great pilot.
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| One life lost |
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| Two lives lost |
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| Three lives lost |
Final Word
I had a good time with Star Fox 64. Those frustrations aren't really frustrating at all, are they? They're just grumbles, really. Had to break up the positivity.
But then I did have to take a break from it too. Mostly because I died to a massive solar beast - repeatedly - but also because I kinda got what Star Fox 64 was going for and didn't really see the need to hang around.
I like games like this. If you get the feeling that you're really good at something, even though all you did was move left and hold the shoot button, you feel great. There are plenty of moments where that happens here, but there seem to be plenty more where you're just spamming your weapons because you don't actually have a clue what you're shooting at - you just know it needs to be shot.
I couldn't name a single enemy I faced. Most of them didn't look like ships. There were some robots destroying buildings, I think, but other than that I was just blowing up generic opponent number 1, 2 and 3 until they stopped shooting generic threatening hitbox at me.
Star Fox 64 will probably be played again. The difficulty seems fine but doesn't appear to be overwhelming (he says, dying like a chump). Perhaps I've been given the easy route through the game because of scraping through the earlier levels. I don't know.
As far as air combat games go, this is up there. It introduced the rumble pack to the world, and we've aaaaallll taken advantage of that feature across the decades since. It may not have the star power as other Nintendo franchises or the love and attention from both the developers and the fans, but there's nothing wrong with it, which is good.
Better than good, I suppose, to have made the list. Well worth a play.
Fun Facts
The characters are simply animated not only because it saves on the workload, but because an inspiration for them were flappy mouthed puppet shows like Thunderbirds.
Star Fox 64, developed by Nintendo, first released in 1997.
Version played: Nintendo 64, 1997, via emulation.