January celebrates two notable dates in science-fiction history, “National Science Fiction Day” on January 2 and Arthur C. Clarke’s HAL 9000’s birthday on January 12. Accordingly, I’m dedicating January to celebrating sci-fi in an event I call “Sci-Fanuary”.
Released: 25 October 2021
Originally Released: 27 April 1997
Developer: Nintendo EAD
Also Available For: iQue Player, Nintendo 64, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo Wii U (Original); Nintendo 3DS (Remake)
The Background:
In their effort to break into the 16-bit market, Nintendo forged a close relationship with Argonaut Software, leading to the ground-breaking creation of the “Super FX” chip and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System’s (SNES) ability to process 3D graphics. Nintendo and Argonaut drew inspiration from the originalStar Warstrilogy (Various, 1977 to 1983) to showcase the chip with arcade shooter Star Fox (1993). However, despite becoming the fastest-selling videogame in North America and garnering rave reviews, a sequel was unceremoniously cancelled so Nintendo could focus on the more powerful Nintendo 64. Although gamers had to wait over twenty years for Star Fox2 to be released, lead producer and series creator Shigeru Miyamoto spearheaded a Nintendo 64 entry that began as a port of the original game as the developers struggled to adapt to the Nintendo 64’s hardware. After six months of testing, Nintendo higher-ups were apparently unenthusiastic, though it took only a ten second demonstration at Shoshinkai 1995 for the project to be approved. Artist Takaya Imamura was heavily involved in many aspects of the game, from the art direction to gameplay mechanics, while Miyamoto sought to both build upon the existing mechanics and recycle some of the work that had gone into the cancelled Star Fox 2, specifically the multiplayer mode and branching paths. The developers created new craft for the Star Fox team to utilise (though on-foot sections were scrapped due to time constraints), and the game was the first in the Nintendo 64 library to use the Rumble Pak peripheral. Retitled to Lylat Wars in Europe, Star Fox 64 released to critical acclaim. The multiplayer and gameplay were highly praised, and it even initially outsold Super Mario 64 (Nintendo EAD, 1996). Despite this, it would be another five years before there was another game in the franchise, though it did receive an equally successful 3DS remake in 2011 alongside numerous ports, and it’s highly regarded as one of the best in the series.
The Plot:
Five years after being exiled for biological warfare, the mad scientist Andross attacks the Lylat system, causing General Pepper to hire the Star Fox team – Fox McCloud, Falco Lombardi, Slippy Toad, and Peppy Hare – to defend the worlds within.
Gameplay and Power-Ups:
Star Fox 64 is an arcade-style, space-based shooter that largely takes place on-rails and with you back in control of an Arwing space craft. In many respects, the game is a remake of the original Star Fox, taking few elements from the cancelled Star Fox 2. You’re back controlling Fox alone with three AI-controlled wingmen helping you out, and there are no real-time strategy elements to think about (though the path you take and the missions you tackle will change depending on how you play). If you’re new to the game, you can get to grips with the controls in the “Training” mode, or jump right into the main story and take on seven stages (or “Missions”) to confront Andross’s forces. Players begin with two lives and a basic shield meter, which depletes as you take damage and can be refilled with silver rings, extended with gold rings, and replenished by passing through checkpoints. You blast enemy ships with A, holding the button to charge a homing shot that targets the nearest enemy, or destroy all onscreen enemies with one of your limited supply of Nova bombs with B. Y boosts you ahead, which is great for rushing past hazards, chasing down enemies, or outrunning ships on your tail. X brakes, which is also great for avoiding hazards and having pursuing craft fly past you, though this and the boost are tied to a small, replenishing meter to keep you from abusing their functionality. ZL and R allow you to bank, aiding in strafing and quickly sweeping enemy swarms. Double tapping either performs a “barrel roll” to evade and deflect incoming fire, and the left and right sicks execute a U-turn (though I struggled with this nine times out of ten).
The right stick also switches to a cockpit view, if that’s your preference, though I was very impressed with how the game handled from the standard third-person viewpoint, especially compared to the last two games. The onscreen aiming reticule helps, for sure, as do the tighter, far more responsive controls that makes flying a breeze. Things get a little trickier when you enter “All-Range Mode”, where you’re confined to a set arena, generally to battle a boss or attack a central target. I found it a bit difficult to get my bearings in these situations, generally crashing into objects and being forced back into the fight by an invisible border, which my wingmen were quick to comment on. Yor wingmen offer advice encouragement, criticism, and require your help constantly. Generally, they’re pretty useful and will attack targets, but you can’t command them and they (Slippy, usually) are always getting into trouble or flying into your laser fire. It pays to keep them healthy, however; if they take too much damage and leave, you’ll lose out on Slippy’s analysis of bosses and the accompanying health meter, Peppy’s gameplay advice, and Falco’s alternative paths. Depending on which route you take, you’ll also be aided by Bill Grey or Katt Monroe, and ROB 64 will occasionally provide helpful pick-ups, as indicated by an onscreen notification to flick the right stick, or provide cover fire in the Great Fox. Players also take to the ground in the Landmaster tank and the sea in the Blue Marine, which have all the same capabilities as the Arwing except the Landmaster can’t fly (it can briefly hover, though I could never remember which shoulder buttons to press to do this) and the Blue Marine fires homing torpedoes. While there’s only one underwater mission, Landmaster missions are a nice change of pace but aiming can be a little trickier, something made even more troublesome by your Arwing-based wingmen still needing your help despite having the high ground. If you take too many hits, your ship will sustain heavy damage to its wings, which can be repaired with the Spare Wing pick-up. Your lasers can also be powered-up, and you’ll gain 1-Ups either by finding them or finishing a mission with a high kill count.
Your performance is graded at the end of every mission; your remaining wingmen and your health is tallied against your kill count, which increases your chances for a 1-Up. It’s advisable to avoid being too trigger happy as you’ll rob yourself of your backup while they go in for repairs, and General Pepper is billed for property damage at the game’s end. Generally, missions simply involve flying through a set course, defeating enemies, dodging hazards, and taking out a boss. However, even linear missions can hide secret paths; downing a set number of enemies, flying through certain alcoves, defeating rival team Star Wolf, and shooting switches can lead to alternate paths both in the mission and on the main map. The path you take dictates the game’s difficulty (with the top path being the hardest), though you can opt to change your path if you wish. Some missions task you with completing an objective in a time limit; others have you destroying shield generators, rushing through narrow corridors, or blasting through asteroid belts. When on Solar, your shield constantly drains from the intense heat; on Titania, you’ll bomb across the sand avoiding collapsing ruins in search of Slippy. Katina sees you defending a pyramid base from a swarm of enemy fighters alongside Bill, and Macbeth has you chase after a train, blasting boulders and defensive towers. Warp gates appear sporadically, allowing you to skip ahead, and you’ll face battleships, space stations, and swarming forces as you approach Venom, Andross’s home base. Walls, girders, fire plumes, space debris, and turrets will test your reaction times, and you’ll occasionally have to pick different paths and make tight turns as you race towards (and away from) Andross.
Presentation:
I’ve always said one of the main things holding back Star Fox was the awful polygonal graphics. They might’ve been impressive at the time, but I never liked them and they really ruined my experience in a lot of ways. Thankfully, that’s not an issue here with the superior power of the Nintendo 64. The entire game is brought to life through polygons (with the exception of some background elements and such, I’m sure), with the correct textures and rendering making for a smooth and far more pleasant experience. The game’s story and character interaction are all fully voiced (a rarity even at the end of the Nintendo 64’s lifecycle let alone the start), and the cast all have distinctive personalities: Peppy is wise and seasoned, Slippy a pain in the ass, and Falco a stubborn jerk. Although most cutscenes relegate the crew to amusing flapping heads, each mission gets an intro and outro, generally showing the team checking in or setting the stage for the current conflict. The game’s sound effects and music are also top-notch, with stirring military themes, adventurous tunes, and ominous overtures adding to the increased stakes as stages get progressively difficult. Some interesting touches are included here and there, such as planets looming into view when you’re blasting through space, enemy tanks toppling columns, and the very architecture itself coming to life around you. As you’d expect from the Nintendo 64, there’s some pop-up and fog effects here, but it’s generally masked or incorporated into a level’s structure, or the action ramps up to compensate.
There’s quite a bit of variety to the mission locations in Star Fox 64; you view your current path and its branches from a rotatable space map, encouraging experimentation to visit new worlds, with their objectives tweaked depending on your path. Things start off familiarly enough with the distinctly Earth-like Corneria, with its river-filled mountains and futuristic main city. Weather effects and seasons taint the remaining planets in the Lylat system: Fortuna is the icy home to one of Andross’s outer bases, Solar is quite literally a raging star, Titania is a desert world filled with ruins and beset by a raging sandstorm, and Aquas takes place in the ocean depths. When partaking in space missions, you’ll blast towards stars, constellations, and planets taking on vaguely Star Wars-like battleships, debris, asteroids, lumbering craft, and surprise attacks from swarming, Space Invaders-esque (Taito, 1978) ships. Even confined areas like Bolse can have a lot going on with their intricate mechanical textures, endless enemy swarms, and unique objectives. Sure, it’s all a bit quaint these days, with blocky polygons and out-dated graphics, but Star Fox 64 has aged far better than the first game. The on-rails action keeps you moving, lasers and explosions and interesting obstacles are as constant as cries for help and warning notifications, and there’s always something to see, collect, shoot at, or avoid as you blast along. Although I found the stage aggravating and full of hazards, Macbeth was a great example of this as enemy ships fly overhead, the train trundles along firing concussive blasts and dropping boulders, and you’re constantly swerving to avoid obstacles and target everything in sight.
Enemies and Bosses:
If there’s a downside to Star Fox 64, it’s mostly the enemies. Indistinct polygonal crafts of various sizes pop up, fly in, or swarm around each area, blasting at you or charging into you or chasing Slippy and forcing you to rescue her for the hundredth time. They’re easily shot down with your primary weapon but it’s recommended you charge a shot to take out multiple foes at once (and net yourself a power-up and a hit combo in the process). Turrets, mines (both land, sea, and space), towers, and bigger swarms become more frequent as you progress. Snake-like Moras weave throughout the Meteo asteroid field, whole swarms fill the screen with grid-like laser patterns, bee-like fighters dance about firing coloured rings, and winged craft rise from Solar’s burning depths. Some of the more interesting enemies are land-based, such as the Garudas (construction robots who topple buildings and toss girders at you) and the giant, crab-like walkers of Titania. Anime-like Shogun Troopers attack the Corerian fleet in Sector Y, disc-like defence station platforms and large battle cruisers act as both hazards and targets in Area 6, and you’ll be hard-pressed to destroy each section of the seemingly unstoppable train on Macbeth, especially while blasting tanks, towers, and through gates. As versatile as Andross’s forces are, often splitting apart and flying at you as horizontal and vertical hazards, his home world of Venom is rife with buzzing swarms, tight turns, explosive booby traps, and walls that sprout hazards at the command of the stone golem, Golemech.
Each mission culminates in a boss battle, though some missions have more than one depending on how well you play or will add additional phases and challenges (such as a time limit) to bosses. It’s recommended that you keep Slippy alive as that’s the only way you’ll properly gauge your progress against the boss as she brings up their health bar, though pieces of them will break off as you attack. Many are also accompanied by or spawn smaller enemy craft or fire destructible projectiles, which are worth targeting if your shield or bombs are low. Finally, the general strategy against these bosses is to simply avoid their attacks and target their weak spot (often a glowing yellow target), though you will have to adapt to All-Range Mode and partake in some tricky dogfights in some missions. On Corneria, you’ll battle either an Attack Carrier or Granga’s Mech, with the latter being the harder option. The Attack Carrier’s weak spots are small but it’s dead simple to avoid its shots and blast its wings off, while Graga stomps about firing homing missiles and making his mech a hard target to track. When facing the Meteo Crusher, fire when the central metal plate rotates to expose the weak spot but watch for the big Death Star-like laser it fires and its second phase where it flips around to shoot from the front. The giant clam Bacoon awaits on Aquas, the heavily armoured Sarumarine on Zoness, and the crab-like Vulcain on Solar, with this latter swiping its pincers, crating lava tidal waves, spewing fie plumes, and spitting flaming boulders. There’s even a fun Independence Day (Emmerich, 1996) homage when you team up with Bill to attack a gigantic, saucer-like alien mothership on Katina. As mentioned, Macbeth really aggravated me the first time through as the Forever Train was a difficult battle. A winged mech detaches from it and rains spears onto the track, but it’ll also crash into you if you don’t take it out fast enough at the end. However, if you target eight switches dotted alongside the main train track, you can one-shot the boss with a cutscene!
After taking out the security facility on Boise, you’ll infiltrate Andross’s pyramid-like base and chase down Golemech, blasting away his sandstone hide to attack his mechanical innards. You’ll battle the Spyborg in Sector X, which launches its fists at you and fires projectiles from its head. Take too long battling it and it’ll swipe Slippy to Titania, forcing you to rescue her from Goras, which has Slippy hostage in one pincer and fires lasers with the other. Target the limbs first, then switch to the chest and heart to bring it down. To finish Sector Y, you’ll chase down and destroy some super-fast Shogun Troopers and the larger, chrome-plated Shogun who eventually (and conveniently) settles atop an attack carrier and makes itself an easy target. The Gorgon super laser in Area 6 proved quite a challenge; you need to destroy its extendable tentacles and attack craft, then the three energy spheres inside it, all to finally expose its inner core multiple times over to succeed, By far your most persistent foes will be rival team Star Wolf, who you’ll face numerous times. Sometimes you can ignore them in favour of other objectives, but if you engage then you’re in for a tough dog fight. Star Wolf and his team love to come at you from behind and chase down your wingmen, and their ships have the same capabilities as yours, making them formidable foes. I found the battle against them on Venom particularly frustrating due to the enclosed space, them sporting shields to negate your charge shot and bombs, and Andrew Oikonny being a douche and not getting off my ass! No matter which path you take, you’ll end up facing Andross alone with Fox, though this giant disembodied ape head only shows his true form (a giant brain!) on the hardest path. Andross attacks by swiping his hands, firing an electrical blast from his fingertip, and sucking you in to eat you. Target his eyes to briefly stun him, destroy each hand in turn, and drop a bomb in his mouth and you’ll soon encounter his second form, a mechanical devil head that chomps at you. Destroying this is enough for the easy and medium paths, but the final form sees you desperately flying around blasting first Andross’s eyes and then the grey matter on the back of his brain as he teleports about, then desperately following Fox’s father as he leads you to safety.
Additional Features:
As mentioned, there are three paths to choose in Star Fox 64, though you really need to be paying attention in missions to figure out how to tackle the different levels and challenges. Rescuing Falco or ignoring Star Wolf or prioritising kills will put you on different paths and, while you can change to a lower path, you can’t change up to a higher one. You’ll get slightly different endings for each, with Andross only being properly destroyed on the hardest path, though this encourages replaying the game as much as the high score table. As if that wasn’t enough, if you accumulate enough kills and keep your allies alive, you’ll be awarded a medal. Get a medal on every mission to unlock the harder “Expert” mode and really challenge yourself. There’s also a Versus mode where you compete against friends for points, either working towards a set number of kills or against a time limit, which also allows you to play outside of a vehicle. Beyond that, you can mess about with the title screen, search for warp points, unlock artwork by beating Expert mode, and use the Nintendo Switch Online functionality to create save states.
The Summary:
I’ve played Star Fox 64 before; I never had it on the Nintendo 64, but I downloaded it for the Nintendo Wii and I was even tempted to get the 3DS version. What put me off was my dislike of the original Star Fox, a clunky and ugly game that hasn’t aged well at all. This isn’t true of Star Fox 64, which retains the same charm and appeal as it had all those years ago. The technology has finally caught up with the concept here, providing slick, tight, action-orientated space battles that really bring the idea to life. I loved the presentation of the story, the way the vehicles controlled (Landmaster aiming notwithstanding), and the challenge on offer. It’s a bit cheap to not make it more explicit what you have to do to pick each path but the signs are there, guides exist, and it’s fun replaying and experimenting, especially as missions are altered each time. This means some missions that are quite easy can become much more difficult, your approach to Venom and reaching Andross changes, and you get slightly different endings for your troubles. Yes, constantly rescuing Slippy and the others is annoying but the on-rails action is really fun. There’s also a lot happening and everything runs really smoothly. All-Range Mode was a bit tricky for me, and some missions and boss battles (particularly against the powered-up Star Wolf) had me tearing my hair out at times, but this stress was mitigated by the Switch’s save state feature. I would’ve liked to see a free play mode, the ability to play as the other characters, a co-op mode, and a boss rush implemented but that’s all stuff I’d expect to see in a sequel or remake. As is, Star Fox 64 is the first entry in the franchise I really enjoyed playing. It wasn’t a chore to control or look at, the soundtrack is excellent, blowing up enemies was satisfying, the bosses were huge and engaging, and the game finally brought the characters and the action to life in a way I could enjoy.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Great Stuff
Are you a fan ofStar Fox 64? Do you consider it the best of the classic Star Fox titles? Which vehicle and boss was your favourite? Did you ever best every mission and complete every path? What did you think to All-Range Mode and the branching path system? Do you have any memories of playing this with friends back in the day? WhichStar Foxgame is your favourite? Whatever your thoughts onStar Fox 64, please share them below and check out my other sci-fi content across the site!