Star Fox

"Use the Force"

The first Star Fox game I ever played was Rare's sequel on the GameCube and while I didn't think the game was all that bad, it just didn't do much for me. I became more interested with the Star Fox universe after playing Super Smash Bros. Melee and one of my favorite characters to use on that game is still to this day Falco, who is one of the main characters in the Star Fox games. Not to long ago, I discovered that I actually had the original game packed away with my Super Nintendo, so I finally decided to give the game a try and while it definitely isn't the worst game in the world, it definitely isn't the best either.

You are encouraged to choose a control method that best suits your tastes, but no matter which method you choose, the controls are still fairly complicated and annoying. It may seem like common sense, but it really isn't that simple. You will find yourself trying to fire a bomb and then all of a sudden you speed up. Things like that are disappointing and with a simple controller like the Super Nintendo's, control should never be an issue.

A simple training mission attempts to get you accustomed to the clunky controls, but ultimately fails to do so. After that, you are introduced to the game's unique progression. You can choose your own path out of three and the levels differ significantly for each path, but with common themes. I enjoyed this feature as there are is no saving in Star Fox, so when you have to start over you don't have to keep redoing the same first levels over and over.

There are a few different types of levels and I also loved this because it kept the game fresh. One type of level, which is usually represented by a planet, is where you simply fly across the landscape, dodging buildings and blowing up enemies. Some of the obstacles are nearly impossible to avoid and while you can regain the lost health quickly, being hit constantly by falling blue towers gets old quickly.

Levels of that type are played in third-person view, but there are some levels where you play in first-person view. In these levels, all of your basic abilities are retained, but there's usually a large emphasis on shooting things, and most of the time these extra things to shoot at are asteroids. Another type of level is a combination of both first-person and third-person gameplay types with more of an emphasis on dodging obstacles.

Some of these levels go on for pretty long, but thankfully there is a checkpoint system, though it is pretty weird. Sometimes I would be allowed to start right at the beginning of a boss fight and other times the game would send me all the way back to the beginning of the level. Try as I might to find out why the game did this, I came up with no logical explanation.

At the end of each level there is a boss battle that all fall under the same basic strategy: dodge attacks and shoot the red and yellow things. This formula becomes a little repetitive and some of the boss battles can end fairly cheaply when they die and then cloud the screen, meaning an instant death for you and there was not even a way you could have prevented it.

You can perform a barrel roll, shoot lasers, fire a huge bomb, and use a nitrous-like boost to get past obstacles with greater speed. However, there are also power-ups floating around that you can obtain including an ability that allows you to shoot two lasers at once. As you can tell, the power-ups aren't really well thought out and this was a major disappointment for me.

Most of the enemies you encounter will be zipping around space shooting relentlessly at you and other enemies are mammoth robots that prowl on the soil of planets, usually carrying large towers with them. Most of the time, when you kill an enemy, they disintegrate and then a ring appears where they died. You can fly through the ring in order to regain some of your health if you need to.

You are limited to three lives, but you can get extra credits by earning a 100% rating on a level. How do you do this exactly? Well, you have three partner pilots (you play as Fox McCloud), including Falco, who sometimes lend you a hand, but most of the time you are tasked with saving your teammates from enemies that are chasing them. Your partners have their own health bars, too, so they can actually die in the game if they take too much damage. Well, the amount of damage your allies took in the battle is what factors into your rating for any given mission, meaning it's relatively easy to achieve 100%.

The plot is simple but you can't really expect a BioShock worthy story in a game from the fourth generation anyway. Fox McCloud is a mercenary, a pilot, and he has his own team of mercenaries, including Falco Lombardi, Peppy Hare, and Slippy Toad. Collectively, they are known as Star Fox, and they have been called upon by General Pepper, a military leader on the planet Corneria, to defeat the forces of the evil scientist Andross, who may be connected with the disappearance of Fox's father. After that, the game begins and the plot never really blossoms or is fully realized, which is a real shame.

Star Fox was the first 3D Nintendo game and as such is easily the most graphically advanced title released on the Super Nintendo. There are 3D buildings; the Arwing you pilot is in 3D; hell, even some of the attacks are in 3D. At the time, this was revolutionary technology, but the game world really could have used more color to it. All of the structures are bland and all of the enemies are bland as well, compromising of blue and white polygons. Honestly, I feel like the 3D effect could have been defocused in order to provide a more visually appealing adventure, but that's just me.

Random noises are made by your teammates when they are about to tell you something, but thankfully these moments are brief enough so that the noises don't get too annoying. Even though some of the sound effects are a little generic, they get the job done and are sci-fi enough to be passable. Unsurprisingly for a Nintendo game, the soundtrack is brilliant and the music is definitely catchy and never gets old.

Star Fox is a decently challenging game that gets a little on the frustrating side, but if you are somehow really good at it, you can complete one of the game's “paths” in less than an hour easily. What Star Fox has going for it is that there are three different paths each with their own levels, but it wouldn't have hurt for the game to include more levels and a save system. Multiplayer seemed like an obvious inclusion since you're dealing with a team of pilots, but there are some hard to find secrets that should keep you coming back to the game after you've mastered each path.

Star Fox does have its fair share of problems and disappointments, but it is still a solid game and was a technical wonder during its conception. While a lot of the magic has worn off over the years, Star Fox is still a fun experience and shouldn't be missed by any major Nintendo buffs.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/01/08

Game Release: Star Fox (US, March 1993)