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bsnowotter
05-05-13 09:59 PM
05-05-13 09:59 PM
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Eirinn
05-05-13 10:33 PM
05-05-13 10:33 PM
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Phenomenal 3d sci-fi shooter
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05-05-13 09:59 PM
bsnowotter is Offline
| ID: 793283 | 1477 Words
bsnowotter is Offline
| ID: 793283 | 1477 Words
bsnowotter
Level: 26
POSTS: 60/132
POST EXP: 47489
LVL EXP: 101856
CP: 4699.6
VIZ: 59424
POSTS: 60/132
POST EXP: 47489
LVL EXP: 101856
CP: 4699.6
VIZ: 59424
Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0
Star Fox is an amazing game. The first game to use the Super Nintendo's FX chip, this game used fully-3d graphics to great effect and created one of the most thrilling space shooters ever. Star Fox tells the story of Fox McCloud and his likable team of pilots (each a different animal) who defend the Lylat System from Andross, the evil monkey man bent on destruction. Each level consists of an "attack run" sort of like the trench run of Star Wars except the player in Star Fox is bound in by invisible walls mostly. The action is fast, thrilling, and requiring brains in addition to quick reflexes. These levels are shown from 2 different behind-the-ship perspectives the player can select with the select button as well as a 1st-person HUD-like perspective during the outer-space levels (thankfully the screen does not turn upside-down during barrel rolls). During the levels apart from dodging obstacles and enemy fire the player can blast everything that moves, and they can also help out his fellow pilots when they are being chased by bad guys or admire them when they blast away at bad guys. During these encounters they chime in over the radio, each with their own personality. Falco the falcon guy says "mind your own business" after you destroy the "bogey on his six" and if you blast bad guys that Slippy or Peppy are chasing they complain "those were mine!" or something. Perhaps the Nintendo programmer dudes explained their inspiration in interviews but based on the game experience it sometimes seems like they wished Top Gun was performed by people in animal suits. At the end of each level is a dramatic boss fight, usually against a humongous, menacing piece of monkey military hardware. These bosses follow complex patterns and are often quite difficulty and like everything else in Star Fox are contenders visually for most crazy advanced baddies of the 16-bit era. In a particularly inventive boss fight Fox must enter a space station, flying into the core while dodging various obstacles and baddies on the way, through a twisty corridor (a portion that is thankfully computer-controlled) and then must do battle with the station's core. Word can't do justice to how cool it is to have the genius peeps at nintendo crank this out of 16-bit hardware. At the outset the player is given a choice of 3 paths. This serves as a difficulty setting of sorts since each path is labeled a different difficulty setting (General Pepper, who bosses around the Star Fox team or at least begs for help says that choosing the hard path is a good way to take Andross by surprise). The different paths also add to the depth of the game, giving a strong incentive to beat the game not once more after completion but twice to see all the different areas. This also negates the need for a password or save state system as each path does not take so long to complete. Players can pick up health boosts by flying through rings, one ups, if their wing or wings get busted they can get wing-repair items, these items will function as dual shot and dual powerful shot if Fox has both his wings. There are checkpoint rings that allow a player to replay from the checkpoint if their ship is shot down and there are nova bombs, powerful weapons that harm or bust everything on the screen. Star Fox has been described as a "rail shooter", which may be technically accurate though it is important not to miss the freedom of movement given the player. Not only can you move your ship up and down and side to side, you can bank for faster turns, barrel roll to shake off baddies and deflect projectiles and you can use a speed boost or brake. This is a much greater freedom of movement than most rail shooters I can think of, particularly first-person ones. Graphics: 10 Amazing for the super nes. It's tempting to compare the graphics on display to those on the playstation or n64 because they are so out of the league of anything else on the super nes or genesis. Sound: 9 Many great tunes, including a great track to level 1 that sets the mood for the action to come. The variety of good music throughout the game is staggering and the tunes are cleverly composed to add excitement and drama to already tense situations, such as the fast snare drums as the Star Fox team prepares to fly through (literally) Andross's space armada or the sinister, foreboding music as Fox prepares for the final confrontation on Planet Venom. Addictiveness/Difficulty/Depth 9/8/7 The action in Star Fox is so finely-tuned difficulty-wise, the game could be a lot more unfair and people would still come back for more punishment. However, there are some thankful additions that keep frustrations to a minimum. As the scores are tallied at the end of the level, often continues are awarded allowing Fox to replay the game with a full stock of lives from the last area he reached. These continues are very attainable, it is very often doable to get a 100% rating and your first continue awarded at the end of the game's first area. As there are very few "cheap hits" or unavoidable deaths, each play through teaches valuable lessons to the player which furthers the addictive quality of the action. That easier levels are grouped in an easy path allowing players to beat the game without ever flying the most-difficult missions further adds to the addictiveness of the game, allowing players to learn to love the adventure at the difficulty they choose and not forcing the most punishing levels down the throats of novices, yet enticing them back for more even after the credits roll. While these alternate routes add to the depth of the game, I feel more could have been done to add to the depth. There is a secret black hole path that warps Fox from route 1 to others, but apart from that I can think of very few hidden "easter eggs", hidden paths, there are zero RPG elements or level progression, no ship upgrades to buy, no multi-player mode or coop options (no independent player-2 turret)... While it transcended the 16-bit era graphically, Star Fox was still somewhat a product of its time in the depth department. Apart from the multiple paths, Star Fox laid it all out there so once you beat all 3 paths, you've pretty much seen all the game has to offer. Hence the 7. Story: 6 Star Fox has good story potential with the talking animals, and it is admirable how well-woven into the gameplay the unfolding story is, apart from some helpful tips from General Peppy between the missions (which serves more as a built-in bathroom break or freebie hint system than a story-telling device), all the plot is told by in-game radio transmissions... Although the plot of Star Fox smacks of missed opportunity. Andross has a menacing voice sound effect over the radio.. but you hear it once. The game, perhaps wisely, has such a focus on non-stop action that there is very little plot or quiet moments to break it all up. It is a tad unfortunate that this Star Fox has such a small fraction of plays as its N64 sequel on the Vizzed number-of-plays counter. In many ways, Star Fox 64 suffers from Mega-Man-4+ itis in that it is packed with features which in many cases detract from rather than add to the core gameplay. For instance, the charge beam and the lock-on which incentivizes killing multiple enemies with one can't miss laser-ball explosion in my opinion undermines the whole point of the game--is Fox trying to save the system by shooting everything that moves in the most speedy way possibly or win "style-points" from the judges by taking out ships that attack in idiotic formations that are clearly contrived to make them easier to take down with the charge beam? Wouldn't bad guys break formation once they discovered that Fox has a stupid weapon that can take out their whole formation in a single shot? Don't get me started on the dumb voice acting, it's great for lulz but if it was intended seriously it is an epic fail. "Sorry to jet but I'm in a hurry!" *facepalm* Also all-range mode is probably something people wished for in Star Fox 1 but it's a be-careful-what-you-wish-for situation as all range mode often breaks the tension of boss fights and leads to unfocused dog-chasing-its-own-tail stalemates. The multiplayer mode and the tank and submarine in Star Fox 64 are awesome though. Star Fox provides a strong argument to be made that sometimes Nintendo does it better than anyone else out there. Enjoy this great game on Vizzed! Star Fox tells the story of Fox McCloud and his likable team of pilots (each a different animal) who defend the Lylat System from Andross, the evil monkey man bent on destruction. Each level consists of an "attack run" sort of like the trench run of Star Wars except the player in Star Fox is bound in by invisible walls mostly. The action is fast, thrilling, and requiring brains in addition to quick reflexes. These levels are shown from 2 different behind-the-ship perspectives the player can select with the select button as well as a 1st-person HUD-like perspective during the outer-space levels (thankfully the screen does not turn upside-down during barrel rolls). During the levels apart from dodging obstacles and enemy fire the player can blast everything that moves, and they can also help out his fellow pilots when they are being chased by bad guys or admire them when they blast away at bad guys. During these encounters they chime in over the radio, each with their own personality. Falco the falcon guy says "mind your own business" after you destroy the "bogey on his six" and if you blast bad guys that Slippy or Peppy are chasing they complain "those were mine!" or something. Perhaps the Nintendo programmer dudes explained their inspiration in interviews but based on the game experience it sometimes seems like they wished Top Gun was performed by people in animal suits. At the end of each level is a dramatic boss fight, usually against a humongous, menacing piece of monkey military hardware. These bosses follow complex patterns and are often quite difficulty and like everything else in Star Fox are contenders visually for most crazy advanced baddies of the 16-bit era. In a particularly inventive boss fight Fox must enter a space station, flying into the core while dodging various obstacles and baddies on the way, through a twisty corridor (a portion that is thankfully computer-controlled) and then must do battle with the station's core. Word can't do justice to how cool it is to have the genius peeps at nintendo crank this out of 16-bit hardware. At the outset the player is given a choice of 3 paths. This serves as a difficulty setting of sorts since each path is labeled a different difficulty setting (General Pepper, who bosses around the Star Fox team or at least begs for help says that choosing the hard path is a good way to take Andross by surprise). The different paths also add to the depth of the game, giving a strong incentive to beat the game not once more after completion but twice to see all the different areas. This also negates the need for a password or save state system as each path does not take so long to complete. Players can pick up health boosts by flying through rings, one ups, if their wing or wings get busted they can get wing-repair items, these items will function as dual shot and dual powerful shot if Fox has both his wings. There are checkpoint rings that allow a player to replay from the checkpoint if their ship is shot down and there are nova bombs, powerful weapons that harm or bust everything on the screen. Star Fox has been described as a "rail shooter", which may be technically accurate though it is important not to miss the freedom of movement given the player. Not only can you move your ship up and down and side to side, you can bank for faster turns, barrel roll to shake off baddies and deflect projectiles and you can use a speed boost or brake. This is a much greater freedom of movement than most rail shooters I can think of, particularly first-person ones. Graphics: 10 Amazing for the super nes. It's tempting to compare the graphics on display to those on the playstation or n64 because they are so out of the league of anything else on the super nes or genesis. Sound: 9 Many great tunes, including a great track to level 1 that sets the mood for the action to come. The variety of good music throughout the game is staggering and the tunes are cleverly composed to add excitement and drama to already tense situations, such as the fast snare drums as the Star Fox team prepares to fly through (literally) Andross's space armada or the sinister, foreboding music as Fox prepares for the final confrontation on Planet Venom. Addictiveness/Difficulty/Depth 9/8/7 The action in Star Fox is so finely-tuned difficulty-wise, the game could be a lot more unfair and people would still come back for more punishment. However, there are some thankful additions that keep frustrations to a minimum. As the scores are tallied at the end of the level, often continues are awarded allowing Fox to replay the game with a full stock of lives from the last area he reached. These continues are very attainable, it is very often doable to get a 100% rating and your first continue awarded at the end of the game's first area. As there are very few "cheap hits" or unavoidable deaths, each play through teaches valuable lessons to the player which furthers the addictive quality of the action. That easier levels are grouped in an easy path allowing players to beat the game without ever flying the most-difficult missions further adds to the addictiveness of the game, allowing players to learn to love the adventure at the difficulty they choose and not forcing the most punishing levels down the throats of novices, yet enticing them back for more even after the credits roll. While these alternate routes add to the depth of the game, I feel more could have been done to add to the depth. There is a secret black hole path that warps Fox from route 1 to others, but apart from that I can think of very few hidden "easter eggs", hidden paths, there are zero RPG elements or level progression, no ship upgrades to buy, no multi-player mode or coop options (no independent player-2 turret)... While it transcended the 16-bit era graphically, Star Fox was still somewhat a product of its time in the depth department. Apart from the multiple paths, Star Fox laid it all out there so once you beat all 3 paths, you've pretty much seen all the game has to offer. Hence the 7. Story: 6 Star Fox has good story potential with the talking animals, and it is admirable how well-woven into the gameplay the unfolding story is, apart from some helpful tips from General Peppy between the missions (which serves more as a built-in bathroom break or freebie hint system than a story-telling device), all the plot is told by in-game radio transmissions... Although the plot of Star Fox smacks of missed opportunity. Andross has a menacing voice sound effect over the radio.. but you hear it once. The game, perhaps wisely, has such a focus on non-stop action that there is very little plot or quiet moments to break it all up. It is a tad unfortunate that this Star Fox has such a small fraction of plays as its N64 sequel on the Vizzed number-of-plays counter. In many ways, Star Fox 64 suffers from Mega-Man-4+ itis in that it is packed with features which in many cases detract from rather than add to the core gameplay. For instance, the charge beam and the lock-on which incentivizes killing multiple enemies with one can't miss laser-ball explosion in my opinion undermines the whole point of the game--is Fox trying to save the system by shooting everything that moves in the most speedy way possibly or win "style-points" from the judges by taking out ships that attack in idiotic formations that are clearly contrived to make them easier to take down with the charge beam? Wouldn't bad guys break formation once they discovered that Fox has a stupid weapon that can take out their whole formation in a single shot? Don't get me started on the dumb voice acting, it's great for lulz but if it was intended seriously it is an epic fail. "Sorry to jet but I'm in a hurry!" *facepalm* Also all-range mode is probably something people wished for in Star Fox 1 but it's a be-careful-what-you-wish-for situation as all range mode often breaks the tension of boss fights and leads to unfocused dog-chasing-its-own-tail stalemates. The multiplayer mode and the tank and submarine in Star Fox 64 are awesome though. Star Fox provides a strong argument to be made that sometimes Nintendo does it better than anyone else out there. Enjoy this great game on Vizzed! |
Member
Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 12-21-11
Last Post: 2247 days
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| Gaming Philosophe |
Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 12-21-11
Last Post: 2247 days
Last Active: 616 days
(edited by bsnowotter on 05-05-13 10:06 PM)
05-05-13 10:33 PM
Eirinn is Offline
| ID: 793290 | 67 Words
| ID: 793290 | 67 Words
Eirinn
Level: 154
POSTS: 1609/7900
POST EXP: 1300417
LVL EXP: 46050568
CP: 69368.0
VIZ: 1836533
POSTS: 1609/7900
POST EXP: 1300417
LVL EXP: 46050568
CP: 69368.0
VIZ: 1836533
Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0
Very good review here.  It gave us a good idea of what the game is like, it compared the game to it's peers, and so many other great things. Very nice. The only problem is that you trailed off a little bit at the end when you got a little side tracked with the sequel. Still, that can't ruin a review this good. Keep it up! It gave us a good idea of what the game is like, it compared the game to it's peers, and so many other great things. Very nice. The only problem is that you trailed off a little bit at the end when you got a little side tracked with the sequel. Still, that can't ruin a review this good. Keep it up! |
Vizzed Elite
Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 07-18-12
Last Post: 2062 days
Last Active: 2062 days
| Eirinn |
Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 07-18-12
Last Post: 2062 days
Last Active: 2062 days
