This was easily the coolest Nintendo 64 game I had up until I got Banjo-Tooie! Even when I either rented games from Blockbuster or actually bought them from tech stores, I would always come back to this one like anyone would com e back to a great movie, memorizing the lines that the characters spew out ("Do a Barrel Roll!", "Hey Einstein, I'm on your side!", and "Try a somersault!" come to mind), figuring out the different paths to the final level, and even impressing my friends and family with my skills and high scores in the game (but nowhere near the 2000 mark, mind you).

This game is that good. Do yourself a favor and don't quit playing this game until you've earned every single medal in every single planet, on both difficulty levels, until you unlock the ability to play multiplayer matches on foot. This is how I imagine many children back in the late 90s played this game--over and over again, and even when they "beat" the game, they keep on playing!

Overview:
???? You are Fox McCloud, out to avenge your father's death by the hands of the evil Andross, who according to the narrator when you start the main game, "...turned this once striving system into a wasteland of near-extinction." (See what I mean about memorizing lines?) Your father, James McCloud, was part of the Star Fox team, which consisted of himself, Peppy Hare and Pigma Dengar, with the latter betraying the team in the planet of Venom for the sake of Andross.

Commencing Nostalgia Overload:

"Peppy barely escaped Venom returned home to tell Jame's son, Fox, about his father's fate. A few years have passed. Andross has again invaded the Lylat System. General Pepper has turned to a new Star Fox team, headed by Fox McCloud, to save Corneria, and free the Lylat System once again."

Whew! You might not know what I'm talking about if you've never even so much as looked at the game. (I'm looking at you, roommate, who is supposedly a "gamer"). Anyway, the main planet is Corneria, which is like planet Earth in the real world, and General Pepper commands the Star Fox team to destroy Andross's forces, which have quickly mobilized in each of the planets of the Lylat System. There, that wasn't so bad!

Gameplay:
?? In this somewhat simple yet incredibly addicting game, you play an on-rails space shooter in three dimensions. But it doesn't end there, because these levels also have scripted events that will change what level you will play next! Some of those levels are not straight-up on-rails, either, and those levels would make you go on "All-Range Mode" where you have more freedom where to move, but you have a more mission-based structures to complete. Your success or failure in those also determine which level you will play next!

This design/mechanic is so interesting, and makes the game so replayable, that I'm surprised that not a whole lot of games has anything similar to it. Games that come to mind are Castlevania 3, Mega Man X (1), and Yoshi's Story, but those are about it. Well, technically Super Mario 64 counts, too, so I guess you can say that Super Mario 64 influenced at least one of Nintendo's own games.

But this would not matter if the level design is crap. Thankfully, it's not, and it's some of the most memorable level design Nintendo...no, any company, ever made! If you lose, it's your fault, not the game's. The controls are spot-on, too, but you have to get used to pressing the joystick at the same time as one of the C-buttons to perform a somersault or U-Turn. For the most part, you can maneuver yourself in any way you want on the rails, or anywhere in All-Range mode provided you don't go off that part of the level.

This is as good as a Nintendo game gets without being Mario or Zelda, and yet shame on Nintendo for outsourcing it to Rareware and Namco who, despite good intentions, produced inferior Fox games!


Graphics:
?? Actually, I think it's about here where I stop showering praise upon this game a little bit. While the game does look good, especially compared to third-party games, it has a muddy aesthetic on the Nintendo 64 version that would shy players away after trying it on an emulator or Virtual Console. Even worse, the Nintendo 64 version suffers framerate issues when there is even only one big explosion happening on screen! The textures are there, the polygons get the job done...but the art style is fantastic, in true Nintendo fashion! It renders the graphics problems it has moot...but still, if Rareware could make a better-looking game on Nintendo's system, then it looks like they should have learned from it while it was still around to actually make good games!


Audio:
?? When you think of audio for Star Fox 64, the very first thing that comes to mind is stuff like "Do a Barrel Roll!" The quotes in this game are the most memorable in any video game, and that was because speech in a cartridge game was a cool thing in the late 90s. The compression techniques made the voice-acting sound cooler than it probably is (...which is still good, if you hear it from the Nintendo 3DS remake of Star Fox 64), and the writing was at least sharp enough for a video game that 90s gamers like me can quote Star Fox 64 like a Christian would quote from the Bible.

But that does not lessen the music and other sound effects by any means! The music, while not quite as good as the one from the prequel to this game, Star Fox on SNES, is very Koji Kondo-esque and goes for a more orchestral and epic Star Wars style than the more 80s-inspired tracks from the prequel. Even those manage to be memorable, though who could really top the Corneria track from the SNES game? And the sound effects for everything from the blasters and the engine are spot-on and can potentially be reused in a beginner's first video game made in the style of Star Fox 64 without seeming like a talent-less hack!


Addictiveness:
?? Need I say more? I already mentioned it in the intro to this review! But anyway, I'm not kidding you when I say that this game is addicting! You will want to play again to try to get to the other levels. The other levels seem to be inaccessible in the first level, but that's only because players actually have to figure out how to get to them through how they play previous levels. For example, in the first level, if you don't save your friend Falco Lombardi from "bogeys from behind", then you are forced to take the "easy" path and beat a robot with skinny legs as a boss, but if you do, then Falco will take you through a waterfall to show you another part of the level!

"Wow", I said. "I figured that out all by myself without a strategy guide!"

That is exactly what you will say to yourself if you don't look at GameFAQs like a newbie. In fact, I implore that you play without help from anybody, and I guarantee that the level design is intuitive enough for anybody, except maybe young kids, to figure out how to access Sector Y, Aquos, Sector Z, Area 6, etc. It will require multiple playthroughs to truly beat this game, and this game was certainly meant to be played this way!


Depth:
?? Likewise, the game is deeper than you think, with the exception of one aspect of the gameplay--I'll get to that a bit later. Again, the level design has layers to each level that have the player try to play in ways other than just going from point A to point B blasting at the fools who get in the way. And again, I lament that most other games don't even have this layer of design depth to it. (Actually, I forgot to mention Banjo-Kazooie and Tooie...too late for that now, I guess...) This kind of depth adds to the addictiveness of the game immensely, and I argue that this does so better than any role-playing game, beside Final Fantasy VI and VII, I've ever touched, Paper Mario included.

Yet, one area of design that lacks in depth, for the most part, compared to other linear shooters is weapon upgrades. You collect these green things that have wings on them, and they improve your blaster from having single to twin shots, and then have a more powerful version of that upon collection of another green thing. Other shooters allow you to have spread-fire, homing fire, and the like when collecting similar things, but not Star Fox 64. Fortunately, it becomes deeper when you use the lock-on feature of your blaster, which allows for score-chaining and an overall higher score! This lock-on feature is not quite as intelligent as the one in Panzer Dragoon, but for the sake of Nintendo-quality simplicity, it gets the job done.

Also, the game is pretty short in each playthrough. You can probably get through the game the first time in a couple of hours if you don't die a lot, or it would take you a few playthroughs for you to eventually beat it once. But because you want to give it multiple playthroughs, you could easily hit the 10-hour mark. I believe I hit the 90-hour mark, that is, if I beat the game at least 90 times!


Difficulty:
?? Players who are not used to this kind of game can expect to have a Game Over or two at first, but as mentioned before, more experienced players can finish one playthrough in a couple of hours maximum. For most people who don't like to replay games, this game is worth at least a rental, but since nowadays you can get this game for a couple of bucks maximum, don't sell your copy! Beside that, the real difficulty of the game comes in collecting medals in each level--you have to earn a certain high score in each level to do so. Collecting all of the medals, which requires multiple playthroughs anyway, will unlock Expert mode, which tries to make the game more difficulty by adding more enemies and forcing you to lose a wing when you collide with an object once. However, once you unlock Expert Mode, collecting medals there is actually made easier just because there are more enemies, meaning you get more points, and the high score requirement stays the same! If Nintendo was to design it so that the requirement rises by about 50-100 points, then it would be fine and very challenging, but sadly, my playtime with this game decreased as a result of this design flaw. Also, it would have been nice to have some extra levels unlocked by collecting medals, rather than an ultimately crappy addition to an otherwise fun, if already flawed, multiplayer mode. Speaking of which...


Multiplayer:
?? It's there for friends, but it won't distract them from Goldeneye 007, Mario Kart 64, or even Mario Party beyond a session or two. At least Star Fox Assault gets multiplayer right! The flaw I noticed is that people can just keep performing somersaults to avoid enemy fire, ad infinitum until one player just gives up. Also, collecting all medals in Expert mode unlocks this weird mode in which you can play as Fox McCloud and friends on foot. In these spacious environments you have in multiplayer, it looks weird and it controls just as badly. Again, Star Fox Assault does this so much better because the levels are designed around it, but here it is just an afterthought as a sad attempt to reward players for their efforts. Hey, at least Score Attack is kind of cool...


Verdict:
??? Even with its faults--muddy graphics on a real Nintendo 64, not very challenging gameplay beyond the mission structure and deep design, and an overall lack of challenge in Expert mode--absolutely buy this game! Even with the "overpriced" Virtual Console rate of $10, Star Fox 64 is a steal! Do not let the lack of end-game content keep you from at least experiencing this classic on the amazing, if limited, Nintendo 64 game console, and let the good times (barrel) roll!

Foodperson : Nice job on this review!  Your title really caught my attention so I had to check it out   I actually owned this game for the N64 and sold it to David over the summer trying to cash in a bit on my collection.  Yes, indeed it is a great game and I enjoyed how detailed your review was!  Keep up the good work

I really enjoy the game too. It's one of those classic N64 titles that you really hope for a remake in the main consoles besides the 3DS remake, and maybe a reboot of the Star Fox franchise. Really great game. And you reviewed it quite well, good job!