Well, I figured I should do my first review on a game I really like, but I'll try not to be biased during the whole thing.

Starfox 64, a shooter game, origin of high-pitched Slippy and "Do a barrel roll!" has come a long way since its debut on the Nintendo 64. It had one game before it, Starfox for the SNES, but the series completely took off when the 64 version of it came out. The original game implemented the revolutionary rumble control, which gave the player an additional sense of immersion into the game. After the success of Starfox 64, the franchise went on to publish several more games. Even after all of those, I still consider to be the best game out of all of them (though Starfox Assault deserves more praise; that's a story for another day). Why? Simply for these reasons:

GRAPHICS-- 9

When the SNES version of the game came out, it had what no other game at the time had: 3D graphics, though they were no more than a few polygons. With that, Nintendo had a head start with 3D graphics when going into Starfox 64. As you're playing the game, zooming everywhere and firing your lasers, you hardly notice the little things that they add, such as the details to the front of the Arwing and the enemies. The gameplay is seamless with glitches in graphics happening in very few places. The polygons blend together to render graphics that come close to the early Gamecube ones, which is a big deal considering the game came out in 1997. Very few games, maybe Pokemon Stadium, come close to the smooth graphics Starfox 64 has.

SOUND-- 8

Starfox 64 is equipped with quite a few tracks that have made its way into future games, remixes, and official soundtracks. Even as you're distracted by the dozens of enemies on-screen, you always find yourself humming the background music and getting it stuck in your head. One song in particular, Area 7, has made it towards the top of my favorite VGM's of all time. Compared to other games for the Nintendo 64, the game music isn't quite as catchy as other prominent titles such as Legend of Zelda, but it's enough to stick with you for a while.
Falling under the sound category is the voices. It's hard to explain my opinion on these, since I've played the game so many times I've memorized virtually all of the tracks. Initially, the voice acting isn't anything special, and one of the first things you'll think is, "Slippy is a girl?!" The same lines tend to repeat throughout a single playthrough; while this can be seen as a negative thing, it can also get you to like the voices more. In fact, the more that you listen to these voices, the more that you start to appreciate them. Most games in the N64 genre didn't have voice acting anyways, so something like this was yet another thing that Starfox 64 was able to accomplish first.

ADDICTIVENESS-- 10

If anything, this is the one section I'd be biased on. Starfox 64 is a very short game. It can be played through in the course of under an hour. But one play through the game isn't anywhere near enough to unlock everything that the game has to offer. Every playthrough goes through only a third of the stages that the game has to offer, so it will take at least two more to just scratch the surface of the game. After that, the game has medals and a secret mode that you can earn even after that. Then the game has you competing for the high score as it has a whole ranking system to deal with how many kills you've scored in a game. The game may be 14 years old, but I still play it constantly to this day. Sometimes, you'll feel like playing a casual run-through and listening to the characters ramble on and other times you'll feel like putting your serious face on and going for that high score. Whatever the reason, there's never an excuse to not play this game!

STORY-- 7

A majority of the story is presented in the minutes before you even start flying Fox around. A crazed madman scientist named Andross attempts to take over the peaceful planet of Corneria, but the Starfox team, composed of Pigma, Peppy, and Fox's dad James McCloud, head to the country's rescue. However, Andross appears to be a much tougher foe than they thought; with the betrayal of Pigma, the two overwhelm Peppy and James, killing Fox's father in the process while Peppy barely escapes with his life. Andross is banished to the solitary planet of Venom at the opposite edge of the Laylat system, and Corneria can live in peace. When Andross gains the motivation to rise again, James' son Fox forms a new Starfox team in order to defeat this new threat in the name of his father.
The story is developed very little throughout the course of the game. The initial prologue just feels like a basic reason to play the game, and the majority of its charm comes from the actual gameplay. With that being said, the game actually has a fairly interesting story, but it's a shame that nothing happens to it during the actual game.

DEPTH-- 7

The game's depth varies depending on the perspective of whoever is playing it. As I stated before, the game requires several runs in order to finish completely, but doing the same stages over and over again could become repetitive to your average gamer. I, for one, don't find this to be true as every stage is as exciting as ever each time I play through the game. However, there are some parts such as secret passageways and unlocked charge shots that can increase your score in ways that you never though possible before. The game offers a few unlockables such as a couple of vehicles for the multiplayer mode and an expert mode if you gather all the medals, but little more than that. Its depth essentially comes from however much dedication you wish to place in the game.

DIFFICULTY-- 7

Starfox is not a game that can be beaten on the first try. Many have tried and many have failed. This is not to say that the game is difficult, however. Starfox 64 splits itself into 3 categories of difficulty depending on the route you take as your proceed into the Laylat system. The difficulty of the next planet can be seen depending on the color your ship's path takes on the main map. A more difficult level doesn't necessarily indicate more enemies, just your chances of survival. It can easily be frustrating for a newcomer to play through Starfox, keep dying, and giving it another go, but with perseverance, you can proceed to the much more fun levels such as Zoness which are filled with tons of enemies and bullets on screen at once.

OVERALL-- 8.7

Overall, Starfox 64 is a highly addicting, well-polished game for its time. It runs smoother than most other games for the Nintendo 64, and is one of the few games that can be given to a new gamer today and still be thought of as an amazing game. Like other games made in its time, Starfox 64 is a classic that has led to one of Nintendo's best series today. In fact, the game is getting completely remade in Starfox 64 3D for the Nintendo 3DS. And with that, even more people can experience the greatness of Starfox 64.

This game is pretty good, I love playing this, very addicting to me. Good review on it. :3

pacman1755 : Thanks so much! That actually means a lot since it's pretty my first video game review ever.

A 3ds version of this game was released. It has a new score attack and new items.[:-bd]

You aught to be embarrassed about something. First, you made a review fantastic review (really, great job on that ), and you don't put it in the Retro Game Review forum, but the Retro Game Room forum.. Come on. You are a Global Mod. You can't have shenanigans like that

Someone70 : Since you're familiar with the game i once saw in a game store back in 1998 a level of fox mcloud running around.I played it but i have no clue on where to go. How do you get to that part of the game?

death_nation :

Hmm... the only thing I think that could be is a certain multiplayer mode where you can control your character on the ground and they get this giant bazooka to fire ships with. It would make sense that you didn't know where to go because, well, there isn't anywhere to go. xD

The issue is, you get that only by unlocking Expert mode and getting a medal on a certain stage in it. And that takes a while, believe me. So someone in that game store must've been really good at Star Fox to unlock it.

Great review. I really enjoyed reading it.

I personally love Starfox 64. It's a great game that I still love to play today. One of my favorite games on the N64