Hi all. Sara here again, at long last, with another volume of My Favorite Games. For the next week or so, most of these will be the games I've played over the last six months. For those unaware, I've been away due to some life stuff, and a horrendous lack of internet access.
As such, I got a lot of time to work through my collection of games, in hopes that I would return with a back catalog of games to talk about. I don't want to reveal which ones will be on here yet, but there are some great classics, some wonderful time wasters, and a few that don't really make any sense.
However, before we get there, we need to go through the first game in the series, Star Fox 64.
Star Fox 64 was a remake of the original Star Fox for the SNES, but was also the vehicle to launch the N64's newest accessory, the rumble pack. There are still a few questions as to why they went this route of remaking Star Fox rather than just give a graphical upgrade to the already in production Star Fox 2, but there's never been a reason.
What is known, is that this incorporated a number of the ideas for Star Fox 2 into it. The most obvious of these is the change in the non linear map system, which changed from being points based, to being based on the branch in the level you took. The least obvious is the characters of Miyu and Fay.
Little was known about them, but they were the fifth and sixth members of the team, and would not be available for all missions. Miyu, a tomboyish lynx, would become Katt Monroe, the feline pilot that showed up to help in a few levels of the 64 game. Fay, a white poodle, would become Bill Grey, a grey bull dog (there is a great deal of speculation regarding the change, but most point to William Grey, a character from Independence Day), who helped on other missions (specifically, Katina, which dealt with an invasion, and gives rise to the theory on his naming due to the similarities of the battle).
Beyond that, much of the game was simply a retelling of Fox McCloud's struggle against Andross told in the original SNES. However, that in itself wasn't a bad story. A team of mercenary bounty hunters are called in to save the galaxy from the threat of an all powerful tyrant. Pretty straight forward, but it works.
It leaves a lot of questions though...is Star Fox an unofficial team of the Cornerian Army or is the Corenerian Army just so sucky that they have to call in Mercs all the time to save them from a new threat? Neither is clear, and we know that Peppy eventually is hired as the General, Slippy's dad works for the Cornerian Government, and Fox went to the academy with Bill, so it's very open ended.
Anyways, you play as Fox, leader of the Star Fox team, son of James McCloud, and ace pilot. You fly with your three wingmen, Falco, the douchebag falcon, very reminiscent of Iceman from Top Gun, Peppy, an experienced veteran and friend of your father's, which he never stops reminding you, and Slippy, the tadpole that was dropped on his head too many times, who is basically a whiny little shit.
The last member of your regular crew is ROB64, who is in charge of ship repairs and, much more importantly, sending you relief items while out in the field. Most of these are life enhancers, like a ship restore or a gold or silver ring. Some of them are smart bombs, or even better, laser upgrades. You need all of these to really get through most of the bosses to get alive.
Beyond that, you pilot your Arwing as an on the rail shooter, taking out enemies, and protecting your team. The better you do this, the longer they stay with you, which is always good.
Flying your ship is rather easy too, as it automatically flies in a straight line if you do nothing...however, this is a quick way to die in most cases. Using the joystick you can move left, right, up, and down, in an x/y plane. You also have the abilities to break, boost, somersault, and, of course, do a barrel roll.
There are also three levels where you can pilot two other vehicles. The first is the Blue Marine, a submarine designed by Slippy specifically to battle an underwater bio-weapon on Aquas. It has an endless supply of torpedoes, and is my absolute least favorite level of the game.
The second vehicle is the Landmaster. If you've played Super Smash Bros. Brawl, you may know this by another name...I generally call it the "Oh shit we're all gonna die"...simply because I never play as the three characters able to use it as they're final smash. The Landmaster is the ground vehicle of the Star Fox team, which is another way of saying it's a tank with a massive gun that moves quickly, and can hover for short times. You can use it on Titania and Macbeth, though I suggest avoiding Macbeth at all costs due to how impossible it is to beat at times.
Outside of the annoying frog, the sound is superb. Then again, anything with Koji Kondo working on the score generally is, so that's a hard statement to sell. The voices are all pretty good though, if a little clipped. Even Slippy sounds like he's supposed to...an annoying wussy shit.
The games looks about what you'd expect from a Nintendo based N64 title. They haven't aged well, but they aren't bad and were some of the best back when the game launched. Most of the detail went to the Arwings and the characters Profile shots seen when they speak. Most of the boss battles are gorgeous, and Andross definitely got an upgrade from the SNES version.
Lastly, as mentioned previously, Star Fox 64 was the game that brought the rumble pack into gamer's homes. Nintendo's commercial for it told very little about the game itself, but more about the rumble pack that would be coming with it. Whether or not this was the smart choice, I'm not sure, but either way, this game, and the rumble pack did very well for Nintendo, and inspired the rumble functionality of almost every controller out there today.
So, here ends the first game I beat during my departure. What did you think of the title? Was it good? Was there something I missed about it's greatness? Or did you hate it? Despise it because it's why you've been Landmastered almost every time you play Brawl? Let us know.
-Sara
p.s. A playthrough is now available at http://www.d2brigade.net/?p=2256 . Link courtesy of Darkseid.
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