Star Fox 64 (Nintendo 64, 1997)

Fox is back in this adventure for the N64. And it's all flying baby. Well mostly flying. There are a few submarine levels. That's pretty much flying too though. The game is short for real though. You can play through it in just one sitting of a few hours if even. Multiplayer is not the best but it can be fun with a few people. Honestly, this is one of your only choices for flying games on the N64 and it is at the top of a short list. Controls are solid and barrel rolls are a ton of fun and a necessary skill to possess to keep from dying so much. Experience space flight like never before on a 64-bit system. Fly into battle with classic characters and defeat the evil Andross (dude is huge). Pick this up if you like flying games or if you're a Star Fox fan. Great character game for the N64. 4/5

Gameplay - Star Fox plays surprisingly very well. I still can't get over it. When I heard about the all stylus controls, I was very worried. I totally wrote this game off as gimmicky, touch screen thing that will fail, but I was wrong. The touch screen actually makes flying easier and a lot of fun. The basic gameplay is broken up in to two parts, an overworld strategy map and full 3D battle maps.

In the overworld screens, your objective is to destroy enemy fighters and bases, while protecting your mothership. It is fun to draw out your ship's courses and then preform the attack on the opposing force. During the actual fights, the stylus is your control tapping the screen to boost, break, turns, drop bombs and perform the famous barrel roll. Then only other button needed is the fire button which is mapped on everything besides start and select, so it is easy to find something comfortable. The control is very tight and it is amazing that this game just handles so very well. Also it is very easy to learn. Once you do the 4 training missions, you will pick up on the controls in no time.

The multiplayer works the same way both local and over the Nintendo Wifi Connection and is very strong. In all multiplayer modes, players are only allowed to be Fox and are given just one ship. Some might think of this as bad, but I really like it because it balances out the game so much. I liked the wifi play because of an easy to use ranking system with 26 ranks, (Z being the lowest and A the highest) and good punishment against disconnecters. It is good to see that if someone drops, no one plays, which really prevents people from skipping out.

Graphics - Best on the DS to date, period. The ships look great and the different stages have such high quality textures. I love it.

Sound - I have said it before, I love animalese from Animal Crossing and I love it here in Star Fox: Command. The blaster shots and space noises are fine, but nothing beats the animal nonsense. It will make you smile. Plus it is a really cool option that you can import your own voice as the character's voice and tone.

Star Fox 64 may be one of the easiest and quickest games to beat (though it will be awhile before you earn a medal on each of the stages), but it has an arcade feel that will keep you replaying, trying to top your best score over and over. What makes things interesting is that it's not just about kills. Charging one's lasers will enable you to lock on to enemies; enemies killed by the blast radius of the charged shot, but not directly hit, count for double points. This scoring mechanic keeps gameplay chalenging, especially after you descover how to shoot a charged shot before it has a chance to lock on to an enemy, just missing all of them but catching them with the blast.
The dialoge is cheesy (charmingly so, really) and there are no interesting plot twists to speak of, but players will be too distracted by the gameplay to notice. Playing a few of the levels in different vehicles (a tank and a submarine) helps keep it fresh as well.
Multiplayer can be fun, and requires completely different skills than the main game, but is ultimately somewhat boring unless you have four players. Especially when battles are between two skillful players, it can drag on as they get caught in maneuvering stalemates.
After collecting medals on all stages, one can play as the characters themselves, sans vehicle and armed only with a rifle. This can be fun for a while, but that wears off with the novelty.
Collecting the medals also unlocks expert mode, however, which can be difficult just to beat. Damage is increased and it is very easy to loose a wing. Also, the loss of one or both wings affects flight much more than in regular mode; wingless, you will sink unless you are constantly compensating for it. It is dissappointing, though, that there are very few extra enemies in expert mode, meaning that it is still more efficient to play on regular when vying for a place in the top ten.
All told, Star Fox 64 is a solid gold classic that wears well with time. It will grant you many hours of enjoyment over many years.

One of my favorite action games!

-The Good
-Gameplay
-Practice
-Many Path Choices
-Multiple Pick-Ups
-Fun Bosses
-Simple Controls
-Gameplay
-The Bad
-Graphics
-The Summary
-This is an excellent action game. You fly through multiple stages using StarFox’s vehicle of choice, the Arwing. You must blast through multiple levels using the standard blaster, bombs, and pick-up to get to the final level and defeat Andross, the mad scientist behind all of the…madness. If your new to the game there is a practice mode to teach the moves. You can also play with friends in multiplayer mode.

-thepokeson

Starfox pushed the envelope for graphical standards on the SNES. Starfox 64, the successful sequel, does the same for the N64. Starfox 64 is the source of the popular internet meme (viral phrase) "Do a Barrel Roll!" The game itself is a smoothly executed rail shooter much like the original, but with added characters, such as StarWolf, Pigma, and ROB-64; and new vehichles, such as the Landmaster (a futuristic tank) and even a submarine. This game introduces a combo system, and utilizes a new capability of the "Arwing" (the star fighter), charging of shots. It also introduces fully three dimensional boss battles, free-flying instead of constantly moving forward. It also features actual voice acting for the dialogue instead of garbled animal noises. Truly, Starfox 64 is the reason why many people bother even getting an N64, which had very few memorable titles.