As of writing, I'm down to the last two games on SNES Online's launch library. Before we get to those, let's talk about game #17 here. BACKGROUND:
Though arguably more popular than F-Zero or Earthbound, I actually never heard of Star Fox until I started playing Smash. What's stranger is that despite my love for sci-fi shit, I never got into the series afterwards. I watched a ton of videos on Star Fox 64 and all that, but for whatever reason, I never thought of emulating the game back when I used to do that a lot. Most of my knowledge going into this playthrough is based on what I've pieced together from playing Smash and what I've seen from Let's Plays and speedruns of various Star Fox games. SUMMARY: Fox McCloud is the hero of our story here. He's the ace pilot of the mercenary team Star Fox (go figure), and along with his teammates Falco, Peppy, and Slippy, they've been enlisted by General Pepper to take down the evil Andross before he conquers the Lylat system. To aid them on their mission, the general provides them with cutting-edge fighter aircraft called Arwings. With these fighters at their disposal, it's up to Star Fox to make their way through the Lylat system and get to Andross to thwart his schemes. The story is what it is, but as I will elaborate later on, I don't mind it being rather basic. Besides, it's a sci-fi setting with lasers and spaceships and talking animals. The inner nine-year-old in me is satisfied. Star Fox is a 3D rail shooter where you control Fox's Arwing in a mostly third person perspective. You'll be taken on a ride across the game's various levels, and as you do, you can maneuver the Arwing to avoid the obstacles and enemies that you're moving toward. In terms of movement, you have full command of the x and y-axis, the ability to perform rolls or knife (i.e. tilt 90 degrees) the Arwing to dodge things, and access to brakes and boosters that allow you to control the speed at which you move through the level. Of course, it's not all flight; the Arwing has access to a decent arsenal. You have access to laser blasters as your main attack, and while it's not the most efficient weapon ever, it's good enough to get the job done. You also have access to ion bombs, which deal a good amount of damage over an area, though these come in limited supply. Aiming takes a bit to get used to in third person, as there's no reticle of any kind to indicate where your shots will hit. However, you are able to toggle a first person view that simulates the Arwing's cockpit, and while this option does have a reticle, your ability to pilot the Arwing itself is slightly hindered as you won't see the entirety of the screen. I personally found third person more comfortable after taking some time to adjust myself to the controls. On the subject of adjusting to the controls, you can select from one of four control schemes before you start the game. In addition, you can also go through a training course where you can learn to handle the Arwing in a stress-free environment. I didn't really fuck around with the other control schemes, but I did appreciate the training area. Enemies are generally easy to avoid or take down, and the challenge mostly boils down to when there are dozens of them onscreen at once, and you're trying to avoid all the horseshit projectiles they're throwing at you. Bosses pose more of a challenge, as not only do you have to contend with their various attacks, you can only damage them at certain weak points, and hitting small areas while also trying to avoid getting hit is easier said than done. Throughout each level, you can pick up power-ups that you see along the way. These range from temporary invincibility, extra ion bombs, rings that replenish your shield, and more. Power-ups are either located in treacherous or otherwise out-of-the-way areas you have to fly through, or can occasionally be dropped by enemies. Health is particularly important, as it is incredibly easy to take a ton of damage simply by flying carelessly and smashing into things. While Fox's teammates aren't full-on AI companions, they are pretty prominent in gameplay. Often, one of them will fly in front of you, calling out that an enemy is on their tail. If you succeed in taking out said enemy, they'll express gratitude in some form, and even help take out a few enemies later on. If not, they take damage, and if they die, they're out for the rest of your run. It's a novel way to make the other characters a substantial part of the game, and the interactions that occur add a lot to their personalities. They even chew you out if you hit them with friendly fire (which, to be fair, doesn't damage them), which is an awesome little touch. The game gives you three possible paths to reach Andross, and each path features a unique set of levels, locations, and bosses. While a playthrough is rather short, you have three for the price of one here, and what's more, each path also doubles as a difficulty setting. Not only do you have the option to pick how challenging you want your playthrough to be, that difficulty has its own unique set of levels instead of being the same shit three times in a row. Each level also has a scoring system, determined by how much shit you've killed and how well you and your team fared in terms of taking damage. While it's mostly for the leaderboard chasers of arcades past, earning score does give you extra lives, so it's not completely arbitrary. Although this game isn't as impressive to look at now with its rather low-poly, textureless models and occasional frame rate hiccups, I still have to give it to the devs for doing a lot with a little. Most things look janky, sure, but they were able to come up with some neat designs that make sense visually (i.e. it's not just a garbled mess of polygons). They even manage to somehow put together cinematic set pieces that evoke a lot of the space battle portions of the Star Wars original trilogy, by playing around a bit with dynamic camera angles in certain sections of the game. Definitely not bad for a 3D game from 1993. VERDICT: Star Fox isn't the biggest Nintendo franchise out there, but this first game spawning an entire franchise that's still getting the occasional game should speak to the impact this game had. Its 3D graphics were absolutely revolutionary at the time, and coupled with engaging, fast-paced gameplay and a modicum of personality via its characters, and it's no wonder this game gave birth to a series. I'd say that this is an "essential" title worth playing at least once given how it helped pave the way for 3D graphics in games (and it certainly is), but Star Fox is honestly worth playing for its sci-fi shmup action alone. I actually played all three difficulty settings in quick succession just because I enjoyed it so much. This is a definite recommendation either way. - end -
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July 2024
Derryck
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