"What have I become?"

I’m a big fan of Star Fox. The name of this site, “WingDamage”, and our podcast, “Barrel Roll!“, are both references to the series. But when I say I’m a big fan of the franchise, what I really mean to say is that I’m a big fan of about two and a half of its games.

Today, I’d like to take you down memory lane and discuss the high points, what went wrong, and what Nintendo could do to save the series.

Star Fox (SNES, Nintendo EAD & Argonaut Games, 1993)

The original Star Fox on the Super Nintendo was nothing short of revolutionary. It was the first Nintendo game ever to be in 3D. The entire game focuses on piloting an “arwing” from point A to the boss waiting for you at point B. Instead of choosing a difficulty setting, Star Fox features three separate paths to choose from, each with their own unique levels leading to the end of the game.

Though the game is a rail shooter, you can speed up or slow down temporarily. The game also contains a lot of terrain elements such as archways and asteroids that keep the levels interesting, rather than just filling empty space with enemies. Along with screen-clearing bombs, you can also collect upgrades to your standard laser.

What’s even more interesting, however, is the dynamic damage your ship can take. Rather than damage from anywhere behaving the same, too much impact on a single wing can result in “wing damage” (see what I did there?) causing not only your handling to be affected, but your weapons as well.

Though the untextured, low-poly models may look primitive by today’s standards, the gameplay holds up amazingly well. Even today, Star Fox is a blast to play and the combination of different paths and secrets within the levels contribute to its longevity. This is my second favorite Star Fox game.

Star Fox 2 [canceled] (SNES, Nintendo EAD & Argonaut Games, 1995)

Though Star Fox 2 never officially came out, builds of the game at varying stages of completion were leaked on the internet. It’s interesting to see some of the ideas in their infancy that eventually were used in later titles.

The first thing you’ll notice when playing Star Fox 2 is the map screen. Levels are not played in a sequential order. Instead, you must navigate your ship on the map screen to intercept enemy ships. When you come in contact with an enemy, you will be taken to a level on the planet you collided at.

This is where “All Range Mode” was born. On the planet’s surface, you can fly in any direction, free from the rails of the previous game. Instead of working toward a destination, you must take out as many enemies as you can. Certain situations, like flying inside an enemy base, would put you back on rails until you reached the base’s core.

Unfortunately, All Range Mode on the Super Nintendo is nauseating, especially on space levels. The game did feature some interesting ideas, such as letting you choose your character. The best part of all, though, was the ability to transform your arwing into a bipedal walker at the push of a button.

Star Fox 2 had a lot of crazy ideas, some of which worked, some of which didn’t. Overall, it was a very ambitious sequel that never saw the light of day.

Star Fox 64 (N64, Nintendo EAD, 1997)

Star Fox 64 did everything right. Instead of running with the odd structure laid out in Star Fox 2, the N64 iteration took the basic rail shooter gameplay of the first and fine tuned it to perfection.

This was the first entry to feature voice acting (aside from the gibberish speak in the original). This breathed new life into all the characters and, thanks to its clever implementation, gave the game a very cinematic feel without resorting to interrupting the action with unnecessary cutscenes.

Rather than choosing from one of three paths, Star Fox 64 chooses your next level based on certain actions you perform within the current level. This allows you to forge your own path as you progress and forces you to work extra hard to access certain levels. The increased amount of secrets as well as medals awarded for great performance made each level even more rewarding to play through.

Throughout the game, there are a few sections of the All Range Mode that was introduced in Star Fox 2. They are few and far between in comparison to the rail shooting sections and serve to break up the action in just the right amount.

Star Fox 64 balances all its elements perfectly, making it easily the best game in the series. Not only that, Star Fox 64 is my favorite Nintendo 64 game (sorry, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Mario 64).

Star Fox Adventures (GC, Rare, 2002)

And here’s where things go to crap. For whatever reason, Nintendo decided to hand development of the next Star Fox game to Rare. This was a big mistake.

Instead of following up the last fantastic rail shooter with another one, they created “The Poor Man’s Zelda”. The game takes place on a planet inhabited by dinosaurs and lizard men that look like they were lifted straight from the Donkey Kong Country games.

It wouldn’t bother me as much to see such a departure in genre if the game was actually fun to play, but unfortunately this was not the case. I tried to like the game, I really did, but I just couldn’t. In true Rare fashion, the game was a big “collect-a-thon”.

The moment where I couldn’t take it anymore happened when the game wanted me to carry an object up a winding ramp with barrels rolling down it. If you got hit by a barrel, you would drop the object and have to go to the bottom and get a new one. Unfortunately, the camera was terrible and resulted in a lot of blind dodging and wishful thinking.

I have no idea why the follow up to Star Fox 64 is a really mediocre Action/Adventure game instead of another fantastic rail shooter. Perhaps somebody didn’t get the memo on what the Star Fox series actually is.

Star Fox Assault (GC, Namco, 2005)

Thankfully, Namco didn’t follow Rare’s formula and actually made the closest thing to a great Star Fox game we’ve had since Star Fox 64. It’s actually a little painful, because it’s so close to being great, but it’s just not quite there.

The graphics are a treat, the animation always runs silky smooth, and the  visual style feels spot on. The music is also a high point. Each of the songs is performed by The Tokyo New City Orchestra, giving the soundtrack a much more epic feel.

When the game puts you on rails in the arwing, it feels too good to be true. Sadly, it is. Unlike previous entries, these parts are very rare rather than making up a majority of the game. Most of the game takes place in All Range Mode. On top of that, large portions of the game now take place in the Landmaster and on foot.

Another downfall of Assault is that it is completely linear. The very first game made alternate paths and secrets a staple of the franchise. Assault’s removal of that diminished its replay value greatly.

Star Fox Assault is still an enjoyable game, but it’s limited amount of rail-based levels and lack of replay value make it pale in comparison to Star Fox 64. Assault is the “half” in the “two and a half” Star Fox games I love.

Star Fox Command (DS, Q-Games, 2006)

Star Fox Command is essentially what Star Fox 2 evolved into. It uses the same idea of commanding a ship on a map and having All Range Mode encounters when your ship collides with an enemy.

Just as I didn’t find Star Fox 2 very engaging, I didn’t really enjoy my time with Command either. The touch screen controls work adequately enough, but All Range Mode gets old fast. Star Fox Command is not at all what I wanted it to be.

THE FUTURE!!

Nintendo needs to do one of two things to fix this series. The most obvious answer would be for Nintendo to stop outsourcing the games to other developers. These other developers don’t seem to grasp what made the series so great in the first place.

If, for whatever reason, they still feel compelled to hand the franchise over to another developer, I suggest Treasure. Think about it. Treasure already made a Nintendo branded rail shooter on the N64 called “Sin and Punishment“. I often refer to its upcoming Wii sequel as “the closest thing we’ll get to a new Star Fox”.

So what’s it going to be, Nintendo? Will you finally take the series back and develop it in-house or at least give it to a developer with applicable experience? We can only hope.

Tags: Namco, Nintendo, Q-Games, Rare, Retrospective, Sin and Punishment, Star Fox, Star Fox 2, Star Fox 64, Star Fox Adventures, Star Fox Assault, Star Fox Command, Treasure

This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009 at 5:00 am and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.