With a site named “WingDamage” and a podcast called “Barrel Roll!” it shouldn’t come as any surprise that many here on the site grew up adoring the first couple of Star Fox games. As I’ve written about in the past, the series really hasn’t been able to find a clear direction that works after Star Fox 64. Each game after that point has been a mess of ideas that fail to satisfy the way the core, rail shooting gameplay of the originals did.

Perhaps it’s because of this lack of confidence in the future of Star Fox that I was so eager to revisit the glory days of its past. Star Fox 64 3D may be a remake of a fourteen year old game, but it’s also a remake of the best the series has to offer by a large margin, and one of the greatest gems you’ll find in a genre that barely exists anymore.

You won’t find much in the way of new content. This is largely a prettier version of the same game you played (or didn’t) back in 1997. But there are a few changes. The new 3DS Mode gives you the option of playing the game using the gyro sensor in addition to the standard circle pad. It isn’t a good idea to use it with the 3D effect since you will likely lose focus of the screen. But because it uses slight motions similar to a steering wheel instead of a 1-to-1, Face Raiders style, aiming actually works much better than you’d think and won’t require you to leave as much of your dignity behind. Still, it feels like a novelty at best and doesn’t work any better than the traditional controls.

Multiplayer, while identical in concept, has been given an overhaul. The maps are new, though they’re still small in number, and extra powerups like stealth mines have been added. Unfortunately, there’s no online play, though four player local can be played with a single cartridge through download play. It’s only Arwings this time around, but considering how incredibly unbalanced playing as the Landmaster or on foot was in the original, this is for the best. Even with the new features, multiplayer remains a mildly amusing diversion. The star of the show is still the campaign, just as it always has been.

Score Attack mode is a very welcome addition as it allows you to select any level you’ve previously completed in the campaign. No longer will you have to play through the entire game just to get a shot at earning medals on the last few levels. The feature also really compliments the game’s new portability. You might not have time for the entire campaign on the go, but a single level can be completed rather quickly.

Strangely enough, the voice acting has all been rerecorded. Since Star Fox 64 has some of the most memorable quotes in gaming (causing countless memes to sprout), I was very happy to find that the new voice acting is exactly as cheesy as the original. None of the nostalgia was lost in the new recordings. I also noticed one changed line. No longer does Falco sarcastically refer to you as “Einstein” when you shoot him. The line has been replaced with “Hey Genius! I’m on your side!” Considering this is a world full of animal people flying around in space, this change actually makes a lot more sense than the original.

Of course, the most obvious change is the graphical upgrade. There’s a world of difference between the graphics of the remake and the original. There’s an even larger level of improvement on display than Nintendo’s other recent remake, Ocarina of Time. As a game where you are constantly looking off into the distance, the 3D effect works exceptionally well, and I found myself playing with it on the entire time (except to test 2D and gyro controls). Stages like Venom are especially impressive, as the added level of depth actually gives you a better sense of space between the various obstacles, making the game a bit easier to play.

But all this would be nothing if the game didn’t hold up. Thankfully, Star Fox 64 is still a fantastically designed rail shooter. Stages are packed with plenty to shoot, dodge, and fly through and the controls are as tight as ever. The alternate paths and stage affecting triggers also help to keep multiple campaign runs fresh. Help out a character in one stage and they’ll help you out in another. You’ll fight your rival Star Wolf near the end of the game in Bolse if you don’t take care of them in Fichina, and so on.

I almost forgot how great some of the alternate path triggers were. Sector X in particular has a pivotal moment where Slippy charges toward the stage boss. Destroying the boss before he gets there will take you to Macbeth. Fail to do so and the boss will knock Slippy’s ship away causing it to crash land into the desert planet Titania where you’ll have to go on a rescue mission. It’s touches like these that help the game to stand out, even today.

In some ways I appreciate Star Fox 64 now more than I did in its day. It managed to successfully tell you a story (albeit a cheesy one) while you play it instead of constantly interrupting you; something many games today still struggle with. It also had a great approach to a non-linear campaign within a hyper-linear genre.

You could complain about its short length. It certainly won’t take long to finish. But this is an arcade style game, almost like a shmup, that demands to be played repeatedly. If you’re looking for a lengthy campaign to play once and be done with like so many of today’s disposable games, you’ll be disappointed. This is from an era when games were meant to be played over and over again, trying to achieve that last medal to unlock Expert Mode.

This review is based on a copy of Star Fox 64 3D purchased by the reviewer.

Unless you’re part of a huge media outlet, and you get a schedule of what you’re going to see, what interviews you’re going to have and when and so forth, managing E3 can be pretty daunting. This is the third time I’ve gone, but only the first time I’ve felt like I had my head above the water’s surface. And even then there is stuff I regret not checking out more deeply, not checking out at all, or not even realizing was there until after the fact. They really ought to add at least one more day, especially since a whole day’s worth of time ends up being eaten up waiting in line. Heaven help you if new hardware is unveiled that you want to see.

Anyway, to wrap up my coverage, I have a few more games I didn’t get enough from to warrant independent articles, but still wanted to give my two cents on.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Once again, Nintendo had units lined up with ten minute demos of their latest major release in the Legend of Zelda series. This time there were three types of experiences: a bird flying mini-game, a taste of the first dungeon, and a battle with the game’s villain Ghirahim. I opted to go with the dungeon, since what I wanted most was a taste of how general combat would feel. This kind of turned out to be a mistake, however, since I really didn’t pick up anything additional from last year’s presentation. After running around and beating up all the enemies, I was left to just solve the puzzle elements which didn’t grab me as much (though the fight with the dual-sword wielding skeleton is still fun). Once again though, I seemed plagued by calibration issues, and I had to point nearly off screen just to center any of the aiming weapons. With all the flashing lights and wireless signals, E3 doesn’t seem to be a great place to showcase motion control games (not to mention getting smacked in the face after coming too close to the Just Dance 3 demonstration).

The Ghirahim battle may have been a better choice, though from watching it seemed fairly formulaic. Funnily enough, I saw a number of people struggle on it. The guy was telegraphing his attacks pretty clearly, as to which way to hold the sword and such. One person I saw burned through all the hearts in the room, all the potions he had on hand and used his fairy to restore after fainting. He was just too timid to run in and attack. Man, what are modern games doing to people? Then again, considering how Ghirahim has a tendency to leer at you and lick his lips, I might have trepidation too.

Star Fox 64 3D

When I was a kid, I don’t think I could even beat the second stage of Star Fox, and that’s when I more or less decided I wouldn’t be a fan of the series. However, I really wanted to give this one a try for Jesse’s sake. The demo I ended up playing, however, was for the four-player battle mode. I’ll admit, it was a bit fun, even though I was still getting used to the basics of control the whole time. For the most part, I tended to hang out away from the action and blast people when they got near, but eventually they figured this strategy out and came at me pretty hard.

The avatar feature is neat, though I wish they’d made it a still image instead of the very choppy video feed. Also, depending on how you like to hold your 3DS, you may just let people have the pleasure of looking straight up your nose.

Ben 10: Galactic Racing

I stopped watching cartoons once they took Courage the Cowardly Dog off the air, so I have no knowledge of anything about Ben 10. However, after playing around with Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon, the D3 reps were eager to nudge me over to their other games. Considering how tucked away their area was, I don’t blame them for wanting the attention. Initially I was going to try White Knight Chronicles 2, which I also know nothing about, but it’s from Level-5. However, a video team just arrived to cover it, so Galactic Racing it was.

To put it plainly, it’s Mario Kart, even having the same weapon pickups and a spacy, Rainbow Road-esque course. Even the representative was candid about comparing it. This is the first racing game of the series, and is intentionally being aimed at a younger audience. It played pretty well, and although I imagine it’s intent is to draw in the Ben 10 crowd, I’d think most people could at least enjoy playing it.

Minecraft on Xperia Play

I doubt I’d have paid this any mind, but a friend really wanted me to try the Xperia Play, since he’s a phone nut. The Xperia Play is Sony-Ericsson’s upcoming Andriod powered smartphone with a slide-out gamepad similar in design to the typical Playstation pad, albeit using touch sensitive circular pads in place of analog sticks. I don’t really care for the feel, but at least your thumbs aren’t covering the screen like they would with an iPhone-style device.

The phone will be getting Minecraft: Pocket Edition. I’m not certain how much it will differ from the actual Minecraft, and the demonstration on display was a build of the old Creative version, wherein you can place blocks willy-nilly and there are no survival aspects. I didn’t care for the controls at all, which relegated building and destroying to the trigger buttons, and jumping and cycling through materials to the main buttons. And yes, it’s ironic that, as much as I’m not a PC gamer, I far prefer the mouse and keyboard controls that make movement and action so easy to pull off in tandem. But I really can’t rule out that it was an issue of being unaccustomed to the controls, and I’m at a loss to think of any better way to setup the controls on a gamepad.

"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.