When news of a Nintendo 64 edition of Star Fox was announced last year, I fondly recalled the groundbreaking original game for the SNES console. In 1991, it simply blew away any other title and still ranks as one of the best games of all time. It's enough to bring tears to my eyes. As soon as the Japanese version of Star Fox 64 arrived, I was sprinting for the home-theater room. After years of false promises about the SNES sequel, the pressure was really on Nintendo. But all my fears of a weak-ass game with fancy graphics proved unfounded: Star Fox 64 is the business. With exceptional and innovative titles such as Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, Blast Corps, and now Star Fox 64, Nintendo is more than making up for a lack of quantity.
The original cast of lovable space varmints, the Star Fox Team, takes up the mission to save the planet Corneria from the evil space critters, the Star Wolf Team, and their boss Andross. The story line may not be anything to discuss in philosophy class, but the game mechanics and design are close to perfect. Like the original, some of Star Fox 64’s 15 worlds, or levels, are on rails with limited movement. Others are in 3-D arenas where flight is restricted only by the perimeter boundaries. Barrel rolls and Immelmann maneuvers in Star Fox’s Arwing craft are crucial for survival. And the action is positively cinematic. The enemies, environments, and bosses are meticulously rendered, and even when the action borders on the insane (which is often), frame-rate slowdown is minimal. Only the lack of a Save feature keeps Star Fox 64 from being perfect.
Nintendo has introduced the infamous Rumble Pak, a curious plug-in that vibrates when something onscreen explodes. Industry folks have a joke about game testers’ penchant for playing Star Fox 64 with the Rumble Pak planted firmly in their groin area (instead of in their hands where it belongs). The truth is that the Pak adds a new, albeit minor, dimension to immersive gameplay. Star Fox 64 features a staggering 700 audio blurbs from 23 central characters. This apparently helps a player’s success rate quite a bit, but since I don’t understand Japanese (damn those early foreign release dates!), I have to wing it. I like to believe this cruel language barrier is the reason I so often crash to the ground in a fiery ball.
Star Fox 64: US$69.95. Nintendo: +1 (206) 882-2040, or on the Web.
This article originally appeared in the September issue of Wired magazine.
