You know, there are a lot of Nintendo franchises that I really like, such as Kirby, Zelda, Animal Crossing, Metroid, etc. And there are some that I don’t like as much, but I don’t hate either.  Star Fox is one of those franchises.  But for as indifferent as I am about Star Fox, I’ve ended up playing every game in the series, so I guess I at least like it a little bit.  So in honor of the recent release of Star Fox Zero, I thought I’d go through all the Star Fox games and give my quick impressions and personal experiences with each one.  I’m not really rating each of these games on this list, although if I had to say, the first three here would be my favorites.  So hop into your Arwing and let’s take an intergalactic tour of all the Star Fox games!

Star Fox (SNES)

I wasn’t even planning on getting Star Fox right away at first. This was what, 1993?  I was more interested in playing Square RPGs like Secret of Mana instead of space shooters at the time.  But shortly before the game came out, my best friend called me and said, “Dude, you gotta get Star Fox!  I saw a demo of it at the game store, and it’ll blow your mind!”  Now, my best friend really knew what kinds of games I liked back then, so if he said I should get a game, I trusted him.  And he was right!  Straight away the game’s opening intro blew me away, and my best friend and I had fun playing it and we found all the secrets.  Even the hidden stage with the slot machine boss!  Of course, my friend could’ve just been trying to convince me to get the game since HE didn’t have a SNES, but that’s OK, we still had fun playing it together.

Even though this game was pretty mind-blowing at first, it didn’t take long for arcades and other consoles to catch up, and by the next year, Star Fox looked pretty bad. But I still like its old world charm and while we can laugh at how bad it looks now, we can also all agree and respect that it was pretty amazing that the SNES could do stuff like this at the time.  Argonaut helped Nintendo make the first Star Fox game, and I think it’s pretty interesting how closely the two companies worked together on early 3-D gaming.  I heard a rumor that Argonaut was making a 3-D Yoshi game for Nintendo as well, for either the SNES or Nintendo PlayStation.  But when Nintendo decided to do their own thing with the N64, Argonaut released the game on the Sony PlayStation as Croc: Legend of the Gobbos.  Even though that’s just a rumor, I could see how that may be true since Croc and Yoshi look a lot alike.  But it’s just as well that didn’t happen, because I didn’t think the Croc games were that good anyway.

Star Fox 64 (N64)

I imagine this is most people’s favorite Star Fox game, as it took what was fun about the first one and improved on it in just about every way. But like the first game, I had no plans on getting this one right away either.  By the time this game came out, I was a poor college student and couldn’t afford to buy many games, and I guess I didn’t get to review this one for The Dallas Morning News.  But my college roommate’s girlfriend (now his wife), she really wanted to play Star Fox 64, so she bought a copy so she could play it on my N64, as she didn’t have one.  When we graduated, I asked if she wanted her Star Fox 64 game back.  She still didn’t have a N64, so she told me I could just keep it.  So that’s how I got Star Fox 64!

3-D gaming wasn’t as groundbreaking with Star Fox 64 as it was with the first game, but Star Fox 64 was a trailblazer in two other ways. One, it had tons of voice samples.  Now, while voices in game were fairly commonplace on the Sony PlayStation, it was unheard of to have that many voices on a N64 cartridge!  The other thing Star Fox 64 contributed to gaming was that when it came out, it came bundled with the Rumble Pack, which you could plug into the N64 controller to give you force feedback.  Considering that nearly all game controllers now have force feedback built into them, that’s just another way that Nintendo set the groundwork for future game controller designs.

While I didn’t get to see my best friend as much in college (he went to a different school), we did get together in the summer and found all the secrets in Star Fox 64. I don’t know why there are so many internet gags about Star Fox 64 lines like “Do a barrel roll,” and “Can’t let you do that, Star Fox.”  But I guess it has to do with the fact that I imagine that many people have a lot of childhood memories with this game.  The game was even re-released on the 3DS, but I didn’t get that version because I’ve been blind in my left eye since birth and can’t see the 3-D effects, so I’d just have a handheld version of the original game, and I didn’t like it THAT much to get it on a handheld.

Star Fox Adventures (GameCube)

I’m sure many of you know this already, but Star Fox Adventures wasn’t originally a Star Fox game at all. It was an original Zelda-like adventure by Rare starring a fox character on a prehistoric planet.  And that’s what it was called: Dinosaur Planet, and it was going to be on the N64.  In fact, I remember seeing previews of it at E3s I went to back in the late 90s. But Nintendo had them push it back to the GameCube, and told Rare to change it to have Star Fox characters instead.  This isn’t the only time Nintendo’s ever done this.  Kirby’s Epic Yarn wasn’t really a Kirby game at all.  It was originally called World of Fluff and starred Prince Fluff, the player two character.  But Nintendo had it changed to a Kirby game since the characters looked so similar.  While I think it would’ve been nice if Nintendo let the original games shine on their own merits, I can understand why they made the changes.  Nintendo is a business, and like any business, they want their products to get the most bang for the buck.  So if they feel that changing things would make the games sell better, I can understand that.  It certainly worked for Kirby’s Epic Yarn, as it was one of the best-selling Wii games and one of the best-selling Kirby games period.

A lot of people don’t like Star Fox Adventures, and in a way, I can understand. The Star Fox stuff felt very tacked on.  To get from area to area on the planet, you have to play these Arwing shooter sections that felt very uninspired.  And the final boss (you can probably guess who it is), also felt like they just slapped him in there at the last minute.  And while the game looked great for an early GameCube game, you could really tell it was meant to be a N64 title, by the size and scope of the levels.

But personally, I enjoyed Star Fox Adventures. A lot of people hated the annoying characters like Tricky the Triceratops, but I liked him.  But then, annoying characters like Scrappy Doo, Big the Cat, Xianghua, etc., don’t really bother me.  I think it’s funny that Tricky was also a Triceratops character in another Rare game: Diddy Kong Racing.  Plus, with other past Star Fox games, I mostly played them with my best friend, as I wasn’t as good with space shooters.  But by the time Star Fox Adventures came out, I didn’t get to see my best friend as much anymore, so this was the first game in the series that I really beat on my own in its entirety.  I think the only thing I really hated about Star Fox Adventures was that the fanfare they played when you opened a treasure box, no matter how minor the item, was ten times as long as the Zelda treasure fanfare.  It was ridiculous!

Star Fox Assault (GameCube)

The interesting thing about Star Fox Assault is that it was made by Namco! At this time, Nintendo teamed up with Sega and Namco to make home and console games under the name “Triforce.”  You really saw more of this with Sega, as they made the GameCube F-Zero GX and the arcade F-Zero AX (if you’ve played the arcade version, consider yourself lucky).  Namco was going to make an arcade Star Fox, too, but it got cancelled unfortunately.  But since Namco has lots of experience with space shooters like StarBlade and flight games like Ace Combat, it seems natural that Nintendo would have them make this.  Namco even put some of their signatures in Assault, including Special Flags, a longtime item found in many Namco titles, even the new Smash Bros.!  And you could also unlock Xevious as a playable game!

Unfortunately, while I do have the game, I didn’t play Assault very much. I did watch my brother Jeff beat the game, and I liked how they included the planet and Tricky from Adventures (and my favorite character got to shine in the end).  But I really didn’t play it much myself.  At the time, I was probably really busy with work or reviewing lots of other games, and I never got around to it afterward.  Sometimes that happens.  But I heard it wasn’t the best Star Fox game out there, and the on-foot sections were not well thought out.  Too bad they couldn’t get the Ratchet and Clank folks to do those parts.

Star Fox Command (DS)

I got this game for Christmas when it came out. It’s a weird mix of a strategy game and when you encounter enemies, you go into little 3-D dogfight battles.  I’m not a big fan of strategy games, and the dogfight sections of other Star Fox titles were not my favorite, so I didn’t really like this game much.  It’s probably my least favorite in the Star Fox series.  The game had multiple endings, and some of them were just way out there. I heard that in one ending, Fox and Falco quit the Star Fox team to go race F-Zero cars!  While I’m all for silly plots, that’s just a little TOO goofy, even for me!

Star Fox Zero (Wii U)

Before I even start, I wanted to let you know that if you go to Nintendo’s YouTube channel, you can watch a 15 minute cartoon that introduces the game, and it’s awesome. I think they had it made just to promote the game, so I think it’s a one-time thing.  But if this were something I could watch on Saturday morning TV, I totally would.  Anyway, I think the story of Star Fox Zero is just a retelling of either the first or second game, as they kind of wrote themselves into a corner with Command.

So, what do I think of Star Fox Zero? Well, the immature side of me wants to say the play control absolutely sucks.  But the mature side of me wants to say that the controls just have a steep learning curve.  But after beating the game, I’m going to let my immature side win since this is a rather informal review, and I’ll say the play control still sucks.

The problem lies with the motion controls. You can aim your reticule with the gamepad motion controls, but the reticule also moves as you fly, so it can get out of whack pretty quickly.  Luckily you can calibrate your reticule simply by pressing a button, but I found myself pressing that button almost as much as the fire button, and that’s never good.  The other problem is that you must look down at the Wii U gamepad screen to see the cockpit mode, and it’s very confusing when they force you to do this by ‘fixing’ the camera angle on the TV.  And by the time I kind of got used to the controls, the game was over.  If they could’ve just removed the motion controls, I think it would’ve been a better game.  But then, people would’ve complained it was too much like Star Fox 64 (even some of the levels are the same).  You know how some modern Nintendo games will give you an item that makes you invincible if you die too much on a level?  Well, Star Fox Zero does that, too.  Normally I don’t like using those items, but I did it with this game on the last boss because the controls are so bad.  I was just like, “Screw it, let’s get this game over with.”

There is a co-op mode where one person flies and the other shoots, and that may be a little better. Unfortunately, I don’t have many opportunities to try that mode with my brothers or my friends anymore.  If there is one lesson you should get from this blog, it’s that if you have a gaming buddy, TREASURE THOSE MOMENTS, because you never know how long they’ll last.  But after beating the game, I don’t even know how much of the co-op mode I want to try, as there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of replay value.

The game isn’t ALL bad, though. I did like some of the classic nods like the spider boss and fighting the first boss from the original game in All Range mode.  I figured the game was delayed so they could add amiibo support.  And they did, but I would’ve thought they’d make Slippy, Peppy, or Arwing amiibo figures, too.  If you scan the Fox amiibo, your Arwing will look retro, like from the SNES game.  The sound effects and explosions are even retro, and they play the old Corneria song when you are in the first stage!  If you scan Falco, you’ll get the “Black Arwing” which looks more red to me.  I don’t know what’s different about this one, but I think the lasers are stronger and you can lock on to more targets.

It’s probably a very good thing that they delayed Star Fox Zero, as Nintendo’s 2015 titles like Super Mario Maker, Splatoon, and Yoshi’s Woolly World just BLOW Star Fox Zero out of the water. Star Fox Zero isn’t necessarily a bad game, but it’s not a good game either.  I know one thing; it certainly won’t be on my Best Games of 2016 list!

Star Fox Guard (Wii U)

This little tower defense style side game actually came bundled in with Star Fox Zero. It even had its own separate box and disc and everything.  You’d think they could have fit both games onto one disc, since I’m sure they use the same assets.  Star Fox Zero even has a demo for Guard, so I guess at one point; they planned or plan to sell each game separate.  They could’ve at least put both discs in one box like they’ve done with other games.  But I won’t complain too much about something so small as that.

In the game, you work for Grippy Toad, who owns a metal mining business and is also Slippy Toad’s uncle. Of all the characters they had to use for this game, it’s Slippy.  Oh well, at least Grippy Toad has that Texan cattle ranch motif going for him.  Anyway, he has mining towers set up on the planets in Star Fox, and they are protected by a maze of walls and a network of cameras.  Pesky yet cute robots will invade the bases, and if they make it to the center and destroy the tower, it’s Game Over.  So what you must do is find them on the big screen using the cameras, and then tap them on the gamepad screen.  Each of the cameras, which were built and designed by Slippy, has a gun on each one and you can aim and shoot at the robots in view.  Shoot at all the waves of attack bots to complete the level.

You know how in Star Fox Zero, you can aim your gun by moving around the Wii U gamepad? Well here you can’t, you must do it by moving the right stick around.  But this is the game that could really use that kind of motion control to make things easier.  You can also design your own waves of robot troops in a set maze for other players to challenge, which is kind of neat.  But I wish they could let you design the mazes as well.  This is another Star Fox game that would benefit with more than one person playing, as the other people watching could shout out camera numbers as an extra set of eyes.  The game has amiibo support as well.  Once per day you can scan Falco or Fox and have them do an air raid on a level and clear out all robots if things get too hectic, and it’s really handy.

This game was originally conceived by Shigeru Miyamoto as a game idea when the Wii U was first shown at E3 a few years back. It even has some of his signature trademark cuteness, as the robots are pretty adorable and I hate shooting them.  They’ll even look up at the camera if they are near one that you are operating.  Although this game kind of makes me a little worried about the future of the Wii U if they’re just pooping it out with this game.  It’s like they’re saying, “Oh crap, we need to get this game idea out the door before we start with our new console.”  And that makes me a little sad.

Conclusions

And that’s pretty much all the Star Fox games! There have been some cancelled ones, though.  The most famous is Star Fox 2, which was going to be on the SNES.  I even remember seeing preview screens for it in magazines back in the day!  It’s amazing how much of that game was finished.  But I read that 75 percent of that game went on to be in Star Fox 64, and the other 25 percent is in Star Fox Zero.  There was also going to be one on the Virtual Boy, but it’s just as well that got cancelled as I wouldn’t be able to play it anyway since you need both eyes to see the 3-D effects of the Virtual Boy, and I’ve been blind in my left eye since birth.  There is also a Star Fox game watch thing, but I’ve never played it.  However, the National Videogame Museum that I volunteer at has one on display!

There have been lots of Star Fox cameos, like in F-Zero and of course, the Smash Bros. games. But I think my favorite cameo is in WarioWare: Smooth Moves on the Wii.  In Nintendo-fanatic 9-Volt’s boss stage, you play a recreation of the first level from the SNES game, and the boss is now a giant polygonal R.O.B.!  In the comments section, let me know what your favorite Star Fox games are.  Do you have a favorite Star Fox character?  Tell me in the comments as well.  My favorite is Peppy. You’d think it would be Slippy, since I like annoying characters and frogs are one of my favorite animals.  But nope, Peppy is my favorite for no apparent reason.  That’s all for now!  Later!  –Cary

Tags: Game Reviews