Star Fox 64

The Good
One of the most interesting things for me is the characters. Although other than the main characters, they all seem quite shallow at first, all are intensely likable, even the enemies. There are also another couple of good guys to meet who have more depth, though they aren't really explained that well. The four main characters (one being you, the others your wingmen) all seem to have a bond - even when they're all calling Slippy an idiot. Keeping your wingmen in action is a crucial part of the game, they'll often get themselves into trouble and yelling for help, and thanking you when you save them (except Falco, who says such nice things as "Well gee, I've been saved by Fox, how swell!" in his best sarcastic voice). The bosses are done well, also, being very typically boss-like and taunting you, and being incredibly surprised when you beat them.

The Arwings look cool, and the Landmaster tank levels (especially the train level) are done well and are a nice diversion. Also, as well as the regular corridor style levels where you fly pretty much straight forward, there are also "all range mode" levels (and bosses) which leave you free to fly in any direction.

It's fast paced - more so than Starfox for the SNES which is very sluggish - and is completable in about an hour going through the hard path. It's also easy enough for this - thought collecting the medals by getting enough kills on each level is significantly harder.

The Bad
The multiplayer isn't very good. Fun, but it seems like it was just tacked on the end. It's also ridiculously easy for most levels, where nothing except some of the bosses move randomly. All enemies fly in the same path on the corridor levels. Some of them don't even shoot at you, but in pre-determined directions. You can complete the game without losing a life time after time after only four or five play-throughs, not even getting hit on some of the earlier levels. The submarine level is quite slow and dull. Also, the game doesn't seem to fit into the plot of the original SNES version at all - it seems they want to pretend it didn't exist.

The Bottom Line
One of the better light games for the N64. Fun, easy to learn, replayable to an extent, and with very likable characters.

The Good
The game is very fast-paced when it comes to action: You fly around in a spaceship while dozens of enemies fly around and your friends and you are blasting away at them. The fights are pretty big for Nintendo 64 standards and there are also huge boss-fights that you will undoubtedly love. During the missions you will also have to deal with other spacecraft that dodge your bullets, try to flank you or even just cause a head-on collision. Your friends (Falco, Peppy and that frog) will also ask for your help when somebody is chasing them down, so attention is definitely a requirement when playing this game.

I like it that if one of your comrades is downed during combat you will have to do a mission without them while they are at a docking bay for repairs. A few times I caught myself ignoring their cries for help, but I had to pay for them when I only had Falco backing me up in the final mission. It's a very clear punishment or reward system, especially since the team-members each have a different style of fighting and offer different services (The frog for example displays boss-health which is rather useful).

It's pretty cool that the outcome of certain battles determines which stage you will visit next. The most obvious example was on a snowy stage with a bomb, I had a time limit to kill four guys and then defuse the bomb, but if I didn't make it in time I would just go to a different stage than I would if I did make it in time. As long as I didn't fail the mission altogether by dying it would be fine, which is a much more logical choice to me than having me lose a life and replay the entire thing.

Something that buggers me a lot about the Timesplitters franchise is that enemies always make certain moves like rolling or diving that you can't, giving them an unfair advantage over you. In Stafox 64 however you can do all that stuff too and you are even told to do them on a regular basis. You got boosts, breaks, barrel rolls, somersaults and many other tricks up your sleeve that your enemies will also try to pull off. Justice!

The game is pure, arcade fun which (for me at least) means that it's a relatively short game with a lot of replay value. The game took me maybe two and a half hours to beat on my first playthrough, but after replaying it a few times I keep finding new things or events happen differently than they did the last time. I heard people say the game is too short, but I rather have a short game that manages to tell a story with the time it is given than Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas that is spread over hours of repetitive gameplay with a story that is as lovable as a mossy brick.

The multi-player is Fan-Tas-TIC! It puts you in all-range mode with your friends and only has one simple goal: Shoot the hell out of them. The game's fast-paced combat are even better with more than one person playing and it never fails to amuse me. Why don't we make games like this anymore?

There are a few missions in which you take control of a tank, essentially it functions the same way as a the spacecraft, but you are limited to the ground (naturally). The reason why I like this is because it puts you into a more harmful position ,you can't fly away or anything and there are still aircraft up there who are hunting for you. A quick snack to break up the dogfights and the tank is also playable in multi-player, so that is sweet as well.

The Bad
Aiming is not always very easy to do because you are controlling the plane with the same stick, this forced me to rely on using the charged shots quite a lot since I needed the guider to help me hit the enemies. Another problem is that the plane is always in the way of your sight and if you got first-person you don't have the advantage of seeing your surroundings very well. A more zoomed-out camera or perhaps a smaller plan would have been preferable here.

While the AI is very eager to call out for your help during combat, they are not as eager to return the favor on a regular basis. Instead of shooting the enemy chasing me they would yell at me for not slowing down so I could do it myself. They also always need your help and never that of other, closer members of the team and they also never go for the objectives which is kind of annoying for obvious reason. During boss-fights they also do this, they are fly around taking care of small-time enemies while the big baddy of the hour fires rockets at them.

The Bottom Line
Starfox 64 is a game with almost no flaws that are worth mentioning, it knows what it wants to be and pulls it off to the best of its abilities, leaving us with a genuinely enjoyable space-shooter with an arcade feel to it. Lylat Wars is the kind of game you'd likely enjoy if you like quick action games more than sandbox titles or big adventure games. However, even if you do like games with stories that go on for hours you may still like this game as a quick break.

Due to its lack of realism the only ones who may dislike this game are the modern warfare fans who prefer actual military planes over the sci-fi setting we got here. Either way, I really enjoyed this game and I hope you will do too. Until next time!

The Good
Quick, pick-up-and-play fun

The Bad
No level select, the "hard" route is the least fun.

The Bottom Line
Star Fox 64 (or Lylat Wars as I knew it as a kid) is a fast-paced on-rails shooter made by Nintendo. The gameplay is extremely solid. Fox’s Awring has lasers that you can charge up for a lock-on, along with limited bombs. Movement is fast and precise and you can perform loops and barrel rolls – the latter reflects bullets.

If you complete levels normally, you’ll go through a really fun route through the game. On top of the on-rails levels, you’ll also encounter “all range mode” where you can fly in 3D. These typically aren’t as “cinematic” as the on-rails levels, but still a lot of fun.

Slippy will get attacked by one of the bosses and will crash land on a planet, here you get to use the Landmaster, a tank that is also really fun to use. You can hover temporally and barrel rolls will now move you across most of the screen.

To get to the credits for the first time, Star Fox 64 is a very short game, but that’s because it’s made to be replayed for a high score, and because it’s so much fun, you don’t mind doing so, trying to get a higher score than last time – but that’s not all of it.

Most missions in the game has a secret objective, complete this and you’ll get “Mission Accomplished” and to a different mission, the “hard route” will take you across some more challenging missions, although personally this is my least favourite route of the games – while all missions but one of the missions in Star Fox 64 are good, I do think these are some of the weaker ones, plus the one bad mission is in this route - The underwater level. It’s slow, plodding and is rather boring. The bombs are replaced with infinite torpedoes which also light up the way, because the level is also dark and dreary. This is easily the worst part of the game, but at least it’s just the one mission.

Some of my favourite missions are in the middle, including the best all-range mission as you fight an Independence Day-style UFO and the second Landmaster tank mission as you chase a train.

Once you’ve played all the levels, there are also gold medals to unlock, which are extremely difficult. A level select at this point would be nice so you wouldn’t have to work through previous levels, but it does provide something to work towards.

Star Fox 64 is a incredibly fun game, and one you can just have a quick blast through every now and then.