Star Fox 64 3D

Vlad Piranha · Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2011 10:41 pm Post subject: Star Fox 64 3D

Anybody who knows me would know that I had to get my hands on this on its release day. The original still ranks in my top 3 games of all time. I won't waste anyone's time with the details of the game since it's already a classic.

While the concept of a remake can often produce results such as Turtles in Time: Reshelled, every once in a while someone goes back and does a game over leaving behind what made it great in the first place. Super Mario All-Stars, Resident Evil for the Game Cube, and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes come to mind. Even Star Fox 64 was technically a fantastic remake. Star Fox 64 3D takes that concept a bit further. I've never been so impressed with preservation of the original design as I am with this game. I figured the general idea would be the same, but with modified dialogue and sound effects, sort of like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past/Four Swords was on the Game Boy Advance.

The 3D is a nice feather in this game's hat, but it wasn't necesary to make it great and I often leave it off, especially in Battle Mode. Graphics are really good in this. There's a delicate balancing point in this game between old and new. While the capabilities of the hardware are enough to really push the envelope, the original cartoon style of the art design has been preserved, so it looks like the Nintendo 64 title, but with more detail. The original cloudy/blurry look that every Nintendo 64 game had was very much a hardware problem. That's a thing of the past as your vision in the Aquas mission won't be obscured like the old days. The water in the game is my favorite graphical effect. It has the same realistic rippling to it as most PC games now. When you dive your craft close to it, your wings will blast up mist. Beautiful.

Star Fox alters almost no dialogue, yet has every line redone in high quality by the original voice actors (Some of whom are from Team Fotress 2, look it up). I've never heard of someone going to these kinds of lengths to update the game with the original crew. The Casio quality music from the original has also been cleaned up and really shines in its new orchestrated style. Overall, the sound design is bloody brilliant.

Gameplay is almost exactly identical to the original's single player campaign, modified to accept additional new control schemes based on the new hardware. These kinds of motion controls are strictly optional and are off by default instead of crammed down your throat like so many DS games' controls, including the last Star Fox game. The circle pad will take a little getting used to, but I still managed to medal effortlessly on the Corneria mission in my first attempt. I haven't been brushing up over the years either, it just imitates the 64 so closely that I could leave procedural memory in charge. While no game pad will ever again meet my satisfaction like my blue N64 controller, this is a damn good stand in.

The only part I have yet to truly put under the magnifying glass is the battle mode. I spend the entire summer of '97 exchanging blasters with friends, Supa among them, so I'll be looking forward to really diving in and testing it. The game does have bots to duel with, however. They're fun to fight for a while, but the thrill turned to irritation as they'd usually fight cheap and win as a result. Their signiture tactic is shooting your wings off and then flying straight at you with their guns blazing. You can still do rolls to deflect their blasters, but there isn't a strategy in the game to avoid them flying into you kamikaze style. This is often how they'd end fights and they'll win by default. The fact that they're flawless pilots means that you really can't escape them either. No matter what, it seems they'll kill you. It doesn't help when a Free For All seup feels like a 3 on 1, either.

To sum things up, this is exactly what I've wanted for some time. I've been so disappointed with previous SF releases, especially Command, since they avoided so many of the designs in gameplay that made the original such a classic. I always said that someone just needed to make another game like SF64 and the series would be back on track. Let's hope that this is a new beginning instead of just nostalgia.

SD TR!G · Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2011 9:39 pm Post subject:

Starfox 64 is just another paving stone on the road to Banjo-Kazooie 3D

anonymousity · Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2011 2:51 pm Post subject:

I want this so bad. Going to have to get a 3DS soon. Nice review!
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