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Retro Star Fox 64 Appreciation Thread

Grant

Grant

Ah, yeah! This is Grantenin'!
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I think everyone generally agrees that Star Fox 64 is the best in the series, and one of the best games made for the N64 — personally I think it deserves more credit than that, even. There's honestly not a lot of gaming experiences like this at all, and none that do it better. It's not merely the best on-rails shooter, though it is that, it's also one of the greatest games ever made.

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I first played this game when I was 11 and the presentation at the time absolutely blew me away. The voice acting was incredible, the graphics were phenomenal, and the brand new Rumble feature — wow! It all added up to something very special. All of these elements still hold up today, too. The voice acting has been meme-ified to death, but the performances are very solid and convincing. The story is engaging, simple but very effective, with proper stakes and a very good backstory that comes into play when you see Pigma with the Star Wolf team.

I've returned to the game countless times, mostly because the gameplay is so addicting, and it's a game that is finished nicely in an hour sitting. To be honest, I've never been great at this game — I've yet to collect all the medals, although now that I'm playing it on the NSO Expansion Pack, I'm finally making real progress toward that (update: got 'em!!) — but it's a game that is simply so much fun to replay, I've loved it anyway.

There's a lot to say about this game, and frankly I'm barely scratching the surface here. But I wanted to open it up with a few prompts.
  • What's your favorite/least favorite world to play?
  • Who is your favorite/least favorite wingman — Peppy, Slippy, or Falco?
  • Who is your favorite/least favorite Star Wolf rival — Wolf, Pigma, Leon, or Andrew?
  • Which boss fight is the most fun?
  • What's your personal high score?
My answers to these prompts...

  • Favorite World: Corneria or Zoness
  • Least Favorite World: Aquas or Titania
  • Favorite Wingman: I love them all but Peppy Hare. I mean really though I should choose Falco. Why did I even ask this if I can't answer it.
  • Least Favorite Wingman: I can't choose. I guess it has to be Slippy but I do love him too.
  • Best Star Wolf Rival: Pigma. He's so awful! Why is he always bringing up how "daddy screamed REAL good before he DIED." Or lines like "Too bad dad's not here to see ya fail!" It's not just that he's a traitor and murderer, he's also a troll. What a villain. Wolf is obviously great and Leon is suitably creepy with his lines like "I think I'll torture you for awhile!"
  • Least Best Star Wolf Rival: Andrew. He's just there out of nepotism and it shows. We get it, your uncle is Andross!
  • Best Boss: Any of the Star Wolf fights, especially on Venom, but I also really like the Sector X boss for the stakes (he might get Slippy!). The best boss personalities are the Macbeth train driver and the Zoness sea captain.
  • Personal High Score: 1256
 
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I have the sizzling take that Star Fox Zero is better, but 64 comes close. I might need to play Zero again though. The first time I played it I loved it.

I used to be 64 almost every day when I was a kid. I can recite all the dialogue in some of the levels, that was how much I played it. There was always one criticism I had about the game though: The "true" ending didn't have the on-rail stage of Venom and only has the Star Wolf team fight before going for Andross. I felt this could have at least included a slightly modified version of Venom 1 ending in a Star Wolf fight or something else other than just throwing a Star Wolf fight with beefed up ships at you.

It's a fantastic game though, and I definitely played it on NSO when that came out.
 
Star Fox 64 definitely is one of my favorite N64 games, so many memories playing it and it still holds up well today imo.

I can basically tell all the game's lines while playing because I just know it by heart at this point hahaha!

I love the Asteroid Field level, that bonus section you can access is awesome and trippy as heck. Falco is best wingmate, dude is cocky af and I love it, Slippy is worst because it's Slippy. Favorite boss fight is True Andross and the escape segment that follows, that or the tank/train boss.

Just booted the cart to check my high score, mine is 1271.
 
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Hell yeah, this is about as close to perfect as a game can be. Everything just hits. The on rails design has never been done better, and it's endlessly replayable as the game is short and you can always get a better score.

I have only one criticism of this game, and it's the all-range mode sections. They are just not particularly fun or well designed, and always make me miss the on rails action. Unfortunately then Zero doubled down on that aspect and made it all very slow.
 
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Grant said:
I think everyone generally agrees that Star Fox 64 is the best in the series,
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OG StarFox (SNES) has better music and doesn’t have the awful Landmaster and submarine segments (flight-based all-range mode is okay), so it takes the top spot for me. Also less blabbering.
 
I love Star Fox 64 but it's the third best rail shooter of its gen for me after Sin & Punishment and Panzer Dragoon Zwei.
 
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Still one of my top 5 games of all time. How I picked up the game is kind of a cool story. 1997~1998 I was standing in Toys R Us with Geoffrey Dollars in my hand (ask your parents) Now I had just come out of seeing Star Wars for the first time and I was in super fan mode (still am, screw the haters) and there was Star Wars Shadows of the Empire sitting on the shelf. Now I was totally ready to buy the game but I saw this other game Star Fox sitting on the shelf with a BIG box and a RUMBLE PACK! It looked so cool. Animals flying in fighter jets. It was so tempting. After 20 minutes and my mother giving me the side eye look I went with Star Wars. I was actually half way to the register with the slip for Star Wars but I suddenly changed my mind and ran back to grab the slip for Star Fox 64.

I was hooked from the beginning. Moving around felt good. The voice acting was top notch (I really took that for granted back in the day). There was good variety in the levels and settings. The bosses were awesome as well. I love how well the game still holds up today, almost 25 years later. I am working on getting the medals again. Some are still hard to get.

Now to answer your questions:

  • What's your favorite/least favorite world to play?
    • Favorite would be either Zones or Bolse. For some reason I love that satellite level. I also have a soft spot for the train level.
    • Least favorite would be Titana. Worst of the landmaster levels and all just to save Slippy? Nah.

  • Who is your favorite/least favorite wingman — Peppy, Slippy, or Falco?
    • Peppy is the favorite. Do a barrel roll!
    • Least favorite would be Falco because he is a dick. I feel bad for Slippy. He has an uncle named Grippy

  • Who is your favorite/least favorite Star Wolf rival — Wolf, Pigma, Leon, or Andrew?
    • Favorite would be Wolf. Dude felt like a legit rival to Star Fox
    • Least favorite would be Pigma. Dude betrayed dad and Peppy!

  • Which boss fight is the most fun?
    • That is a tie between Star Wolf on Venom and

  • What's your personal high score?
    • I'd have to check my N64 cart but I know it is somewhere in the 1200's

Hopefully Nintendo finds that magic again in a future Star Fox game.
 
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It felt like a Star Fox made to the standard of a 3D Mario or Zelda. Even the marketing had a blockbuster feel about it. One of my top 20 games of all time.
 
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Aww yeah. 🦊

I havent played most of the Starfox series and lordy do I suck at the og SNES game!

But damnit do I love, and spent loads of time with, StarFox 64!

The 4-way splitscreen multiplayer was simple but hilarious fun as well. (There is potential for fleshing out there).

I still beed to get the 3DS remake. I e heard that is effectively the definitive version.

Also, lets see StarFox: Kamiya Vision
 
SF64 is within my top 10 favorite games of all time, and even beyond the N64 era, it has some of the best audio/visual design in a game. Some of the most memorable levels and characters and bosses ever crafted. Pacing is PERFECT, no matter what path you go on.

I enjoy Star Fox Zero a lot, but it could've been better if it wasn't so shackled to Star Fox 64.
 
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uncleoptimus said:
The 4-way splitscreen multiplayer was simple but hilarious fun as well. (There is potential for fleshing out there).
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You are not kidding. I love the campaign in Star Fox games first and foremost, but if Nintendo ever put serious effort into a Star Fox multiplayer mode, it could be a big hit. There is so much potential there, considering we don't have very many flying shooter MP games on the Switch.
 
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I really need to revisit this game at some point. I have the UK Lylat Wars which came with the Rumble Pak (it was the first N64 game to use it). Loved the game back in the day, haven't played it since 1997 :)
 
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It's a great game but I'll always prefer the original. Put the original soundtrack in this game though and we might be on to something
 
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This is probably the best place to share A Fox In Space too, right? Totally nails the vibe and characters of the franchise. Unfortunately there's still only one episode, but there's also a bunch of shorter clips on the YouTube channel that are also great.

 
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I finally got all medals today! Sector Z was definitely the hardest one and I relied on the Switch's save-state feature to do it... would've taken a LONG time if I had to replay up until that point for each attempt on the original hardware.

Now to try all-medaling the worlds in Expert mode! Has anybody here done this?
 
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I love Star Fox 64 so much. I bought the N64 kinda late, so it was a day one purchase with my console (along with Super Mario 64). I played those game countless times.

I just started a NSO+ replay and I'm having a blast. The Star Wolf battles still get me hyped!
 
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The infinite game. I think to this day we have a lot to learn on videogames just by seeing it. A short but infinitely replayable game which lets you customise just how much exactly do you want from it and one's biggest motivation is simply beating their own scores. Seriously, I just think games could be a lot better if we could look back into this arcadey template. W don't need more than that for a good time.
 
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