Star Fox 64

Rail shooters are generally very minimal games, usually lacking content. You rarely get anything more than a very short campaign, limited forms of strategy, and relentless waves of enemies only placed to suck up your credits in arcades. Star Fox has always stood out in this crowd with its intricate action, gameplay diversity, and replay value. Star Fox 64 not only brings these elements to the next level, but is arguably the greatest rail shooter ever made.

Fox McCloud is the prime leader of the Star Fox team and the protagonist of the game, set on a mission to save the Lylat star system from the mad scientist Andross. James McCloud, Peppy Hare, and Pigma Dengar make up the elite Star Fox team, tasked with investigating the mad scientist Andross. After being deceived by Pigma, James and Peppy are ultimately captured by Andross, with Peppy only barely escaping; while James' fate is ultimately lost. Several years following, James' son Fox leads a new Star Fox team, alongside Falco Lombardi, Slippy Toad, and Peppy. With the aid of his father's spirit, Fox and his team now attempt to halt Andross' plans and save the Lylat star system. Despite its cliche and predictable roots, I feel the narrative that this game exhibits is perfect for this type of game. Nothing presented here is too overblown or given too much screen time, but rather adequately featured without ever overstaying its welcome. Sure, the story is nothing absolutely original, but I found it to be pervasively enjoyable.

To put it simply, Star Fox 64 is a game about shooting stuff in space. It's a rail shooter, which means that every level is on a fixed path with a simple goal of reaching the end without losing all health, all while blasting through conflicting projectiles along the way. You can move about the X and Y axes, but the Z axis is specifically locked. Even though the N64's analog stick still feels like it was made out of an old Lego set, this movement in the respect to this particular game plays good. Adhering to the odd controller, the game's controls in a large sense are perfectly competent, and to some extent, intuitive.

Star Fox 64 relies upon alternative paths and multiple playthroughs for its core experience. The bare minimum in order to complete the story once is just north of two hours, but restricting yourself to that would simply be a shame. Different endings occur when taking these different routes. There are tons of medals and collectibles to obtain along the way, and even though you'll finish the game in one sitting, there's plenty here to keep you coming back for more. Speaking about finishing the game in just one sitting, it's practically required for this game. Granted, it's considered old today, but in 1997, the save system was prevalent in nearly every game released; Star Fox 64 was one that did not have one. It's annoying that you have to be devoted to sit down and play this game to completion in a single sitting, but the game is designed well enough to adhere for situations like that. Multiplayer is in here as well, and while it was novel at the time of release, it has definitely not aged well and is rough to go back to today.

With the exception of maybe Donkey Kong 64, Star Fox 64 has technically aged better than any of the N64's entire catalog. Its polygonal graphics are somewhat minimal to begin with, not showing too much detail that would have become extremely outdated today. The character animation is passable, as it was intentionally given puppet-esque features; a feature that still works today. Voice acting is cheesy but memorable in all the right ways; all while not being terrible like other games of the era (ie - Resident Evil). The game's soundtrack is also great, not quite on the level of quality that would come one year later with Ocarina of Time, but still rather excellent.

I cannot urge people enough to play this game if you have yet to do so. At its core, it's simply one of the best and polished rail shooters ever produced. Sure, it's annoying that you can't save your game (something I want to say the 3DS remake fixed) and the main story's length is rather short, but it really is something that should be played. It ultimately makes the wait for Star Fox Zero so much harder.