Star Fox 64 is the Nintendo 64 game that I have the strongest, most powerful attachment to despite never owning the console. When I would spend summers with my dad circa 2000, I would hang out with a girl in the neighborhood who had one. Because her family was rich, we had access to just about every quality title the console had—Diddy Kong Racing, GoldenEye 007, SSX Tricky, and of course Star Fox 64. Playing Nintendo’s Switch 2 remake of the game, I understand a little better why that game has remained in my pantheon of fond video game memories—that game, then and now, is simply cool as shit.
The rule of cool drips from this game. You’re Fox McCloud, leader of a mercenary squad of ace pilots called in to help fight against a mad scientist and save your little corner of the galaxy. That’s a movie I’d watch today even without the handful of attractive pilots that make me question where I lie on the furry spectrum. And playing that movie as a game on the Switch 2 was just as fun as I remember it.
For this remake, Nintendo has enhanced the “this is fucking rad” cinematic feeling of the original with new missions and cutscenes. Now, instead of getting scrolling text that explains what happened to James McCloud, the original leader of the Star Fox team and Fox McCloud’s dad, you get to see for yourself how that goes down. Since the game is mostly a one-for-one recreation of the original with massively improved graphics, I wasn’t expecting much in the way of storytelling. But I was surprised at how well the developers fleshed out the narrative without bogging down the story with too much exposition.
In between missions, the game features little interludes that offer glimpses of the Star Fox team and their dynamic. Fox’s hotheaded impulsiveness is very in-your-face and it often clashes against fellow pilot Falco Lombardi’s massive douchebaggery. (I can fix him, though.) Peppy Hare, the elder statesman of the team, is suffocatingly paternal while Slippy Toad bounces and waves and giggles, completely oblivious to the fact that he’s in a warzone. It’s little additions like these that elevate the game beyond simply being an (outstanding) on-rails arcade shooter into something more complete.
There were some moments where I missed the older game, however, particularly in the voice acting. The remake lacks the crackly, radio-like sound that played in the N64 original whenever you got a message which, in my memory, helped the game nail the “you’re really a fighter pilot” feeling that made Star Fox 64 so damned cool. I kept waiting for Rob to chime in with his robotic, “Location confirmed, sending supplies” only to get a cheerier, more humanlike Rob that just sounded wrong to me. However, not all the voice acting is disappointing. I had to get up and take a lap because of the visceral reaction I had when I heard Star Wolf growl, “Can’t let you do that, Star Fox.” Damn.
I don’t remember Star Fox being difficult to play as a kid, and going into the remake I expected to have an easy time. Not so. If you wanna win, you gotta put in the work, and I appreciated how Star Fox will not let you pass a level by just blithely strolling through it and pew-pewing anything that gets in your way. I lost an early fight against the Star Wolf squad, unable to bring them down before the timer ran out. After a few failed attempts, I started using the boost to catch up to them instead of remaining banked in a perpetual right-hand turn waiting for an enemy to wander into my reticle. I had to add minimap checks into my attack pattern to scout where they were, somersaulting and u-turning to get the drop on them.
Multiplayer mode required an even higher level of focus and expertise. Playing against bots, I got shot down so often and so quickly because, in my hubris, I had forgotten the ancient prayer of “do a barrel roll”—a phrase that was so often repeated, so ingrained in my elder millennial psyche through memes and jokes, that I’m sure it’s etched on my bones. The margin for error is very thin, requiring incredible focus to juggle your position, your enemy’s position, where power-ups are and your allies’ health and calls for help. Star Fox made me feel like I was playing a game with my whole body instead of mashing buttons to pass the time, and that kind of kinetic engagement is incredibly satisfying.
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Back-Of-the-box-quote
“It actually *is* your father’s Star Fox 64.”
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Developer
Velan Studios
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Type of Game
On-rails arcade fighter pilot shooter
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Liked
Narrative enhanced by new cutscenes, deceptively complex combat.
Equally satisfying was the game’s variety and brevity. Between deaths and restarts, it only took between 30-45 minutes to complete the campaign, but one finish wasn’t enough. There were so many secrets, akin to finding warp pipes in Super Mario World, that opened up new missions and areas of exploration. That 30-45 minute campaign run turned into several hours of replay time, ignoring objectives and frantic calls for help from my teammates to look for the routes that would open up new areas. And some of them are tough! I haven’t even begun to seriously tackle the game’s challenge mode which adds additional objectives to each level, because some of what the game’s asking me to do doesn’t feel possible without yet more hours of playtime. Besides, I’ve already gotten what I wanted out of this game: Childhood memories, once blunted by time, returned to me in sharper focus and a sick-ass package.
