Nintendo has unquestionably the most vast assortment of IPs of any gaming company. Many of their franchises are extremely consistent in quality, regularity of releases, and in gameplay. Fans of Pokemon, Super Mario, Legend of Zelda, and Fire Emblem basically know the core of what to expect despite the innovations from title to title and when they're due for another game in a 20 to 30 year running series.
Then on the other hand you have several beloved series that are so sporadic or so experimental that its fans can never really determine if they should have expectations at all! Certainly fans of Donkey Kong had over a decade that was so full of strange experimentation (bongo music games, bongo platformers, Clu-Clu-likes, bongo racing games) that it would put most people's college years to shame. Will we get a new Kid Icarus game ever? Can Shin'en just be put in charge of F-Zero?
This brings us to yet another 'B-tier' franchise that keeps floating off into space before we are graced again with another unpredictable release: Star Fox! I have a good relationship with this series and have found that its cheesy action and (generally) short games make for really fun ways to be immersed and focus more on improving my ability than merely clearing a stage. Last year in the run-up to the return of Star Fox with Zero I managed to play each of the games in the series, but now with the franchise getting attention all over again with the SNES Classic, I thought it would be fun to do a little write-up about the games!
Star Fox - 1993
Although there were various prototypes prior to this game being released, this game marks the first in the Star Fox franchise. I think many people would argue today that it doesn't hold up at all, but having replayed it last year I think I can safely say it is a lot of fun and feels less like a proof of concept than it does a full-fledged game. The sound effects and gibberish noises that represent the banter between your squad are iconic and even the visuals for as chunky and strange as they are remain distinctive nearly two and a half decades later. Surely the game is difficult, but it controls quite well and has multiple pathways that each offer good variety and with it essentially an easy, medium, and hard difficulty following the intro level. The bosses are all generally weird whether you're fighting a giant slot machine or a massive space monkey named Andross. Each route can be cleared in about an hour, but it's not about seeing the game through so much as it is about grabbing that arcade like high score. Glad to see this finally getting a rerelease in 2017 on the SNES Classic Mini and I hope people give it a fair shake.
Star Fox 64 - 1997
Most people who have any familiarity with the series would say that 64 is the highlight and has remained so for 20 years. Those people would be right! Star Fox 64 took all of the rough edges that were in the original game and effectively smoothed them into the premiere action game of that era. Full voice acting, extremely different paths to follow, the debut of the Rumble Pack, a variety of vehicles, and even a well done multiplayer all helped Star Fox 64 become a classic. I've played through this one so many times over the years I can practically play through a run in my mind. You all know the quotes and the characters that gave 64 so much personality and it's the real reason beyond the core gameplay that I think this game has such staying power.
Unfortunately, I think Nintendo didn't really know what to do with the series after this game and that's kind of evident in that it's effectively a reboot of the original Star Fox and since then this has been the same one they refer back to each time they try to bring the series back to basics (gameplay and storyline wise). If you have the opportunity to play the 3DS version of Star Fox 64 I would say that's a great option these days, if overly expensive.
Star Fox Adventures - 2002
Back in 2002 I was so excited to pick this game up but I probably dropped out of it only about half way in. At that time, I really did not appreciate 3D Zelda games and for all intents and purposes that's what Star Fox Adventures is! There's a good reason as to why Rare turned their new IP of Dinosaur Planet into a Star Fox game (Miyamoto thought their lead looked like Fox and so there ya go: Make it a Star Fox game). Last year though I began the game from the beginning all over again and discovered a real fondness for it.
There is hardly anything more bizarre than Star Fox Adventures. It has a rock monster with a bad Scottish accent who helps teleport you around, dinosaurs all over the place, bafomdads, and Fox uses a magical bow staff the entire game as a weapon instead of a blaster like you'd expect. You start off the game playing as Krystal until she gets captured by the primary antagonist General Scales. It also has a pretty familiar formula for those who are used to Ocarina of Time's gameplay and progression.
Alright so the game actually plays smoothly and is still very good looking 15 years after the fact. The plot is weird as hell and it is definitely unfinished in the same way that Dark Souls is unfinished in the final act. You can practically see the stitching and how rushed they were to get this one out the door. It is flawed mostly in ways that are surprisingly charming even if I wouldn't say that Adventures is a great game. The arwing sections are so disappointing and inconsequential that they're obviously just added in as a means to prove that this was still a Star Fox game. The fight against General Scales is
before
comes out of nowhere and then even in that fight you have
return which is so out of place as to be funny rather than infuriating.
At around 15+ hours to play through this game, it takes longer to finish Star Fox Adventures than I think it does to play through literally every other game in the franchise combined. What a weird one-off that we are unlikely to see anything similar to again.
Star Fox Assault - 2005
My first experience playing Star Fox Assault was last year in the run-up to Zero and I can't believe how much I enjoyed it. Assault is a much more focused game that, while uneven in quality, is a great time. The orchestration of the music is actively incredible and features some of my favorite tunes from games ever. The 10 levels are a mixture of on-foot missions with Fox that are average at best (but short and action-packed) but have a few moments of brilliance sprinkled in. The story actually does something to advance the overarching plot of Star Fox and brings in a new enemy that is threatening and does some generally creepy and upsetting stuff to beloved characters. The arwing sections are legitimately great and right up there with the finest moments of Star Fox 64. It's kind of a shame that it's uneven and forgotten because this would be an otherwise really cool template to build from for Star Fox games in the future. It reminds me that what I really would have loved for Star Fox is a game in the style of Nier: Automata which blends open world on-foot action with the kind of SHMUP stuff that is frequently a part of Star Fox. That's a job for Platinum
Star Fox Command - 2006
The DS era is where I think so many Nintendo franchises got either weird or straight up bad. Metroid Prime had Hunters and Pinball, Zelda had Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks, and Star Fox had Command.
Command I played once and immediately hated. I thought it would be a return to form but just like Zelda they borked the whole experience with stylus only controls. A regrettable decision indeed! However, I grabbed the game on the Wii U eShop just to see whether I still felt the same 10 years after the fact and I found an action packed game with interesting strategy elements that I ended up liking quite well! The controls, although they wouldn't have been my first choice, actually worked! The game is all done in all range mode no matter what environment you're in (air, space, or water) and so it lacks a lot of the details and personality that one usually enjoys in Star Fox games, but it is still exciting and challenging.
The worst part of Command is unquestionably the story. It has multiple branching story paths like a children's 'choose you own adventure' book and all of them are illustrated so badly they have to be seen to be believed. I'm not sure which of the 9 endings are canon but they are so poorly written and random that if somebody saw me watching them I would feel embarrassed. I think this game had some good things to offer, but I would probably put it at the bottom of the pile of Star Fox games and it seems as though Nintendo agreed because we got a ten year hiatus after this one bombed.
Star Fox Guard - 2016
I've never played a tower defense game before this one but I figured since I already owned the game as a pack-in with Zero I may as well play through and try something new. This game has almost nothing to do with Star Fox aside from the fact that you...play as Slippy Toad and/or his Uncle Grippy and Fox can sometimes drop in like once a day (if you use an Amiibo) to offer support strikes against the robots advancing on your base. Well, I had a really good time with Guard! I think it has roughly 50 unique stages that require you to be smart about where you place cameras to attack the intruders and that you use the Wii U gamepad to remain extremely vigilant about where you're getting attacked. The boss fights were particularly well done and I found the final one to be a real challenge of my skill and dexterity. Overall, a very cool game that I enjoyed as a pack-in bonus and nothing more.
Star Fox Zero - 2016
I feel so badly for Star Fox Zero! I took to the controls almost immediately and had such a great time with the game but it's clear that most people fumbled with them terribly and as such it has an awful reputation. One of my wishes is for it to get a Deluxe port to Switch that changes it fundamentally to make better use of the gyro and to make the whole game possible on a single screen rather than having to come up with a complex way to deal with things. The challenge in Star Fox Zero (besides the controls) is fair but firm and it has plenty of variety in how you can tackle objectives. I particularly enjoyed segments in which my arwing could morph into a chicken walker and go inside buildings. Sure, Zero had some gimmicks that were really forced and it would have benefitted from more simplicity but I found it to be another competent game that reminded me of why I loved the series in the first place. I fear that this may be the end of the series and if it is then that's a real shame. It made a sincere effort to try something new and I think it mostly succeeded. Not quite up to the level of 64, but it sits comfortably behind it from my perspective. Yes, I'm a Zero defender.
Star Fox 2 - 2017!
Still can't totally get over how strange it is that this is happening! The missing link that was surprisingly influential despite its cancelation is allegedly going to be available to a wide audience in two days (as of this post) and people seem legitimately excited about it. I know I am! The reviews started dropping today and for the most part they've been positive. I'm ready to try this one for myself and my greatest hope is that Star Fox 2 gives the series one more gasp of breath to attain relevance after being an afterthought outside of Smash Bros. for so long now.
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Hope that you all enjoyed my thoughts on a franchise that I think is not only quite good in spite of its tremendous inconsistency, but of all of Nintendo's franchises has the most potential for growth. For those about to experience Star Fox for the first time...
GOOD LUCK
Then on the other hand you have several beloved series that are so sporadic or so experimental that its fans can never really determine if they should have expectations at all! Certainly fans of Donkey Kong had over a decade that was so full of strange experimentation (bongo music games, bongo platformers, Clu-Clu-likes, bongo racing games) that it would put most people's college years to shame. Will we get a new Kid Icarus game ever? Can Shin'en just be put in charge of F-Zero?
This brings us to yet another 'B-tier' franchise that keeps floating off into space before we are graced again with another unpredictable release: Star Fox! I have a good relationship with this series and have found that its cheesy action and (generally) short games make for really fun ways to be immersed and focus more on improving my ability than merely clearing a stage. Last year in the run-up to the return of Star Fox with Zero I managed to play each of the games in the series, but now with the franchise getting attention all over again with the SNES Classic, I thought it would be fun to do a little write-up about the games!
Star Fox - 1993
Although there were various prototypes prior to this game being released, this game marks the first in the Star Fox franchise. I think many people would argue today that it doesn't hold up at all, but having replayed it last year I think I can safely say it is a lot of fun and feels less like a proof of concept than it does a full-fledged game. The sound effects and gibberish noises that represent the banter between your squad are iconic and even the visuals for as chunky and strange as they are remain distinctive nearly two and a half decades later. Surely the game is difficult, but it controls quite well and has multiple pathways that each offer good variety and with it essentially an easy, medium, and hard difficulty following the intro level. The bosses are all generally weird whether you're fighting a giant slot machine or a massive space monkey named Andross. Each route can be cleared in about an hour, but it's not about seeing the game through so much as it is about grabbing that arcade like high score. Glad to see this finally getting a rerelease in 2017 on the SNES Classic Mini and I hope people give it a fair shake.
Star Fox 64 - 1997
Most people who have any familiarity with the series would say that 64 is the highlight and has remained so for 20 years. Those people would be right! Star Fox 64 took all of the rough edges that were in the original game and effectively smoothed them into the premiere action game of that era. Full voice acting, extremely different paths to follow, the debut of the Rumble Pack, a variety of vehicles, and even a well done multiplayer all helped Star Fox 64 become a classic. I've played through this one so many times over the years I can practically play through a run in my mind. You all know the quotes and the characters that gave 64 so much personality and it's the real reason beyond the core gameplay that I think this game has such staying power.
Unfortunately, I think Nintendo didn't really know what to do with the series after this game and that's kind of evident in that it's effectively a reboot of the original Star Fox and since then this has been the same one they refer back to each time they try to bring the series back to basics (gameplay and storyline wise). If you have the opportunity to play the 3DS version of Star Fox 64 I would say that's a great option these days, if overly expensive.
Star Fox Adventures - 2002
Back in 2002 I was so excited to pick this game up but I probably dropped out of it only about half way in. At that time, I really did not appreciate 3D Zelda games and for all intents and purposes that's what Star Fox Adventures is! There's a good reason as to why Rare turned their new IP of Dinosaur Planet into a Star Fox game (Miyamoto thought their lead looked like Fox and so there ya go: Make it a Star Fox game). Last year though I began the game from the beginning all over again and discovered a real fondness for it.
There is hardly anything more bizarre than Star Fox Adventures. It has a rock monster with a bad Scottish accent who helps teleport you around, dinosaurs all over the place, bafomdads, and Fox uses a magical bow staff the entire game as a weapon instead of a blaster like you'd expect. You start off the game playing as Krystal until she gets captured by the primary antagonist General Scales. It also has a pretty familiar formula for those who are used to Ocarina of Time's gameplay and progression.
Alright so the game actually plays smoothly and is still very good looking 15 years after the fact. The plot is weird as hell and it is definitely unfinished in the same way that Dark Souls is unfinished in the final act. You can practically see the stitching and how rushed they were to get this one out the door. It is flawed mostly in ways that are surprisingly charming even if I wouldn't say that Adventures is a great game. The arwing sections are so disappointing and inconsequential that they're obviously just added in as a means to prove that this was still a Star Fox game. The fight against General Scales is
a 3 second cutscene
Andross
Falco
At around 15+ hours to play through this game, it takes longer to finish Star Fox Adventures than I think it does to play through literally every other game in the franchise combined. What a weird one-off that we are unlikely to see anything similar to again.
Star Fox Assault - 2005
My first experience playing Star Fox Assault was last year in the run-up to Zero and I can't believe how much I enjoyed it. Assault is a much more focused game that, while uneven in quality, is a great time. The orchestration of the music is actively incredible and features some of my favorite tunes from games ever. The 10 levels are a mixture of on-foot missions with Fox that are average at best (but short and action-packed) but have a few moments of brilliance sprinkled in. The story actually does something to advance the overarching plot of Star Fox and brings in a new enemy that is threatening and does some generally creepy and upsetting stuff to beloved characters. The arwing sections are legitimately great and right up there with the finest moments of Star Fox 64. It's kind of a shame that it's uneven and forgotten because this would be an otherwise really cool template to build from for Star Fox games in the future. It reminds me that what I really would have loved for Star Fox is a game in the style of Nier: Automata which blends open world on-foot action with the kind of SHMUP stuff that is frequently a part of Star Fox. That's a job for Platinum
Star Fox Command - 2006
The DS era is where I think so many Nintendo franchises got either weird or straight up bad. Metroid Prime had Hunters and Pinball, Zelda had Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks, and Star Fox had Command.
Command I played once and immediately hated. I thought it would be a return to form but just like Zelda they borked the whole experience with stylus only controls. A regrettable decision indeed! However, I grabbed the game on the Wii U eShop just to see whether I still felt the same 10 years after the fact and I found an action packed game with interesting strategy elements that I ended up liking quite well! The controls, although they wouldn't have been my first choice, actually worked! The game is all done in all range mode no matter what environment you're in (air, space, or water) and so it lacks a lot of the details and personality that one usually enjoys in Star Fox games, but it is still exciting and challenging.
The worst part of Command is unquestionably the story. It has multiple branching story paths like a children's 'choose you own adventure' book and all of them are illustrated so badly they have to be seen to be believed. I'm not sure which of the 9 endings are canon but they are so poorly written and random that if somebody saw me watching them I would feel embarrassed. I think this game had some good things to offer, but I would probably put it at the bottom of the pile of Star Fox games and it seems as though Nintendo agreed because we got a ten year hiatus after this one bombed.
Star Fox Guard - 2016
I've never played a tower defense game before this one but I figured since I already owned the game as a pack-in with Zero I may as well play through and try something new. This game has almost nothing to do with Star Fox aside from the fact that you...play as Slippy Toad and/or his Uncle Grippy and Fox can sometimes drop in like once a day (if you use an Amiibo) to offer support strikes against the robots advancing on your base. Well, I had a really good time with Guard! I think it has roughly 50 unique stages that require you to be smart about where you place cameras to attack the intruders and that you use the Wii U gamepad to remain extremely vigilant about where you're getting attacked. The boss fights were particularly well done and I found the final one to be a real challenge of my skill and dexterity. Overall, a very cool game that I enjoyed as a pack-in bonus and nothing more.
Star Fox Zero - 2016
I feel so badly for Star Fox Zero! I took to the controls almost immediately and had such a great time with the game but it's clear that most people fumbled with them terribly and as such it has an awful reputation. One of my wishes is for it to get a Deluxe port to Switch that changes it fundamentally to make better use of the gyro and to make the whole game possible on a single screen rather than having to come up with a complex way to deal with things. The challenge in Star Fox Zero (besides the controls) is fair but firm and it has plenty of variety in how you can tackle objectives. I particularly enjoyed segments in which my arwing could morph into a chicken walker and go inside buildings. Sure, Zero had some gimmicks that were really forced and it would have benefitted from more simplicity but I found it to be another competent game that reminded me of why I loved the series in the first place. I fear that this may be the end of the series and if it is then that's a real shame. It made a sincere effort to try something new and I think it mostly succeeded. Not quite up to the level of 64, but it sits comfortably behind it from my perspective. Yes, I'm a Zero defender.
Star Fox 2 - 2017!
Still can't totally get over how strange it is that this is happening! The missing link that was surprisingly influential despite its cancelation is allegedly going to be available to a wide audience in two days (as of this post) and people seem legitimately excited about it. I know I am! The reviews started dropping today and for the most part they've been positive. I'm ready to try this one for myself and my greatest hope is that Star Fox 2 gives the series one more gasp of breath to attain relevance after being an afterthought outside of Smash Bros. for so long now.
Hope that you all enjoyed my thoughts on a franchise that I think is not only quite good in spite of its tremendous inconsistency, but of all of Nintendo's franchises has the most potential for growth. For those about to experience Star Fox for the first time...
GOOD LUCK
