Retro Profile: Star Fox (SNES)
Sunday, August 26th, 2007 at 10:20am by Staff
Sometimes I can’t help but to be amazed at how good this game is, even in this day and time. Star Fox was the first Super NES game to utilize a graphics enhancer called the “Super FX Micro Chip”. The action was hot, the graphics were phenomenal, and the big explosions were a blast to see.
As good as visuals were for it’s time, video games have undergone major 3D graphical improvements since 1993. As a result, the simple shapes, backgrounds, and pace of the game may prove to be something that will take a little bit of getting used to if you’ve been keeping up with the current generation of games out there.
Besides shooting lasers and throwing bombs to take out everything in sight, you Arwing fighter can also speed up or slow down, depending on what the situation calls for. While the maneuvers and abilities of your ship are slightly primitive by today’s standards, it’s still a joy to play through each level, shooting up all sorts of enemies and blasting the end-level bosses into oblivion.
Depending on what difficulty level you selected (Level 1, 2, or 3), the game will branch off at different points in the solar system. I found that on any level higher than “1”, it can be quite the challenge to get past the third or forth section of the game, but that’s not a bad thing. It keeps the gameplay fresh, adding much replay value to the whole experience.
No matter which course you select, all them feature very well designed locations. Nintendo didn’t take the easy out by creating mere wide open levels with a few enemy fighters taking shots at you. After playing through the first level, you’ll constantly have to dodge tricky obstacles that require faster reflexes the further along you get in the game. For instance, there’s one section where you must fly inside a few armada fighters, before going to the mother ship itself. While inside these ships, you’ll have to maneuver around stationary pillars, force certain doors to open, and avoid enemy fire– all while in a very, very narrow space. That’s not exactly an easy task to pull off, as anyone whose played Star Fox before can tell you.
Play or Stay? If your and old-schooler looking to relive precious summer days spent on 16-bit goodness, this game is certainly worth keeping. Others who prefer today’s graphical technology and ridiculously deep story lines may be a bit more reluctant to hunt down the cartridge. Hopefully, it won’t be too long before Nintendo makes Star Fox available on the Wii’s Virtual Console service. It’s a game that almost any gamer can appreciate. – Jamie Alston
August 26th, 2007 at 11:21 am
I never owned this game, so I don’t really have much of an opinion on how good of a game it is… but I DID download SF64 on the Virtual Console, and it ROCKS.
August 26th, 2007 at 11:33 am
Like I said in the review, I really hope that Nintendo puts it on the VC. I’m a little surprised that they made Star Fox 64 available but not the SNES original.
August 26th, 2007 at 11:40 am
This is a really great game. My little brother was a wiz at the game, and knew where all the hidden warps were. I was really excited when we got it and played it to death. Awesome game, can’t reccommend it enogh!
August 26th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
I loved this game. ‘Course, I could never beat paths 2 or 3. (That friggin’ “undersea” level was hard as shit. Damn jellyfish!) And there’s actually a surprising number of secrets in the game. I remember back in mebbe 2001, a friend showed me the Slot Machine boss. I had no idea the damn thing existed.
But then, nothing will compare to Star Fox 64. Single most quotable game ever. Practically a third of my circle of friends’ vocabulary is dialog from SF64.
Destroy all three energy balls!
August 26th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
I loved this game so much when it first came out.
It was great.
Now, Nintendo NEEDS to finish Star Fox II for the SNES, the game that they never released because it was so late in the SNES life and they did not want it to compete with Star Fox 64.
I would buy Star Fox II on the SNES VC in a heart beat!
August 26th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
Maybe I didn’t play it enough, but I was just never impressed by this game at all. Everyone thought the graphics were just terrific and I thought they were awful.
August 26th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
I picked up this game when I was seven and the game stores were trying to flush out all their SNES games to make room for N64 games. I had picked up Street Fighter to buy, but the muscular, menacing-looking characters on it were too much for my mother, whom told me to pick a different game. Most of the other ones left were sports games (lame, especially back then).
Then I saw this game: It had a SPACESHIP on the front!!! Excitement shot through me. We got it, and the game never left my SNES for the next two months as I tried to beat all 3 paths (I’ve beated path 1 several times over, path 2 once and I’ve gotten about 3/4 of the way through path 3 to this day).
Good memories.
I was even more excited when I saw it was an actual SERIES when I spotted Star Fox 64. Sadly, I didn’t get an N64 until the gamecube was nearly out of comission (I bought it off a friend who didn’t want it anymore). One of the games I got with the N64 was SF64.
That game was awesome, especially after having rented SF: Assault several times before. The level with the train remains one of my favourite levels in a video game to this day..
August 26th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
I actually have been playing this one recently…as a kid, the Game Over screen with Andross scared the crap out of me.
I’ve always been horrible at this game, but I still somehow enjoy it. I can only beat Path 1 even after years of playing this game…I guess that shows how bad I am at videogames.
I at least survived long enough on the third route to make it to Out of This Dimension! Going there was amazing, and I long for the Star Fox series to include a hidden area like that again.
It’s a shame that Star Fox 2 was canceled despite its essentially complete status. From the play-throughs of it that I’ve seen, it looks very fun. Hopefully, Nintendo will at least release the original SNES Star Fox on Virtual Console so that everyone who missed it back in the day can pick it up and love it now.
It’s certainly not for everyone, but the game certainly had its own flair.
August 26th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Come on Nintendo you bastards! :o)
Quit being freaking control freaks and let the reviewer’s disclose their MP3 reviews.
–M.I.S.
August 26th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
/bored of the incredibly slow gaming summer
August 26th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
I have fond memories for first seeing the game in EB back in 1993. Sure– by today’s standards, the graphics are pretty blocky, but flight sim games weren’t very abundant back in the early SNES days.
I was watching my sister play and she had just beating one of the early level bosses. Seeing that big circular explosion really captivated my attention. I didn’t have the luxury of owning a Super NES back then, but I never forgot how much I liked Star Fox.
August 26th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
One of the best SNES games ever.
And when followed by Starfox 64 a few years later, it made the Starfox franchise one of Nintendo’s absolute best. It is a shame how the series how slipped since…the two GameCube titles were average, and although the DS game is an improvement, it still is missing that classic on-rails Starfox magic.
Here’s hoping Nintendo can deliver the goods on Wii.
August 26th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
Do a barrel roll!
August 26th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
I wish people gave more credit to Star Fox. This game gave the world a taste of what was to come over the next decade of technological development. The game was so far ahead of its time no one understood just how far.
As for the game not yet being on the VC, I’m concerned that this might be a licensing issue between Nintendo and Argonaut Software who actually developed the 3-D engine. Argonaut Software is the original developer of Spyro the Dragon. Also though, they may simply be sitting on it until something special is announced….like an official announcement for a new Star Fox Wii title.
August 26th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
A couple of people have said how they should have released the almost done Star Fox 2. Well they did. It’s Star Fox Command. Yes I know it isn’t exactly the same, but Command is basically an updated SF2. The only thing that didn’t make it was the “ships transforming into robots” part. Seriously. Go ahead and look it up.
And I meant mention before in my earlier post but: What the hell are they thinking when they release new Star Fox games?! There are five games in the series. The first two are the prime examples of the series. But then you have Dinosaur Planet, Assault, and Command; all of which suck nuts. I got Assault, thinking, “Oh god. Finally. I have no idea what they were thinking with Dinosaur Planet. Finally, back to good old Star Fox.” And then I played it. Only ten levels, all in linear order. Only two of which are actual tried-and-true Star Fox rail-level goodness. The rest were a mess of sloppy “no-longer-an-actual-tank-but-a-jeep-
with-a-cannon-because-we-have-a-boner-over-the-Warthog Landmaster and (god forbid) on-foot all-range missions. And then in Command, they switched to some god-awful art style, which Fox retains in Brawl. And don’t get me started on Krystal or what they’ve done to Peppy (or any of the characters for that matter). What they need to do is just hit reset and do a complete reboot of the series (like what Christopher Nolan did for Batman movies) and get back to basics. Star Fox 64 was damn near perfection. Star Fox Wii needs to be like that: mostly on-rail Arwing missions; a few all-range; a couple Landmaster; NO ON-FOOT EVER (Fox should never ever be outside of a vehicle); good, ol’ Falco, Slippy, and Peppy backing you up; none of this Krystal, Slippy-has-some-pink-girlfriend, Peppy-is-a-hideous-old-fart-AND-he-has-a-DAUGHTER bullshit.
But that’s just my two cents. (Sorry for all of the hypens. No idea how that happened.)
August 26th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
I still think this was the best Star Fox game ever made…followed by Assault, actually. I’m not sure why people are so hard on it.
Everything about the original Star Fox just feels RIGHT. From the way the jet handles and the resistance you encounter to the lazer blasts and the way the enemies just sort of CRUNCH when they explode and other SFX. Even the grainy voices through the speaker sound cool. I don’t think Nintendo has ever really gotten it as right since.
And I second that Nintendo REALLY should put the finishing touches on Star Fox II and release it to either on the VC or on Wii Ware. From what I played of it, it was really good (although I was hindered by my crappy keyboard).