REVIEW: Star Fox 64 1997, Nintendo 64
	By: Nintendo Type: Shoot 'em up Players: 1-4 Difficulty: Pretty tough

    My god, it talks! Ever since the big success of the Star Fox boys' SNES antics, everyone was expecting a comeback for the fuzzy foursome -sometime-, but this still took the world by surprise. Because, quite simply, the level of atmoshpere in this game is astounding. Resident Evil can pack it's bags and hop off a cliff, -this- is the most immersive game of the 32/64 bit era (well, there's Shadowman as well). Star Fox 64 draws you in and makes you feel like you're truly taking part in the action like no other game. The words "a game that's almost like being in a movie" often are a dark omen, but the Foxy boys have pulled it off with style, via the tried and tested formula of the good old shoot'em up.

 
(left) After such an insult, he MUST die., (right) Up close and personal with the Arwing

At heart, it's a classic-style 3-D space shooter. Mind you, it's a huge, gorgeous and very, very good 3-D shooter, but shooting games are still a pretty simple concept in the end; throw lots of nasty stuff on the screen for the player to kill, a bit of manoeuvring around and some huge bosses, stir well and there you have it. Anyone could make a space shooter. But only a grand master can make one -this- good. So basically, in Star Fox 64, lots of nasties are thrown onto the screen for you to kill, with some manoeuvring around and big bosses thrown in as well. Ah, but there's so much more than just simple blasting to be done here. The game is kept fresh and involving by throwing in such things as underwater or land-based levels, free-flying levels, where you usually end up dogfighting against the not very pleasant Star Wolf team, new characters that lend a hand and other mission objectives that take things a step further than just "shoot everything that moves". And there are a vast number of different paths through the game as well. In some levels, you are given the opportunity to complete the level via an alternate route, or getting a high enough kill percentage will allow you to move on to a different set of levels. It will be a long while until you've seen every laser-packed setting the game has on offer, and then there's still more to discover. In short, there's much more in here than in your average blaster. Nintendo have managed to give the space shooter a breath of new life by making Star Fox 64 anything but straightforward and one-sided.

Ahh, -my- number 1 reason to play this game...

Soaring through the game's many levels requires a host of different moves, and the agile Arwing spaceships have an in-depth control system that you'll have to master. It seems pretty confusing at first, but once you've got the hang of it, you'll realise how well it works. Instead of just pumping the screen full of bullets, you can charge your shots, after which they'll lock on to nearby enemies, which makes the otherwise impossible task of precisely aiming your fire a smooth piece of work (though you'll still have trouble against some foes). Apart from that, the Arwing is capable of some evasive and defensive moves, such as barrel rolls, loopings and sideways flips which allow you to swoop out of the way of enemy fire or get rid of nasties that have locked on to you. Especially in the free-flying levels, proper use of these moves is important. Granted, not every bit of the control system is as comfortable as it always should be, but it's a good showcase of simple, yet effective innovations.

Please, enough with the dirty innuendo, Foxy

And you will need your full arsenal on the baddie-infested levels. After some gentle introductions, the game can become very tough and hectic, with tricky aims and persistent obstacles to worry you. So much in fact, that you will once or twice fly into a hopeless fit of panic and declare that this is simply too unfair, only to find yourself trying again with bitter determination minutes later. Thank heavens for an N64 game that dares to be mean to you from time to time.

There's more than just the challenging 1-player mode. Already, visiting and suriving all of the levels is quite a huge task, but after that, there are the medal scores for you to obtain, which is one very solid challenge. Only utmost determination will allow you to grab the shiny gold thingies. To earn a medal, you must rack up a high enough kill percentage and keep all your mates alive. It's far less simple than it sounds, as the scores are pretty strict, and often require you to complete a level via the tough route.

Weee! -crash-

As an added extra, there's a multiplayer battle mode where up to four of you can go head-to-head in an Arwing dogfight set in some specific arenas. It's a frenzied bit of battle fun that provides some good extra enjoyment, even though it's not exactly complete brilliance personified (the small, foggy screens are tough to work on, and you keep getting lost).

There are a few niggles to complain about with the game; it would be nice if you could select your fave level to play on instead of having to slug through the whole thing from the beginning every time, the difficulty curve might have been better dosed, tricky aims can be very annoying and there's little replay incentive once you have found everything, but I'm only pointing these out for the sake of completeness. There's nothing serious to nag about here, but nobody's perfect in the end.

 
(left) That's the only thing Slippy's good for, (right) Say arf! Doggy boy Bill joins the action

Now, that's the game in a nutshell (but there still are far more praises to be sung about it), now for some focus on the game's main selling point; it's supposed to be one dead immersive game that makes you feel "as if you're part of a movie". Step one is for the graphics to look pretty damn amazing, and they do. Huge mechanic constructions floating in space, battered desert planets riddled with dinosaur bones, industrial waste areas rendered in murky tones and outstretched skies buzzing with enemy activity; all of these and more are rendered very effectively and move about as you'd expect them to, with enormous, menacing bosses as the icing on the cake. Water ripples underneath you craft's wings, smoke curls up from wrecked buildings and light reflects off the ships as impressive extra effects. It looks the part allright, but there's more than just looks. Sound is perhaps one of the most important things the game uses to draw you in. The music is a beautiful achievement, with rousing scores to accompany the dramatic scenes and lend them even more punch. But one very impressive bit is the amount of speech in there; your wingmen constantly contact you over the radio to deliver comments or just blab a bit. Mostly, they just get chased around by nasties and whimper for help, but they also just deliver general comments on the on-screen happenings or even do something rather useful as point out secret routes (but this is very rare). The groovy bit is that their every phrase is rendered as a digitised voice sample, so the game literally "talks" to you. Better yet, the bosses and the creeps of Star Wolf even find the time to taunt or curse you over the intercom, adding some extra zing to the battles. It's not only an impressive technical achievement, but it adds a lot to the atmosphere. Okay, so you can tell that most of the lines are just read out by some underpayed employee that Ninty dragged in front of the microphone at the very last minute, unlike the Japanese version where professional voice actors were hired, who -can- act properly, but let's not be too nitpicky. Even without Oscar-winning voice actors, the bucketloads of speech thrown at you is very impressive.
 
Throw in a nifty little device called the Rumble Pak (first introduced in Star Fox 64, and probably never used better), and scenes that were shamelessly filched from big sci-fi classics (I was almost expecting the big Gundam-style mech to say "ninmu, ryoukai" to me, but that would have taken the joke too far) and likeable characters that have their own amusing behaviour patterns which you'll grow quite fond of and you have one explosive action-fest of a game. Flying with te Foxy boys is an exprience that soaks you with sweat and glues you to the edge of your seat until the very last laser blast has been fired into Andross' mug. It's simple shoot'em-up excitement at it's best, while still holding enough fresh and clever ideas to make it into something new and special in it's own right. And yes, I admit that I -do- have a fixation on Falco, and am biased in favor of anything featuring his feathered self. But he just happens to show up in one tremendous game that no N64 owner should miss out on.

Only one grumble; after a typically hair-tearing delay, Nintendo released this in Europe under the name of "Lylat Wars". Just because they hate us. But oh well, even with a dodgy-sounding new name, it's still a smashing adrenaline-blast of a game. - Toasty 91%

[Key to the reviewing system]

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