Star Fox 64

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Star Fox 64
Developer(s)	Nintendo
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Designer(s)	Shigeru Miyamoto Takao Shimizu
Release date(s)	JP April 27, 1997 NA July 1, 1997 EU October 20, 1997 CN November 21, 2003 (iQue)
Genre(s)	Scrolling shooter
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: Kids to Adults (K-A)
Platform(s)	Nintendo 64, iQue, Virtual Console
Media	96-Mb cartridge

Star Fox 64, known as Lylat Wars in Australia and Europe (due to trademark issues), is a video game for the Nintendo 64 console. It was released in Japan on April 27, 1997, in North America on July 1, 1997, and in Europe on October 20, 1997. It was later ported to the China-only iQue on November 21, 2003. It is the second game in Nintendo's Star Fox series, and the first to be released on the Nintendo 64.

The planned second game in the series for the SNES, Star Fox 2, was scrapped, but some of its features were used in Star Fox 64, such as all range mode. The game was the first to introduce support for the Rumble Pak.^[1] The game received positive ratings from reviewers who praised its smooth animation, detailed visuals, and use of multiple gameplay paths.^[2]

Contents 1 Gameplay 1.1 Vehicles 2 Story 3 Multiplayer 4 Reception 4.1 Speedrunning 5 Cultural references 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Gameplay

In most levels of Star Fox 64, the player controls one of the vehicles piloted by Fox McCloud, usually an Arwing, as it travels on a fixed-rail that generally moves straight forward. The player's vehicle can be maneuvered around the screen to dodge obstacles and shoot incoming enemies with laser cannons. All vehicles can also charge up their laser cannons to unleash a powerful track-on laser.

As well as the forced progression of the main game, some levels and bosses take place in "all range mode" (available only with the Arwing during single-player), where the player can move freely around a rectangular arena and engage in combat with various enemies. The Arwing has one new maneuver it can perform in all range mode; it can Immelmann up-and-over to change direction (called a U-turn in the game).

Returning from the original Star Fox game are wingmen that fly beside the player in Arwings and are sometimes pursued into your field of vision by enemies. The longer it takes you to save the wingmen the more damage they will take, eventually leading to their destruction. If one of the wingmen has been shot down that wingman cannot help the player in the next mission, but returns after that. Extra points are added to the player's score by keeping all of the wingmen's health meters full.

There are a few secret levels that can be found in levels. There are different places you have to fly in to get these hidden levels.

Among Star Fox 64's features is the vastly hyped in-game sampled voice speech that replaced the chatter from the original game. However, the original chatter, referred to as Lylat in the language option-screen, can be enabled. This feature is not available in the US version of the game. The game relies much more heavily on dialogue than the original, and together with the cinematic sequences, they drive the story forward. This dialogue has also become the target of parody in recent years, especially the repetitive phrases of Peppy Hare (particularly the phrase "Do a barrel roll!").

Instead of the fixed series of levels of the original (determined by the difficulty level chosen), many of the levels branch out to two different levels, with the "upper" branch requiring the player to accomplish a certain task. If the task is completed, the end of the level will read "Mission Accomplished." However, if this task is not achieved, the ending will read "Mission Complete", and the player must take the "downward" route. The levels correspond loosely to the difficulty levels of the original Star Fox, with routes colour coded blue, yellow and red to represent the easiest, medium and hardest levels of difficulty, respectively. Many of the forced paths bring the Star Fox team into contact with the Star Wolf team, a nemesis squadron originally slated to appear in the unreleased Star Fox 2.

Finally, to add replay challenge, the game features awardable "medals," which are earned by accomplishing a mission with all wingmen intact and having achieved a certain hit total. These totals are often a high percentage of the total enemies on the stage, leaving little room for error. Obtaining medals results in unlocking bonus features, such as a sound test and the ability to fight on tank and foot in multiplayer mode. Acquiring all medals unlocks a new "Expert" mode in which there are more enemies per level, the player's Arwing takes more damage (a direct collision with solid obstacles will destroy any of the Arwing's wings in one hit), and Fox wears sunglasses similar to his father's. Acquiring all medals on Expert mode unlocks a new title screen for the game.

[edit] Vehicles

• Arwing — The primary craft used by the Star Fox team in the game, the Arwing is a spaceship armed with one standard laser (which can be upgraded to twin or hyper lasers) and is capable of firing Nova Bombs which help clear the area of enemy craft, though the Nova Bombs aren't as effective in all-range places such as Katina. As with all of the Star Fox series, barrel rolling is an integral part of gameplay because your ship deflects lasers while performing a barrel roll. Your Arwing can also use its boost meter to perform three special moves to avoid collisions and get the drop on pursuers: boost, brake, and loop.
• Landmaster — A tank-like vehicle, the Landmaster is only used on two levels in the entire game. The Landmaster has one standard laser, which can only be upgraded to twin lasers in multiplayer mode. Like the Arwing, the Landmaster can perform a barrel roll and fire Nova Bombs. The barrel roll performed by the Landmaster, however, is used only as an evasionary tactic because it doesn't deflect lasers. The Landmaster can hover a short while in addition to being able to perform a boost.
• Blue Marine — This recently-finished submarine by Slippy can only be used on Aquas, which houses a primarily aquatic environment. The Blue Marine has one standard laser which can be upgraded to twin or hyper lasers, and also has an unlimited supply of torpedos which not only damage enemies but also allow the player to see when there is limited light.

[edit] Story

Strange activity is spotted on the planet Venom, part of the Lylat System, where the evil scientist Andross has been exiled. The governing planet, Corneria, sends the Star Fox team to investigate. The Star Fox team consists of pilots James McCloud, Peppy Hare, and Pigma Dengar. Upon their arrival at Venom, Pigma betrays the team, causing James and Peppy to be captured by Andross. Peppy escapes Venom, but James does not return.

Some time later, strange activity is noticed again and a new Star Fox team, consisting of Fox McCloud (the player), Falco Lombardi, Peppy Hare, and Slippy Toad, is sent to investigate. After battling their way through various stages, including planets and asteroid fields, as well as battling the rival team Star Wolf (Wolf O'Donald, Pigma Dengar, Leon, and Andrew Oikney) Star Fox reaches Venom and defeats Andross. Afterwards, General Pepper asks the members of the Star Fox team to become members of the Cornerian army, but they decline the offer.

[edit] Multiplayer

The game features multiplayer support for up to four players simultaneously. Users can choose to play using either the Arwing spaceship, the Landmaster tank or as the pilot equipped with a bazooka. The two latter modes, however, have to be unlocked. Unlike the main game, players cannot upgrade to hyper lasers and can only carry a maximum of one nova bomb, but Landmaster tanks can have twin lasers.

[edit] Reception

Reviews and awards

Publication	Score	Comment
IGN.com	8.7 of 10[3]
GameSpot	8.3 of 10[2]
Edge	9 of 10[4]
Famitsu	36 of 40
Compilations of multiple reviews
Game Rankings	90 of 100 (based on 13 reviews)[5]
Metacritic	88 of 100 (based on 16 reviews)[6]

Acclaimed by many reviewers, Star Fox 64 was one of the top-selling games of 1997, second only to Mario Kart 64.^[7] In the first five days of the game's U.S. launch, over 300,000 copies were sold, surpassing the record previously held by Mario Kart 64 and Super Mario 64.^[8] Sales were considerably less in Japan, where it sold 75,595 copies during the first week of sale.^[9] . It also took the #73 spot in Nintendo Power's "Top 200 Nintendo Games Ever".

GameSpot noted that Star Fox 64 is "an instant classic" and was impressed by the voice acting. Glenn Rubenstein, the reviewer, noted that the game is "a pleasure to look at" and liked the cinematic quality of the storyline.^[2] Although other reviewers such as IGN said that the game is "extremely repetitive" and that the music quality was not as good as the original Star Fox, they still praised the branching system and "intelligently designed levels" which compensate for those points. ^[3]

Star Fox 64 was promoted in a Taco Bell kids meal toy.^[10] There might have been more than one kind of toy for the promotion. Nintendo Power subscribers received a promotional video prior to Star Fox 64's release (the same tactic was used to promote Donkey Kong Country for the SNES) that advertised the game's cinematic presentation, as well as new features like the Rumble Pak and voice acting. It revolves around two agents of Sega and Sony (who, at the time, were Nintendo's biggest competitors) kidnapping Nintendo employees and forcing them to reveal information about the upcoming Star Fox title by "torturing" a Mario doll. A copy of the video can be viewed here in its entirety.

[edit] Speedrunning

Mike 'TSA' Damiani of America holds the world's fastest time of completion of Star Fox 64 in normal mode on August 18, 2005 — 27 minutes and 29 seconds.^[11] Aleks 'SuperCoolAl' Lukic of the UK set the world's fastest time of completion of the PAL version of Star Fox 64, in expert mode, on July 2, 2005, — 33 minutes and 16 seconds.^[11]

[edit] Cultural references

Star Fox 64 contains a few allusions to other works, mainly movies and the sci-fi genre.

• On the planet Katina, the Invader II class fighters, and the enemy mothership all closely resemble the alien vessels in the film Independence Day. The character Bill Grey is named after a protagonist, General William Grey. The Katina mission is a reference to the climax of the film.^[12]

• There are a few potential references to the Star Wars films:
  • Andross' line "I've been waiting for you, Star Fox" is similar to Darth Vader's line to Obi-Wan Kenobi just before their duel in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. His line was "I've been waiting for you, Obi-Wan."
  • Peppy's line (which is repeated by James McCloud on hard Venom), "Never give up! Trust your instincts," is very similar to Obi-Wan's advice to Luke Skywalker when he is training to use The Force. His line is, "Trust your feelings."
  • The ending scene where Star Fox marches down the hall toward General Pepper may be modeled after the final scene of Star Wars.
• When the player fights the large robot boss, Spyborg, it occasionally says, "Where is the creator?" and, "I must be complete." This is a reference to the character V'Ger from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, a machine who was seeking its creator so it could join with him and become complete.^[13] The Spyborg also has a similar appearance to R.O.B.

• The Sector Y zone features humanoid enemy mecha which launch from linear catapaults, echoing similar elements from the Gundam franchise. At the end of the level, the player faces off against a red mecha which moves faster than average, perhaps a reference to the Zeon ace Char Aznable. The level boss is a white mecha, reminiscent of "The White Mobile Suit", even so far as being launched from its own private carrier ship.^[14]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Speed Demos Archive of Star Fox 64
• IGN review

Star Fox video games  v • d • e

Star Fox • 64 • Adventures • Assault • Command Characters