The recent release of Star Fox for the Nintendo Switch 2 is certainly a welcome surprise from Nintendo. The fan-favorite franchise featuring classic anthropomorphic space opera writ large looks great in high-fidelity visuals, and it is a treat to see fans old and new experiencing Star Fox in all its glory. It is good to see it get some love from both fans and Nintendo, despite some misgivings upon its release.
There was a fair corner of the internet upset over Star Fox's release, as it was basically a remake (and by most counts, the fourth remake) of Star Fox 64 for the Nintendo 64, which itself is a reimagining of the original Star Fox in 1993. I can understand some of the criticism of this, as it seems like Nintendo is unwilling to move past the original adventure that made Star Fox a smash success. Of course, there are tons of other factors likely contributing to the choice for a remake, but it does get me wondering: what makes Star Fox 64 so special?
Anyone who is a fan of Nintendo Games is probably aware of the Star Fox Series. It is one of the most recognizable rail-shooters with a space theme, and has for years enthralled gamers with its rather fun gameplay and solid enough narrative tissue. Star Fox 64 is arguably the pinnacle of the entire series, which may explain why Nintendo has made several remakes and remasters of it. Ultimately, though, it offers both action and drama that makes its not only memorable, but in some ways, timeless in its design.
Star Fox 64 is essentially the same game as the original Star Fox with more depth, which for 1997 was a unique experience coming from Nintendo. You star as a young hotshot pilot named Fox McCloud, who takes over a mercenary pilot Star Fox team after the death of his father at the hands of Dr. Andross. Your goal is to fight for the planet of Corneria and stop Andross' takeover of the Lylat System. This means plenty of levels where you must fight off Andross' forces on land, in the air, and even at sea, visiting other planets, nebulas, and asteroid fields as the war rages on across the star system.
Narratively, Star Fox is what you would expect: quips and calling from the cockpits of the Arwing while you are given the barest of characterization between Fox and the rest of the team. In some ways this is kind of endearing: hearing Peppy exclaim you're becoming more like your father, or Falco sarcastically praising Fox for saving him, paints the barest of pictures of the characters, at least giving them a semblance of a personality.
The reason Star Fox is so good all these years on is the simple gameplay loop coupled with new technology. Nintendo always had a knack for delivering smooth gameplay; Star Fox has always been a bit of a technical powerhouse in delivering gameplay through tech that no one expected. The original Star Fox was a technical 3-D game marvel for the Super Nintendo due to the impressive FX chip, for example. For Star Fox 64, you had ideas from Star Fox and the then-cancelled Star Fox 2 that Nintendo implemented in full 3-D.
The most famous of these would be all-range mode, allowing for 360-degree flying in an enclosed space. For 1997, this was a solid addition that seems quaint by today's standards of massive open worlds, but for a console it felt like it added a new dimension to the gameplay. You, of course, already have a range of movement and varied attacks against enemies, including bombs, charged lasers, or good old-fashioned strafe-shooting. Defensively, the game perfected some simple combat maneuvers, from braking and acceleration to, of course, barrel rolls.
This is all impressive, of course, but when it clicks with the small story crumbs you do get, you have a form of emergent gameplay that just feels magical. Cracking through the forever train of Macbeth by hitting train switches at the last minute, to just breaking through the siege in Area 6 with a sliver of health. Each moment feels earned, with the game's somewhat corny but appropriate voice-overs embellishing the action.
Star Fox 64 is also the first game to introduce the Landmaster and the Blue Marine. Both are used in only one or two areas in the game, but they offer soem variety in the levels that breaks the gameplay enough to keep it fresh. The Blue Marine stage on Aquas is perhaps the weakest level in the game, but for the most part all of the game's levels are designed really well. The first stage in Corneria is almost iconic at this point; the dogfights with Star Wolf are legendary encounters that provide some heart-pounding action. Hell, there is even a level that famously homages the 1996 film Independence Day so well it makes the climax of that movie look silly in comparison.
There is also a pretty bare-bones multiplayer game included, which was pretty much a 4-man death-match. Standard stuff, but it was cool to hunt down fellow pilots and show off your flying skills with split-screen multiplayer.
Perhaps the best part of the game is its entire presentation. The game is, at its heart, an arcade-style score chaser with branching pathways. Receiving a top score at a certain threshold gains you a medal, and receiving medals for every stage unlocks a harder gameplay mode. For hardcore fans, this is perhaps the biggest badge of honor in Star Fox 64; your skills as a player are on full display with your friends. While there are only sixteen stages in Star Fox 64, it is impossible to play them all in a single run, so despite some repetition, there is just enough variety to go through the game multiple times for completionists.
If there is a flaw in Star Fox 64, it is that it feels so short. A skilled player can do three in-game runs in about four hours, which is impressive, but the argument of what else is there to do is a valid one. Outside of chasing higher scores, Star Fox 64 doesn't deviate much from its mostly non-linear structure, and the multiplayer mode, while a nice addition, was bog-standard at its release. This is, of course, a design philosophy that makes sense in 1997, but it is still one that can be seen as a glaring flaw.
Nintendo usually has a knack for finding ways to make everything vibrant and colorful, and Star Fox 64 is no exception. Taking design cues from the SNES Star Fox for enemies, both the polygon count looks crisp, and the color palettes for every sprite and texture feel vibrant. Some areas, of course, look better than others; the space-specific missions live or die by the action of their stage; otherwise, it is a mix of debris all over, with enemy placement being important. Some missions, especially those that focus on all-range mode in space, feel emptier than they probably should be, especially with no distinguishing features outside of the foes you fight.
Since mission progression depends on how well you perform and certain conditions in the previous levels, you can change course and alter the storyline as a whole rather easily. The voice acting in the game is the stuff of legends and a rarity in Nintendo games from this era. Most of the cast is providing what's charitably amateurish performances, with Saturday morning cartoon-esque caricatures for most of the enemies. What makes it work is when they put a lot of emotional punch into their shrieks and screams. This is especially combined with the frankly amazing score of Star Fox 64 by Nintendo legends Koji Kondo and Hajime Wakai, leaning into its space opera roots and adding musical gravitas to the entire game that just works perfectly with the visual storytelling.
When the credits roll and you see The Great Fox ascending in a sunset as you race across the plains of Corneria as the music crescendos to a climax, that old, epic feeling hits you again. Even though it is a rather short experience, it is a deep and engrossing one that truly captures how a simple gameplay loop can provide a fleshed-out experience to be almost instantly replayable. There is a reason why Star Fox 64 is often chosen to be the game that is remade any time Star Fox is revived; it captured lightning in a bottle, a perfect storm of simple but fun gameplay, simple but poignant narrative structure, and above all else, the heart of what makes gaming truly magical. Star Fox 64 is arguably one of the best Nintendo 64 Games ever made, and shows that true classics should never be forgotten.